When is the best time to work on Juniper?

[vlkcheng]

Just bought a juniper chinensis. It has lots of healthy foliage. I pulled a few lower branches down but when is the best time to do any heavy bending and thinning out foliage pad?? Many thanks.

[adge0001]

I wouldn't touch the foliage too much during the growing season, it weakens the tree.


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[hugh grant]

Major wiring work and styling can be done on junipers anytime of year it is more important to time pruning and repotting iy you want to benefit the trees health. My schedule for working on juniper I try to work around their energy distribution cycle:
I do major styling either in summer or autumn. summer when im doing a refinement styling which consists of tip pruning the new seasons growth that has hardened off months prior and has gained energy and wiring out.
Now If I style in Autumn its usually because I want to remove a reasonable amount of foliage. The time of year you can remove a lot of foliage from juniper is from mid Autumn till mid winter. The tree has gained energy through the year and is saving it for spring, so if you prune you are not reducing its photosynthetic mass as critically as you would in the growing season when foliage tips are extending and drawing energy. For this reason heavy styling is also except able, it can repair with all its saved energy and then flush put in spring as normal.
repotting I like to do in October to early November, For 2 reasons:
1: If I have done a major styling in Autumn/early winter, the tree has had up to 6 months to recover which is the minimum I would leave to repot if cutting roots. If the tree is healthy and pushing foliage tips it is a sure sign it is doing well and repotting can go on.
2: when temperatures are starting to warm up which in my area happens October/November and buds are almost extended or just finished so you can be sure that energy accumulation and distribution is happening and hence root pruning will be less stressful as it can start producing new roots without much concern.

The trick is to know when to keep foliage and when to remove. Junipers are foliar dominant, meaning, they gain energy from the foliage particularly from its new growing tips. so removing a lot of foliage in the growing season is a detrimental to the tree in the long run. tip pruning to lower extensions is fine in the growing season so long as you let the original tip have time to extend, harden off and sit for a period of time.

hope that helps

Hugh

[Scooter_M]

Hey guys, im just wondering who maintains the wiki? Reading this post, and looking at the wiki seem to be conflicting information.

I understand whats being said about the junipers foliage during the growing season, however i did some pinching on the more stragely branches on my juni the other day based on this out of the wiki (https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/wiki/index. ... hould_I%3F ):

Heavy Pruning and Carving of a:
Juniper - Any time of the year, but best when the tree is actively growing to speed up wound Healing, Do not do heavy root work and foliage / Branch pruning at the same time. This will stress the tree far too much.

The wiki suggests you can heave prune it any time and is infact BEST while growing to help speed recovery, however posts above from Hugh and adge0001 are suggesting NOT to touch it during growing as it takes away from the tree....

I know bonsai is very "theres no one right answer to how to manage your tree's" but these two pieces of information are flat out opposites... ? Thoughts?

Cheers

[shibui]

There will always be conflicting advice when working with living things. Some is due to people having a theory, trying it out and it works so they start telling everyone this is the ONLY way.Sometimes it is due to a person having1 bad experience or failure and making a false assumption about the cause eg plant dies after pruning in summer so blame pruning in summer (forgets or not aware that the plant missed out on water the week before)

Personally I work on junipers at any time of year. I have had branches die after wiring but is this due to overenthusiastic bending or time of year? I would probably avoid major bending in spring because I suspect that the bark is easily separated from the wood while the tree is actively growing but do not know for sure if that is true.
Pinching is done any time of year as needed.
Hard pruning and create dead wood at any time of year too.
Cutting roots and repotting is done in early spring - but only from habit. I suspect that junipers could be repotted almost all year. I repot young cuttings any time of year but have not tried this on older, established trees so cannot say for sure.
As for pruning and repotting close together I regularly dig junipers from the grow beds, reduce roots severely and reduce the top by more than half then pot up and place them on the benches in the nursery. Well over 90% have survived so far.

[vlkcheng]

Great advice. Thanks everyone for your contribution. I probably will leave foliage thinning until Autumn.

