Juniper Mushroom Topiary Brown Spot Problem.

Marcia Graczyk
by Marcia Graczyk
Can someone help with what the problem and solution might be of this Juniper Topiary. I am not sure of the formal name...but, it is a low grower like a bonsai type. It is about 3-4 foot tall and is expected to grow like a half closed umbrella, but will take a long time. I love this little tree and want to make sure to keep it healthy. The brown spots look like some of the leaves/needles are dying. It has a mister at its trunk and goes off every day at 6am for two minutes. Thanks for any advice.
Juniper Topiary showing brown area in top center going down and through the depth of the plant.
  5 answers
  • Douglas Hunt Douglas Hunt on Jun 06, 2013
    I can't really see anything because the photo is so tiny, Marcia, but I'd suspect a watering issue, and that two minutes of misting is not enough. Stick your finger down a couple of inches in the soil and see if it is dry. (Although if you're getting the kind of rains we are, you'll want to wait until things dry out a bit so you can get an accurate sense of what's going on with your plant.)
  • Bonnie Lewenza Bonnie Lewenza on Jun 06, 2013
    I get an area on mine every year, it just seems to not winter over very well. But what I usually do is just snip off the brown area and then it encourages new growth. Or use some spikes to feed it as well. Good luck
  • Kat Kat on Jun 06, 2013
    watering at the trunk dose no good for it palnts (in fact it will end up rooting the trunk)including trees drink/eat from there feeder roots these are located on what is called the drip lince.they are directly below the out side edge if the canopy of the tree this is where rain would fall if you look at the top of your tree that is what the root ball of the tree looks like app the same depth and width if healthy.so you need to move you mister to the drip line better yet put it some where that it would be more usefull like by a small flower that has shallow roots to be hones to water a tree properly with a mister you would have to leave it on for about 4 hrs .I use something for my trees and bushes called a ross root feeder I water and fertilize with this you can get these here in Canada at most good garden centers or and hard ware store eg rona home depot ect.I have worked at a local green house/gardern center for many yrs and watering it the number 1 problem I see people just don't do it correctly .right now by misting it you are doing the equlivlant of feeding a full adult man the same a 2yr old boy.if you look at it that way it is easy to understand. Junipers a usualy slow growers so you don't want to mess with the nature of the plan so make sure you are feeding it once an month starting as soon a s you are sure you will have no more frost until 1 moth befor the first expected frost use a low number fert like 4-4-4 or 10-20-10 bone meal is great because you can not use too much ,an easy way to know what these numbers really mean when you are looking at them uo-down-allaround.use a hand rake to brush out the dead leafs if the branch its self is dead just cut it out you don't want the tree wasting energy trying to repair its self if it is to far gone .happy gardening Kat
  • Amy Wieden Amy Wieden on Jun 06, 2013
    With junipers turning brown like that it's probably either not enough water, or too much (both lead to root damage, so the above ground part of the plant ends up not getting enough water.) Unless your soil is totally saturated from another source, I'm going to guess it's too little water. A good rule of thumb I picked up in college from George W Kelly (Rocky Mountain Horticulture) is "water well, let dry, water well." That bit of advice works well for most plants, in most situations and most locations (there are always exceptions, but it's a good rule of thumb.) Best to soak the soil around your tree with a good, deep watering, then let it dry out - but not completely bone-dry or it will be very hard to re-wet the soil again (and it's not good for most plants to dry out completely.) If you want me to go into an in-depth explanation as to why that works, I can, but I generally lose most people at this point going into details lol!
  • Mikell Paulson Mikell Paulson on Jun 07, 2013
    Picture is to small!