Juniper 'Old Gold' Styling and Progression

Pitoon

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Update: it’s basically all scale/juvenile foliage this year. Does that mean that I just leave it alone?
Just let it grow out at this point. If you continue to prune it will stay in the juvenile form of foliage. It will take a couple of seasons to revert back if you don't cut.
 

Pitoon

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This thing is going to be really shaggy by then. Looking forward to seeing your thread on your old gold update!
Mine is extremely leggy/shaggy on one side. I wired up one side couple months ago and pruned as well. The other half is wild and out of control. I need to do that side this month sometime. I just started to get the scale foliage back. After I prune the other side it will probably revert back to juvenile foliage. A lot of branches have set but still need wire to keep them up, if not they will just sag.
 

Balbs

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Mine is extremely leggy/shaggy on one side. I wired up one side couple months ago and pruned as well. The other half is wild and out of control. I need to do that side this month sometime. I just started to get the scale foliage back. After I prune the other side it will probably revert back to juvenile foliage. A lot of branches have set but still need wire to keep them up, if not they will just sag.
At the rate these grow, it’s hard to imagine not pruning quite hard every season and always having juvenile foliage.
 

Pitoon

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At the rate these grow, it’s hard to imagine not pruning quite hard every season and always having juvenile foliage.
I've had that same thought. If we continue to prune hard every year at what point will we see scale type foliage. My 'Old Gold' has put out a ton of foliage, but I have not see much growth on the trunk in terms of girth. I have several 'Sea Green' junipers still in nursery pots that I can visually tell their trunks have gotten thicker over the past year.
 

Balbs

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I've had that same thought. If we continue to prune hard every year at what point will we see scale type foliage. My 'Old Gold' has put out a ton of foliage, but I have not see much growth on the trunk in terms of girth. I have several 'Sea Green' junipers still in nursery pots that I can visually tell their trunks have gotten thicker over the past year.
I actually don’t mind the needle foliage, it seems denser than the scale ropes that were discussed earlier in this thread. If you continue to cut juvenile foliage on junipers, do they die or lose branches or something?
 

sorce

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If you continue to cut juvenile foliage on junipers, do they die or lose branches or something?

IMO... aesthetics aside, juvenile foliage is just more vigorous, "provides more" is more accurate I guess.. So cutting it more shouldn't hurt anything so long as it's not throwing j foil cuz it's bare and almost dead.

Sorce
 

Pitoon

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I actually don’t mind the needle foliage, it seems denser than the scale ropes that were discussed earlier in this thread. If you continue to cut juvenile foliage on junipers, do they die or lose branches or something?
In my experience, the more juvenile foliage you cut the more you get.
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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Looking good!
isn’t scale foliage the mature foliage on this juniper?
Scale foliage is the mature foliage. But these buggers, like many junipers, tend to go juvenile when they're either stressed by pruning, or when they're growing vigorously because they have extra root space.

Edit: go for the backbuds. They will produce scale foliage somewhere next year. At some point, it'll be enough to safely remove the rest in phases.
 

Pitoon

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I'm actually thinking to split my twin trunk into separate smaller pots.
 

Balbs

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How come? I remember liking the design you were working on.
I was considering trying to graft better foliage onto this one.
 

Pitoon

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How come? I remember liking the design you were working on.
I was considering trying to graft better foliage onto this one.
The trunks are too thin in my opinion. I was thinking to make them more of a bunjin style by removing some of the lower branches and potting them up in a smaller pot.

I'll post some pics of mine on my thread later today.
 

Balbs

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After a couple years of not being able to tighten the foliage, I want to try my hand at approach grafting. So I bought some Kishu whips. But they came in smaller than I was expecting and it’s hard to get the trunks close to where I’d like to graft because the pots are in the way. Curious if anybody with grafting experience had any suggestions?
 

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