shimpaku trimming

[Sn00pi]

Hi Guys,

Just after some tips about pruning this Shimpaku, any idea's what style of tree I should go for?

[Jamie]

gday mate welcome to the site if you could fill in some details bout yourself so we know what climate your in etc. that will help well. what i would do is not so much prune anything, but more so just take some off to encourage back budding, it is coming into a cooler time though so growth could be slowing down unless your in QLD, NT or WA.

look forward to seeing where you go with this and how it comes out, welcome to the site again

jamie

[Sn00pi]

Hi Jamie,

Im in Canberra (I got the stock from Leigh @ Ledanta Bonsa), so we certainly are coming into the cooler months. I was thinking the same thing, to trim it back the more leggy/skinny growths. Will this get it back budding? Can I do this now?

Also, I think it just about root bound, so I guess I will chuck it in a bigger pot, can this also be done now?

[Jamie]

yes mate cutting back half th skinny lanky growth will encourage it to back bud with good feeding. also one thing i have noticed is shimp and juni like to be a little pot bound, they seem to grow quite well like it. if you are going to put it in a grow box dont take any roots off, just rake it out some and back fill it in a grow box.

jamie

[Sn00pi]

Righto, will do. I take it the branches will thicken up a little too if I cut them back halfway?

Thanks for all you help Jamie

[Jamie]

what ya doing when ya cut back is encouraging back budding, which this tree needs. it will slow thickening a little then it will come back and grow thicker a little faster once it has more foliage. it has potential for a tree in the future, did you remove the foliage or was this like it was when you received it?

i reckon in a years time you will have some branching that can be worked with

[Jamie]

dont cut back to no foliage you will kill the tree. leave at least half of the foliage thats there on

[Sn00pi]

I got this as stock, as I wanted something to learn with. I plan to trim back the foliage, but with a view to making an informal upright with the left hand tree. Should I trim in a triangle style pattern from now or just reduce all by half leaving some foliage?

[Leigh Taafe]

G'day Mate!

Nice tree!

With what you have in mind - you should cut the right hand trunk back to a "jin" (or deadwood - like the semi cascade I showed you) sized stub.

Then you will need to decide whether you want to keep the first branch or not. If you do - cut it back by 1 third - if you dont want it - cut it back to a "jin" sized stub.

Thin out the top foliage for branches that you want to keep and shorten these branches slightly.

Now is not a great time to hard prune a shimpaku as the tree will soon be dormant.

If you trim a little lighter - then feed the tree with something like "Maxicrop" then your tree will be stronger in Spring to get stuck into.

Dont worry about repotting until spring.

Cheers,
Leigh.

[Sn00pi]

Hi Leigh,

Yep, I'm very happy with it. this is exactly what I was looking for, something that was somewhat mature, but still needed a fair bit of work so I could learn along the way.
which trunk are you refering to leigh (for Jin)? the one connected to the main trunk or the one that joins under the surface?

I can actually see two trees is this, the main trunk on the left, and the windswept style one on the right. Wish I could split em and get two

Well I trimmed some of the branches this evening, just taking off 1/3 to a 1/2 of the smaller thinner braches but still plenty of foliage over all.I will post pics tomorrow. I take it I wont see to much growth until spring.

I am still interested in taking some lessons, as is one of my friends, I will discuss this with you at the show this weekend Leigh.

Cheers

[Jamie]

you could possibly get two trees by cutting right in the middle of the two where they connect. you should be able to get a good size root ball from it.

it is possible that when you cut will die back up the bark creating a shari where the live tissue wont be getting fed.

[Sn00pi]

What are the chances of survival if I do this? and I take it I should wait until spring?

[Jamie]

you should have a good chance of survival as they will both have a root mass to live off. i wouldnt worry bout that right now as much as i would back budding which is the thing you have to concentrate on first

[Sn00pi]

Thanks Jamie,

I have trimmed it up a bit, just reducing each of the leggy branches by about a third, leaving a little foliage on each. I guess all that's left to do is wait till spring for some new growth.

There is a local bonsai show on tomorrow, and I have a feeling im not going to be able to resist pick up either some more stock or one a little closer to being ready to style, in which case I will be posting for some styling advice. Funny thing is now my house mate is keen on starting some too.

Thanks to everyone for their advice, I really appreciate it. I'm glad I found this community, from the looks of things its pretty tight knit.

[Jamie]

good stuff mate

trimming it back will help, give it some good feed regularly to, it will be needed to help gain strength to push the new growth in spring.

getting another bit of stock would be a great idea it will give you something to do while waiting for this one to pop! if you do get another juniper, or whichever that you want that is closer to style, get one with as many branches as you can the more branching the better choice and a better first styling can be acheived.

jamie