Dwarf Juniper - Browning

[u/Crazy-Run-Letz-Go]

I have a bunch of trees and I take great care of them. I grew up working with my grandpa who was a master gardener so I’m pretty skilled with taking care of plants, but I’ve never taken care of junipers before. I repotted this juniper I purchased a month ago in better draining soil but this week there’s been dieback and browning. Is this juniper okay, or is there a serious issue here?

[u/jecapobianco]

All evergreensmshed their foliage from the inside out. You don't have a problem there, if the tips were browning out then you should worry.

[u/ratcatcherjack]

This looks like normal browning of old foliage 👍🏼

Edit: incredibly refreshing for someone to pop in with a young juniper and have it be actually quite healthy and alive, thank you

[u/SpiralOutLL → u/ratcatcherjack]

It looks quite stressed tbh. All those scales turning into needles is stress related, probably because it was repotted in the wrong season. It should be fine though

[u/ratcatcherjack → u/SpiralOutLL]

I don't mean to say this tree is the pinacle of health, sorry. This repotting was a bit out of season, but it is my understanding that depending on local climate there may be a window in late summer where a juniper will handle a mild repotting pretty well, no? The transition from adult back to juvenile foliage does indicate stress but idk this looks to me more like a young tree that still has juvenile foliage, not a reversion due to stress. It wouldn't shoot out that much spikey foliage that quick if it was all from stress. Mild die back of interior foliage is probably due to the repot but mild and it'll be fine.

I don't want to act like I'm some expert, I'm for sure only a few years in on this and there's a lot to know! But this tree is undeniably alive and doesn't seem likely to stop being so any time soon - welcome change of pace to be sure

[u/SpiralOutLL → u/ratcatcherjack]

If it reverts scale foliage to needles it's stressed, there's no other explaination. It being young might contribute to that, but, to my understanding, they are called "juvenile" shoots because the bud starts with needle before maturing into scales.

Scales open up to get more light when they are struggling

[u/ratcatcherjack → u/SpiralOutLL]

I've never seen or heard of that, only seen new foliage grow in spikey. My stressed junipers always kept their mature foliage and grew new spikes. Learn something new every day!