Hello everyone, I'm Ben. I have been interested in the art of bonsai for several years but never acted upon my desires of owning one. Now that I have one I'm afraid that I might lose it. I have a Juniper bonsai that I purchased from a road side vendor(1st mistake I later discovered). Along with the little instruction guide he told me the tree was 6 years old. I've been doing a little research on my plant and if its that age I'm supposed to be doing some special treatments on it but I'm not sure how and what exactly to do. Aside that, I've been noticing that some of the leaves are turning brown. Someone please help me with my problem. I really like these plants and don't want it to die. I've had it sense Sept. 2006. Currently I know to keep it outside and I water it evry other day. As a tip I read I keep two toothpicks in to determine how dry it is, but that's all I know right now.

Hey Ben :), you may want to check out this faq http://www.bonsaitreeforum.com/bonsai-trees/showthread.php?t=2

Hey Ben,

Do not despair, this is not a problem for juniper with browning foliage, usually it is fairly common and is where the needles are in competition with one another and due to light restrictions, some will die off and do brown. Thin out some of the branches and allow more light to the branches to maintain green needles. Thin out using tweezers and pluck out brown needles too.

Hope this is useful.....

Juglansnigra