Juniper foliage treatment

[ben17487]

Hey all, I wanted to pose a question I've struggled with for a while on developing juniper foliage pads and overall shape.
Mainly referring to Squamata/Procumbens...

I know there are numerous posts on the methods of pinching and cutting tips but I'd like to get people's methods on overall development

I've been experimenting with my only advanced juniper using a method I saw where you almost treat the branching like a deciduous tree and wire each shoot very specifically. Then remove the old needles to mature the shoot into branching quickly and make the tips ramify from there.



I've also seen some people hedge trim their pads to develop shape, which leaves brown dead tips..


I'm just a little unsure how to treat juniper foliage that extends and grows up quite long..
Should I also just pinch out the middle growing bud of each extending shoot during the growing season?

Hope some of that makes sense!

Cheers,
Ben

[kez]

G'day Ben,

I treat Juniper the way you first describe, removing multiples down to 2 and wiring each branchlet into place to form pads. When it comes to trimming I remove anything growing straight up or down, anything coming from a crotch in the branches and if a shoot is extending too far then I trim that shoot back to a "woody" part to bring it back into the branch profile.

This stops the tips browning as you haven't cut foliage and it also allows the weaker shoots to gain vigour

Hope this helps

Kerrin

[ben17487]

Great thank you Kerrin!
Another question regarding upward growing or strong shoots; when there's a strong growing apex nearly all of the shoots grow vertically.. How do you treat these? Or is this only prevalent in an unmaintained tree?

(I think it's time I attended some clubs and workshops to discuss these kinds of things really)

Cheers!

[kez]

I let them grow and trim back as per above. As much as possible I will wire out pads in the apex the same way as I wire out pads on any other part of the tree except for the very topmost foliage. As the tree develops so will the foliage pads and you will find with each styling the work becomes more detailed and the changes smaller.

With the apex, to avoid having a big blob in the rough shape you are after, it is best to take it right back to the bones of what you need at the first initial styling (as with any other part of the tree, but this is particularly difficult with an apex as the temptation is to leave it if the rough shape is there) doing this will allow you to refine that area the same as any other part on the tree and the work is fairly straightforward

[ben17487]

Very well explained, thank you. I believe this is what I've done on my most recent styling so I'll continue and see how it turns out in a season or two

Keep up the good work mate! Looking forward to seeing your trees progress.

Cheers
Ben

[Mbunro]

if a shoot is extending too far then I trim that shoot back to a "woody" part to bring it back into the branch profile.
Kerrin

quick question for Kez if your around..
the above statement confuses me a little bit... if you have already removed the old needles, wouldn't cutting back to a woody section just be making a small jin? or have i completely misread what you are trying to say?

[kez]

I don’t really remove old juniper foliage or needles, with procumbens this is necessary but it would be below the green at any rate that the old needles would remain

With squamata and shimpaku they tend to shed old foliage of their own accord in spring

When I mentioned cutting back to a woody part it was in reference to shoots extending beyond the profile of the foliage pad, these are usually overly vigorous shoots and need to be kept in check to a degree. There will still be green foliage where the branch has lignified (woody bit) and cutting this way stops tips browning as you are trimming what has become a branchlet and not actual foliage

Hope this makes sense

[Mbunro]

thanks for the reply kez... definitely makes more sense now...
now to turn my pom poms into pads....