[treeman]

Well that's a new one for me. I would never do heavy work on anything in summer. Traditionally you work on conifers when the sap is reclining not when it is rising. That means winter in Oz. Conifers bleed when attacked in spring summer.

[Inspired]

For me various conifers will react differently so I guess there is no one sweet rule.

Some of my Junis are happy to be worked on 24/7 365! Tip is to let them burst back with vigor and new buds and shoots everywhere

and get really bushy before the next rework.. good thing here is now you have "desirable options"

[ozzy]

Sunday afternoon

[kcpoole]

Hey guys, im just wondering who maintains the wiki? Reading this post, and looking at the wiki seem to be conflicting information.

I understand whats being said about the junipers foliage during the growing season, however i did some pinching on the more stragely branches on my juni the other day based on this out of the wiki (https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/wiki/index. ... hould_I%3F ):

Heavy Pruning and Carving of a:
Juniper - Any time of the year, but best when the tree is actively growing to speed up wound Healing, Do not do heavy root work and foliage / Branch pruning at the same time. This will stress the tree far too much.

The wiki suggests you can heave prune it any time and is infact BEST while growing to help speed recovery, however posts above from Hugh and adge0001 are suggesting NOT to touch it during growing as it takes away from the tree....

I know bonsai is very "theres no one right answer to how to manage your tree's" but these two pieces of information are flat out opposites... ? Thoughts?

Cheers

Actaully mostly me
Heavy Trunks or Root work any time, but the Foliage trimming
[quote-"adge0001"]
I wouldn't touch the foliage too much during the growing season, it weakens the tree.
[/quote]

the way I read this is do not trim the foliage to shape constantly while actively growing , but go for it with heavy work and branch removal.
I fact I do all my School demos this time of year and bend the bejeezers out of them. I do not touch the foliage tho.

Ken

[kcpoole]

Ps Forgot to add, if anyone finds any conflicting or incorrect info in the wiki. happy to discuss to correct the info where appropriate

Ken

[kcpoole]

I would probably avoid major bending in spring because I suspect that the bark is easily separated from the wood while the tree is actively growing but do not know for sure if that is true.

I have never had a problem.
Spring now, almost summer here and at this years school show i bent this Juniper

Great time to do this IMHO.
I have done this work in Autumn as well on my Shohin comp tree and all have great success.
Aside from branch removal and shortening, the foliage and roots were not touched at the time of bending. I would wait 6 months in sydney before doing that.

Ken

[shibui]

Thanks for your experience with spring wiring Ken. As I said it is easy to jump to an incorrect conclusion from just 1 or 2 experiences. The branches that died on mine may just be due to overzealous bending or maybe just bad luck??

Well that's a new one for me. I would never do heavy work on anything in summer. Traditionally you work on conifers when the sap is reclining not when it is rising. That means winter in Oz. Conifers bleed when attacked in spring summer.

Very interesting to hear your experiences Treeman. While I have experienced maples bleeding badly when pruned in early spring I have not noted it in conifers. Maybe just lucky, Maybe different climate. Maybe it happens and I have just not noticed?? Will now pay closer attention and see what I can see.
The trouble I am finding with 'tradition' is that lots of it comes from a completely different climate and does not apply here while other 'tradition' has become corrupted through translation errors, misinterpretation, etc or, as above, incorrect conclusions becoming 'fact'.
'Tradition' is always a good, safe starting point but we also need to politely question all traditional 'facts' and conduct impartial trials to prove or disprove.

[Jow]

I have found that the cambian is far more likely to separate when the sap is flowing heavily, therefore i like to do heavy work in winter. I will do general styling year round though.

[Grant Bowie]

I have found that the cambian is far more likely to separate when the sap is flowing heavily, therefore i like to do heavy work in winter. I will do general styling year round though.

I tend to agree with Joe; although the only Juniper I have ever had a problem with is J squamata prostrata in spring and Ray Nesci also agreed about that plant and that time of year; i.e. avoid working heavily in spring.

In summer I just put them into more shade if wiring heavily or bending.

Grant