Juniper die back

Need some help with my juniper. It has lots of new growth and new buds but the inner foliage is turning brown in spots. I have checked for spider mites and it doesn’t have any. What could be causing it. It’s slowly getting worse



Hey Michael. In general the juniper looks really health. Which section turning brown do you mean?

If it’s the section circled in blue, this is a piece which hasn’t had enough light and air so you may want to consider thinning out a bit more. But there is so little appearing in the pictures you’ve put up I wouldn’t be too concerned. Just remove them.

If it’s the section circled in red then there’s good news. This is something you don’t have to worry about as the new green growth is just lignifying. So as the young growth ages it becomes more woody. This is easier/ more forgiving to wire than the younger growth.

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Ok I was worried that it might be phomopsis and before I did anything wanted to make sure. I’m still learning on the cause of things like this. Been watching heaps of Ryan’s streams and as one would probably know at the beginning of bonsai you stress out over everything because you don’t want to kill your trees



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@Mick_lord no worries! It’s why the forum is here to ask if you are concerned. In case you haven’t seen it there is a phomopsis stream. Hopefully it’ll help waylay your fears!

https://live.bonsaimirai.com/library/video/phomopsis-identification

Yeah I have watched that stream. I thought it might phomopsis. But I’m unsure still if it was or wasn’t. Thanks for your replys to

Hi! Your green mass is really tight. Healthy trees need circulation of air and light inside that mass….I think the first thing I’d try is to achieve that goal. I’m a beginner too but this is the first thing my Japanese master explained me about junipers. Let us know if it’s something else so I can learn more.
Thank you

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