Pinching procumbens?
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Jag001
- Aussie Bonsai Fan
- Posts: 64
- Joined: February 14th, 2016, 6:29 pm
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- Location: Perth
Re: Pinching procumbens?
Well I can only speak from personal experience, however I have over a long time had experience with a good number and variety of Junipers.
I have used tip pruning (pinching) on both needle type junipers and those that normally produce more scale like foliage.
My experience has been that tip pruning will most definitely produce a more tightly compacted dense foliage pad. I have done this on the following trees;
Juniper Sabina, Shimpaku, X Media Blawii, squamata, Procumbens, Ketteleri... and others which do not spring to mind immediately.
In all cases should I wish to produce a more compact foliage pad, I would pinch each individual tip as the new growth begins to extend. If done very carefully only minimal browning at the tips will result. I do this to the entire tree throughout the entire growing season. I have done this for three consecutive seasons without loosing a branch let alone the entire tree. The effect is that the foliage pads become very dense.
Having said this, it depends on your stage of development and your design goals for the particular tree. If I were trying to increase ramification then I would not be pruning in this manner.
I have also used trimming with scissors in order to open up the foliage pad to all more light into the inner growth, so both techniques are handy depending on what it is you are trying to achieve.
cheers,
Jeff
I have used tip pruning (pinching) on both needle type junipers and those that normally produce more scale like foliage.
My experience has been that tip pruning will most definitely produce a more tightly compacted dense foliage pad. I have done this on the following trees;
Juniper Sabina, Shimpaku, X Media Blawii, squamata, Procumbens, Ketteleri... and others which do not spring to mind immediately.
In all cases should I wish to produce a more compact foliage pad, I would pinch each individual tip as the new growth begins to extend. If done very carefully only minimal browning at the tips will result. I do this to the entire tree throughout the entire growing season. I have done this for three consecutive seasons without loosing a branch let alone the entire tree. The effect is that the foliage pads become very dense.
Having said this, it depends on your stage of development and your design goals for the particular tree. If I were trying to increase ramification then I would not be pruning in this manner.
I have also used trimming with scissors in order to open up the foliage pad to all more light into the inner growth, so both techniques are handy depending on what it is you are trying to achieve.
cheers,
Jeff
