AusBonsai

Last year we were inspired by Jow's twisted juniper post from Japan. I was fortunate enough that before he took off on that trip, he was over at my place and we had had this discussion already. Looking around my trees, he picked this chinensis juniper out and said," i really like the compact foliage on this. You should take a whole bunch of cuttings of this tree and we will twist them up later". I said, " yeah mate there's a tray full of them over there. What about i go you one better? How about i wire up a bunch of branches on this sacrafice and that way next year when i cut them off and strike them, they are already twisted"? Tonight i cut the wire off these brances after being wired for the last 8 months or so. they have set hard. After cleaning up the sacrafice a little, i will let them bolt a tad and in april cut them off for cuttings. This post is also for my mate jamie whos off doin tests at the moment. Hope all has gone well for you and i know ya gonna love this one.

So you are planting them in Autumn Antonio, I have never taken cuttings then, I have always gone with Deciduous HWC in June/July and SHWC of anything from Sept to Jan. Food for thought. Can I ask, are you using bottom heat and mist and when do expect roots? Certainly not in 20 minutes like those Queenslanders and their bloody figs

Cheers
Mojo Moyogi

Hey Ant,

This is a great idea and I will be taking this up future cuttings.

Thanks again,

Mario

this looks great Ant! it took a bit of looking to see the wiring but the i got it

and now they have struck they will have some sweet movement.

i have found that a great way to get the shari into the tree is to leave the wire on and let it scar to divert the sap flow slowly, once it has cut in deep enough then it can come off, and the shari has been started, i wire randomly bit tighter in angle then a bit looser, i then get as much movement as i can in them while the wire is on

look forward to seeing more pal

jamie

Great post ant i have been chatting with jamie about one juni i have that i have left the wire on 2 long, I see the light and now know what i can do thanks to you both.

Mojo Moyogi wrote:So you are planting them in Autumn Antonio, I have never taken cuttings then, I have always gone with Deciduous HWC in June/July and SHWC of anything from Sept to Jan. Food for thought. Can I ask, are you using bottom heat and mist and when do expect roots? Certainly not in 20 minutes like those Queenslanders and their bloody figs

Cheers
Mojo Moyogi

Mojo, that is correct. i will cut them off the tree start of April. ( however i take juni cuttings all year round except winter) That way they have a month of growth to recover from any scaring. I have been very careful to not scar to deep. You want to give the cuttings every chance to strike. Besides i dont believe its a good idea to expose such young wood. Plant them into small collanders with a mix of Diatamite, Scoria and potting mix, equal parts. The collander then sits in a water tray, up against an east facing brick wall, under eaves. This area is also protected from the north by a tall picket gate. Theory is morning sun warms up the wall and radiates on to the cuttings. I believe the water tray is 75% of the success though. I do too many cuttings to worry about a heat matt. Im sure though it would be an advantage. Since using this area and water trays my strike rate is 90%. Now melb does not get as cold as you in this time of the year so you would have to take that into consideration. I did some squamata cuttings back in October and they haven't missed a beat. Are now putting on growth, this tells me they have roots. So they take about 6 months to root. Some times 1 or 2 havent got roots they go back into a collander for a later time. In the warmer months or even days through the year I leave the water trays full. Where as in the colder months i only leave a couple mm of water. I will take a photo of the area once the sun comes up. i hope i have answered most peoples questions in this post.

Nice post Ant, your junipers look really good. I would guess you have put a few years into them ?
Craig

Thanks craig, The chinensis has been 2 years from mature stock the rest vary from 6mnths to 4 yrs. I always buy a good juni when i find one.

Heres a pic mojo

Looking good!

The Juniper in question had really tight compact foliage, just what you look for in Shohin sized trees. Foliage type is half the battle... now you just need to get the other half grown (trunk).

I will be looking forward to see your results a few years down the track....

in chris's case it the cutting taken would only be possible for use as a mini with such small and young wood.

with what i am doing it is on 15-20mm wood, and is still in test stages but i am having better success with the wire cutting method than having a slightly thicker trunk and cutting a shari in, thats been about 50% as i beleive the sap doesnt have time to change sap flow!

the wire mthod so far has given me 100% success, but like i said, still a test phase, i beleive it is working a treat though

and you want to see a good juni... just wait till tonight!!!! (its stock that i will be working over the next couple of days really tight foliage)


jamie