Juniper, to snip or not to snip?

[Ashleypaine90]

Hey guys only me
I've recently found rosemount nursery (on the Sunshine Coast) I thought they only did bonsai pots but they do the whole lot, spoke to tony up there today, he really knows his bonsai if you live locally. Now my question, I've decided that I'd like to grow my bonsai in a formal upright stance. I have provided a photo of my bonsai, you'll notice I've covered the root ball up from my last post with some bonsai mix. I'd you look my bonsai trunk goes up and then hangs over like a cascading sort of shape, although there's a lot of foliage on top that I think has caused it to "lean" is it worth cutting off as it bends and growing upright or trying to wire and straighten up the tree? Any help or advice/ opinions would be appreciated.
Thanks guys


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[Ashleypaine90]

The other side


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[kcpoole]

Formal upright is reportedly one of th the most difficult styles to develop. The tre must have dead straight trunk, excellent radial nebari and roots And symmetrical foliage, good considtenr taper

Tours is not a goot start to formal upright but informal is doable

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[Ashleypaine90]

Ok thank you Kcpoole, how would you go about starting this? Is it worth keeping the bend in the top part of the trunk? Thanks


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[Boics]

Definitely no formal upright here.
I don't think junipers lend themselves to formal upright period.

I see the future as twofold.

1. Do you want a thicker older trucked tree?
2. Do you want "bonsai" now.

If the answer is 1. I suggest leave everything, don't cut and if anything maybe wore and compress.
If 2. Look for a smaller tree which will likely involve no tree top.

Good luck.

[Ashleypaine90]

Thank you boics, I'm still learning so it's good to get good advice from people that know. I'm not in a hurry for a bonsai now I'm in it for the long hall, just worried about the extra weight on top at the moment, the trunk seems very small compared to the amount of foliage on top, almost looks top heavy, in happy to leave it but just making sure I'm not making any learner mistakes by leaving the weight up there? Thanks guys


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[Andrew Legg]

Those junipers are very flexible so if you want it up, just wire it up.

[kcpoole]

It will take forever to thicken unless planted out so the only other is to make it smaller
I would wire the trunk and bend the bejeezers out of it to compress it right down.
Some thing like I have done in this thread viewtopic.php?f=148&t=15049&p=154025

Ken

[Ashleypaine90]

Thanks ken, I wired the trunk up today to try and see what I could do, I really liked a photo I saw of a slanted design so I've decided to give that a try seeing as it already wants to go in that direction anyways, and I've straightened out the bend at the top, I've had to prune a little foliage to allow me to wire it as it was soo dense at the top, please feel free to give me your opinions, good or bad and any thoughts you might have on progression from here. Thanks guys


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[Ashleypaine90]

Bump


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[kcpoole]

Much better, Maybe make a few of the bends in the trunk more pronounced.

Then Look at your branching and see what you can use in the future and they will have to be wired so they are flowing away from the trunk in the wind

Ken

[Ashleypaine90]

Hey thanks ken,
I was going to say you don't understand how long I sat in contemplation before making a decision, I then realised you probably know exactly what I went through haha nevertheless I'm happy and will continue to work on this little beauty


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[kcpoole]

I then realised you probably know exactly what I went through haha nevertheless I'm happy and will continue to work on this little beauty


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Yep correct

[Ashleypaine90]

Hey guys, just a quick question about my juniper, the other week I took the wiring off and have just been keeping up with my watering/feeding routine however today I noticed (must've been there from the wiring) that where the wire was has made a little cut in the trunk, will this be ok? Do I need to do anything about this?
Thanks in advance


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[Daluke]

That will heal in no time at all.

Letting wire bite in on junipers is used as a technique to get Jin and Shari.