Digging up a Blue Point Juniper tomorrow.

[Brewing_up_a_storm]

I am very new to bonsai and tomorrow I am digging up a few 4-5 ft blue pt junipers tomorrow that someone was growing as shrubs. I am trying to acquire a few trees right now to “hedge my bet,” for when I eventually kill off a few. However, I am a little unsure of what steps to take with these trees.

Can I chop the trunk right away and plant back in soil in a pot?
Do I wait until early spring to chop the trunk?
Do I plant it into regular soil in a large pot?
Should I trim the roots, more than when I dig up the plant?

Any guidance is appreciated. I’m located in MN.

Cheers

 

[Gsquared]

When you say”chop the trunk” it makes me a little nervous. When you say that are you meaning cut the trunk and expect back budding to for your eventual branches? If so, DON’T. These trees are conifers and must have foliage to survive. Cut it all off and your are asking for a dead tree. In fact junipers main storage and source of strength is in the foliage. If you are cutting them back, but leaving a good bit of foliage, maybe. It might help reduce transpiration to compensate for the loss of roots. Get as many roots as possible and good luck.

I’m sure there are people who can better guidance you with your collecting project. I would await more advice from them, but make sure you leave foliage.

 

[JoeH]

Sounds like you need to read up on junipers as a whole before you even try this. I have about a 50 percent success rate on digging them up from landscape situations. Disturb the roots as little as possible, don't remove any of the top.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Your junipers are going to drop some branches on their own. If you remove those before they do it themselves, they might choose the remaining branches to kill off.
I collected a few larger junipers last winter, I found that it's absolutely necessary to have the right soil laying around.

Expect to not touch them for two years while they recover. That's the hardest part, I guess.

 

[Rivka]

I am very new to bonsai and tomorrow I am digging up a few 4-5 ft blue pt junipers tomorrow that someone was growing as shrubs.

How did this go for you and what if any lessons did you learn?

 

[Brewing_up_a_storm]

How did this go for you and what if any lessons did you learn?

I didn’t collect that juniper. Though I dug up a large juniper chinensis this year. Which is currently dying in my garden.

 

[sorce]

I didn’t collect that juniper. Though I dug up a large juniper chinensis this year. Which is currently dying in my garden.

Do you remember the date? Pics with it in the details perhaps?

How many roots?

.....for the database.

Sorce

 

[Brewing_up_a_storm]

Do you remember the date? Pics with it in the details perhaps?

How many roots?

.....for the database.

Sorce

The person who I got the juniper from had dug it up and bare rooted it by the time I got there. No idea when she did it up prior to my arrival. It was spring, May or April. Looks like it didn’t make the transplant. Scratch test reveals many dead limbs. I’ll let it over winter and see if it pulls through.

 

[sorce]

pulls

Looks like it might!

Sorce