Hi everyone,

So I picked up a new plant over the weekend, a shimpaku juniper with a good amount of work done to it.



I went to a local bonsai place because I wanted to get moss for a different project I'm doing at home. The place has lots of different species of bonsai plants, all set out on racks in a green house area. It was very humid and tons of moss would grow below the racks and all over the water, with some being very wet and squishy. While picking moss, I noticed some pieces looked moldy with a bluish color coming in on the bottom side. I saw some Junipers with mushrooms growing on the moss in the pot.

I picked out my plant because it was my favorite. I bought some crumbled volcanic rock and pebble fertilizer for it. Once I got home, I started reading up and saw that shimpakus like drier soils. I removed the moss it had and covered it with the red volcanic rock pebbles. I wanted to some maintenance pruning and then noticed some problems.



I believe I have a fungus problem. The above and below photos show the black colored webbing/fuzz growing on some of the leaves. The last photo below also shows some green stuff growing on the trunk. I think the green stuff is coming from the moss that used to be on the plant. I removed pretty much all the moss, and tried scraping some of the green stuff off.

After reviewing some articles online, I bought some copper fungicide spray and gave the branches and trunk a good spraying yesterday. I gave the plant its first dose of water today. I also mist the branches once or twice throughout the day since getting the plant on Saturday. The fungicide says to use it every 7-10 days until the plant gets better.





Additionally, I was taking a look at the plant today, and I saw a few small white bugs walking along the trunk. My guess is that they are spider mites.

So, my questions. I will look for some sort of insecticide tomorrow that works on spider mites. Do you guys recommend any specific sprays? Should I wait a few days (say Wednesday or Thursday) to spray the insecticide since I recently sprayed the fungicide? Is there another routine I should follow? I am insist on not returning the plant and keeping it alive. If it goes through this, I will repot it in say November or so.

I have the plant in my backyard. It gets a lot of sunshine, but is underneath some cover so it doesn't get the full sun throughout the hot day. I am in Miami so it gets scorching hot and humid.

s2kMark wrote: I picked out my plant because it was my favorite.

I cannot help but wonder: why was this your favorite?
As a bonsai, it does not have anything going for it. It looks like a juniper with the lower branches cut off. It lacks all the characteristics that you would look for in a good bonsai.

Concerning the spider mites:
It is important to determine what the exact but is that you see. Do you have pictures of it?

I woudl stop messing with it, give it plenty of light, ensure a ood unmber of hours of sunlight. Typically, junipers do not mind sunlight, once accustomes to it.

THis one has been placed in an area that is too humid, with too little ventilation, and probably too much shade. It looks like there are roots all along the trunk, which is very rare for juniper.

Leave it. Do not add all these sprays. First get it home, and settled.The fungal issue will dissappear if enough ventilated. If the plant has this much fungus growing on the branches, you will not have spider mites because they hate humidity.

Thank you for the advice. The plant has definitely been moved to a new environment as you said. The nursery was shady, humid, with A LOT of moss growing on the floor beneath the trays and in the pots. I have it in a sunny area now and removed the moss.

I applied some Sevin spray last night. I will leave it alone until next week while keeping an eye on it. I agree that the change of environment should change things.

Someone recommended that I apply white vinegar with a brush to the algae growing on the trunk, to kill the algae quicker. What is your opinion?