Itoigawa juniper - pinching, trimming or leaving it alone?

[Clicio]

Unlike other junipers like Kishu, my Itoigawas are very fussy about their new growth, meaning that they tend to get weaker by pinching or trimming new shoots, and I wouldn't like to deal with juvenile needles if I can avoid it.
So...Should I let them grow bushy and then prune back by the end of summer instead of trimming them as the new growth elongates? The couple I have are sitting on their own roots.
Ask me for a picture if needed, please.

 

[leatherback]

Do you have a picture?

Mine gets trimmed .. I dunno, maybe twice a year normally? In later winter/early spring I open up the canopy, thinning the foliage pads removing older inner growth and longer branches that can be replaced by young shoots. After the flush in spring, somewhere in summer, july, august, I cut the runners back taking a part of the foliage tuft at the base with it. I do not touch the slow-growing foliage at all. It has stopped producing needles since I let the runners develop more. Probably was @Brian Van Fleet who gave me the tip a few years back.

This year I am skipping the second step till later, maybe fall, on one of mine: I want to take some cuttings AND I have done some reworking of the crown and I want that to set: I need growth.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Here’s what I do:

Trimming Junipers during the growing season

Pinching is removing the new extension growth. Maybe for purposes of clarity, we can call it cutting or trimming. While terminology is important, the technique is really what matters. Pinching a ju…

nebaribonsai.wordpress.com

That’s an old post I plan to update and publish again at some point.

I let them get bushy, and then trim them back with scissors, by removing the growth in the crotches of branches, thinning shoots back to pairs of shoots, and shortening runners back to a growing tip closer to the trunk.

 

[Clicio]

Here’s what I do:
I let them get bushy, and then trim them back with scissors, by removing the growth in the crotches of branches, thinning shoots back to pairs of shoots, and shortening runners back to a growing tip closer to the trunk.

Thanks so much for the link and the tips, I appreciate your suggestions.

 

[Clicio]

@leatherback the pictures, if it helps.
Even being sparse growing when compared to Kishu, I think Itoigawas are more elegant and the color! What a beautiful green!

 

[leatherback]

COuld it be you let them run too much?

Pruning at the red line should get very soon sstrong growth from all the other branchlets..

 

[Clicio]

COuld it be you let them run too much?

Perhaps.
But I am a little concerned, the foliage is not as thick as I would have liked. And being winter here... Let it grow!

Pruning at the red line should get very soon sstrong growth from all the other branchlets..

Yes, you are right. I guess I will do it in August/beginning of September so it grows at the right season.
Thanks for the suggestion, mate!