Chinese juniper thickening / ground or large pot (basket)

[Sootys trees]

Guys, I’m just looking for some opinions and advice on the matter of whether it’s best to grow/develop my Chinese juniper in a large pot or the ground ?

See images for said tree, I repotted last summer and the tree has responded well, putting out a lot of new roots into the new media of 70-80% perlite and 20-30% pine bark chips ( small grade bark )



The goal is to increase the girth of the trunk, whilst maintaining some small branches to work with when I dig it up.

The main concern with putting it in the ground would be that when I later come to collect it, i’d damage the root system and risk the trees health or death…

Whereas growing in a large pot will be slower to develop.

I’m willing to give this a good 5-10 years of thickening.

I understand pruning and root work are essential for keeping the tree small, but at the same time such work slows down any thickening of the trunk etc, so I’ll most likely create some sacrificial branch’s I can layer later down the road…

What are your guys thoughts on ground or pot growing for this tree ?

Thanks

 

[Sootys trees]

Here’s another pic, I’ve managed to root dozens of cutting from this tree already, great for shohins, junipers really are the easiest thing to propagate

 

[Bonsai Nut]

If you want to increase the girth of the trunk, increase foliar mass. If you want to increase foliar mass, let the roots run.

Planting in the ground is generally the fastest route because it allows the roots the fastest growth - not only giving the roots room to grow, but keeping the roots insulated. You would probably get similar results for the first few years if you had a greenhouse and placed a tree in a large grow box. But the moment you put a tree in a pot you are slowing the growth down substantially... which is usually what you want.

If you want to maintain fine inner branching, you should maintain that foliage as "refined" by pruning, wiring, and otherwise treating that foliage like it was the final design. Then let ONE sacrifice branch run uninhibited for a couple of years, making sure to never prune the tip, but removing lower foliage if it is shading out your refined areas. Then after two years, prune off the branch, leaving a jin if appropriate. Repeat the sacrifice growing method with different branches and different locations until you get the girth you want. Note that in the case of junipers you might let sacrifice growth run for more than two years if you plan on leaving a deadwood feature. You typically don't want sacrifice growth to run more than two years on deciduous trees because it leaves too large of a scar.