I had a few questions about this tree and hopefully someone could help by viewing the photo. Juniper

The soil that the tree is planted in seems very dense and sandy. There are a few pieces of bark but the overall composition seems to be regular black dirt. I checked how much water was in the soil by using wooden toothpicks pushed down into the soil and they came out wet even after a 7 days in the shipping box.

I am just wondering if I should re-pot this tree before the end of summer. I was thinking of making the soil that Al has posted in this forum. I have all the ingredients:

1 part uncomposted pine or fir bark
1 part Turface
1 part crushed granite.

One last question about the needles. I see that on the inside of some of my branches the needed are brown. This is how the tree was shipped so I am not sure if its because of the soil, or the lack of light from the trip. Any info would be great.

Thanks,
Josh

As far as soil mixture it depends on where you are located as local weather patterns will cause the soil to stay wet for a different time frame. Example would be that a mixture used in Florida, if used in Wisconsin will kill the tree as it will stay wet too long. That being said I think the mixture stated will work out alright for you, I'm going on what works in my area and your yearly weather probably is about the same as mine. The soil its in now is probably inadequate as is most soil trees from low grade nurseries and flower order sites have their Bonsai tree's in.

Make sure the soil isn't watered too often (only watered when the soil is almost completely dry, But NOT completely). The soil should only stay wet for 3 days at most before having to be watered again or it is retaining too much water. Also keep in mid this tree will have to kept outdoors during winter or it will eventually weaken and die.

I recommend going to your local library and reading up on as many Bonsai books there as possible. That should help clear up a lot for you.