Yes, one of the trials of CO. The bonsai shuffle. I have some in the garage that are budding out. I move those out into the sun if the temp is above 32F during the day and then back into the garage at night, at least until the temps dont drop close to 32 at night. Keeping them indoors all the time under grow lights can work, but the new growth will be to tender for CO sun when you do move them back outdoors. You would have to harden it off and it could sunburn. So my advice would be to move them outdoors when the temps permit and then back inside to prevent freezing.

I would recommend waiting till April and even then keep an eye on the forecast. If you do any styling or repotting in April you should have a way to protect the tree if the temperature goes south. I would check on them a couple of times a week to see if any are starting to push new growth. If they are not the no need to do anything. If they are then that factors into your decision on when to move them out to where they get the needed sun. It might take a couple of springs to figure out what makes sense in you environment.

No, I sold the tree last summer. Reducing my collection to 1 person trees.

Natalie, If it is just shedding leaves then they will repush. One way to tell is if there is green at the end of a branch. A new leaf forming. If so the branch is still alive. In your last picture from Feb it looks like there are green tips. If the branch starts to look like it is shriveling in diameter then it is dead. You can confirm that by scraping a bit of bark off. If you see green the branch is still alive. If not it is dead. If this were mine I would cut off all the branch tips (1/4 quarter inch or just behind the green). If left on those will grow strongest and just elongate the branch. If taken off that will encourage the plant to push new leaves/branches on the branch instead of the tip. David

The difficulty is that you have to envision what this will look like years down the road including how tall it is, where the transition from the current trunk to the new trunk from the selected leader occurs, and where the branches are going to be. A couple of things I have learned. Select for the new leader a branch that is closer to the chop AND emerges mostly vertically. In future that angle is easier to make work than a branch that emerges perpendicular. Places where you have multiple branches emerging from the same spot reduce to one as you would see on a tree. You have a number of years of letting this run and all the branches elongating and thickening, and then reduction.

Check out the newsletter for our next Saturday workshop. One topic will be preparing for winter. A good opportunity to learn about overwintering various species.

John contact Patrick Allen. He is managing the mentorship program. His email is patrick@allencongroup.com

It is probably a lost cause. Cut off the crispy parts. If there is no live foliage on a branch, it will die and the whole tree if no live foliage at all.

That looks like a procumbens juniper. The foliage looks stressed. Is it still pliable or is it crispy? If it is crispy it is dead. Are you keeping it indoors? Junipers need dormancy from cold each year or they decline. It is best to over winter them some place where they get cold. Not necessarily frozen, but temperatures below 40 degrees.

Dylan, I leave all my conifers outdoors. Smaller ones go in a bunker for protection as Nicholas indicated. The bunker dips into the high 20s occasionally. Larger ones are on the ground mulched in. I do put some deciduous in my garage. It is not directly heated but is well insulated and the temp rarely falls below 40 degrees. The disadvantage of this is they start leafing out in late Jan early Feb and I have to start moving them in and out. So limiting the number is a consideration. Other hardy deciduous go on the ground like the conifers or in the bunker as space permits.

I have tried and failed at hardwood cuttings of deciduous. I would probably do what you plan and do some air layering. I have had more success with that. It is not something I do a lot of so I can't claim expertise.

It is hard to tell from the photos. I have lost a big juniper like that over the winter because small mammals chew the bark around a trunk. That tends to be pretty obvious assuming you can actually get in there and investigate. I would prune out all the branches where the foliage is crispy. Junipers can still be green even when dead. Then see if it continues to die. Opening it up to the light is good as they like full sun.

I have had problems with scale, spider mites, and mealy bugs. Until 2 winters ago I would treat all trees coming inside in the fall with Bayer systemic a couple of weeks before they came inside. I started after having a sever scale problem one year. For the last 2 winters I have not done that. I have localized problems still but I try to jump on them quickly. I stopped because I didn't want to kill everything in the substrate every year.

I use alcohol indoors. 50/50 alcohol/water spray. It is easy enough to hit a single spot or larger sections of the canopy if needed with a spray bottle that can tune the output. I don't really have problems with mealy bugs outdoors.

@Josh Stewart I can't advise on that. My assumption has always been if it is a broad spectrum light in the 5K range it will work. I have seen a lot about what spectrums to use at what parts of the growth cycle but nothing on whether different species do better or worse..

Josh, as to your question. I suggest looking to some of the pot forums or one of the hydroponics equipment companies. Those folks discuss these questions in great detail. Think about it from the standpoint of growing a crop where you want to grow the plant to maturity quickly (veg cycle) and then force it to flower (bud flower cycle). The light spectrums are different. If you are forcing the veg cycle you may be forcing rapid growth which may mean longer internodes etc.

Here is the last LED light I bought about 1 month ago. It is a little pricier than the T5 in Mike's post but the fixture is smaller and lighter. It does cover the same plant footprint. So far I am satisfied with it. I use Spider Farmer for hydroponics and it works well. Looking at the pot grow sites for reviews spider farmer usually comes out rated as the best lower cost LED light. You can spend much more than this and if you are a commercial grower it might be worth it. https://www.amazon.com/Coverage-Sunlike-Spectrum-Hydroponics-Efficiency/dp/B08NWXLD71/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2Z0A64FBR6IMF&keywords=SPIDER+FARMER+SF-600+LED&qid=1640542426&sprefix=spider+farmer+sf-600+led%2Caps%2C209&sr=8-5

Here is an update as of 12/26/21. It is a little denser and some of the branches have grown out. I did some mild pruning after the photo cutting off the longer wild hairs and thinning out some of the sprouting branches I don't need.

Here is an update after 6 weeks indoors. It has been inside under lights in a room where humidity stays above 40% and temperature stays in the 70s. I pulled it out to do some light pruning. After 6 weeks I figure any leaves that drop because of the move indoors have done so. So I can pruned to eliminate more of what isn't needed.

I could be a tiger bark. Its lineage is unknown. I took a lot of cuttings and wasn't to meticulous around the documentation. Could also be a green island. It is not a small leaf variety. So there is a long future of growing. I was inspired by Paul Koenning's ficus and how rapidly he grows them. I like cascades but just haven't done many of them.