When Can I Prune Juniper Foliage

[one_bonsai]

I pruned off about half the root mass of a Squamata a few weeks ago and transferred the tree to a bonsai pot. It has put on a lot of growth since and I'm wondering how long should I wait 'till it's safe to prune the foliage.

[Jiro]

It's a pain in the arse uploading photos here but if you can please try to get one up for us that would be a great help.

Removing too much foliage on a juniper can really knock it around, that being said, if the tree is nice and healthy you should be fine.

I'm not really sure what your goals are in terms of removing foliage and without seeing the tree I can't really give too much advice.

[one_bonsai]

It's very bushy and really needs the pads thinned out.

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[Jiro]

Nice little tree mate, when that wire comes off you should start working to incorporate some jin and shari. You have some good strong new growth coming through which is a good sign that your repot has gone well and you're keeping it nice and healthy. I'd probably let those shoots harden off and then reduce to one or two new shoots.

Typically I've followed the advice of not removing more than 30-50% of the foliage on a juniper at once. I have gone further on very vigorous shimpaku juniper and not had it die so it is possible to remove more but do so at your own risk.

You want to start with simply cleaning it up a little. Start by removing shoots that grow downward from beneath branches and upward from the top of branches. You should also reduce any shoots or branching back to 2 so that at no point do you have 3 or more shoots/buds or branches coming from a given point.

[longd_au]

I am keen to see what others say about this topic.
I find that if you take all the tips off a section, that section eventually weakens and dies over a time period.
This makes it hard to shorten and create thinner pads.

I tend to let them grow as vigorous as possible (hardening off) then selectively take the longest part off ensuring some tips remains.

I guess this is what it means when they say junipers get their energy from the tips.

I have similar issues with shimpaku.

[Jiro]

yeah, you definitely want to keep some vigour in it. Definitely have had sections slowly die off if too much is removed but in my experience that tends to be in weaker areas that don't get as much light. Softly softly is the approach. Perhaps I should have said that more clearly?