Juniper trunk thickening rate

[Walldepartment]

I want to field grow some junipers. I love shimpaku, but I'm thinking shimpaku might be very slow to thicken up. Am I right about this? I was wondering if I should grow some other type that will grow faster while I wait on the shimpaku to grow. Does a regular chinese juniper grow faster than shimpaku?

 

[Shibui]

I don't have any regular Chinese juniper so cannot compare.
I dug some shimpaku out of my grow beds today. I think they have been there 5 years now. Trunks form less than 1 cm to 5 cm in that time. How thick do you want to get them?


Some of the other junipers do grow faster - procumbens is a bit quicker.

 

[Walldepartment]

I don't have any regular Chinese juniper so cannot compare.
I dug some shimpaku out of my grow beds today. I think they have been there 5 years now. Trunks form less than 1 cm to 5 cm in that time. How thick do you want to get them?
View attachment 321513

Some of the other junipers do grow faster - procumbens is a bit quicker.

3 inches and up.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

75 miles North of you, my ground-grown Shimpaku are 2-2.5” diameter from cuttings made about 8 years ago. What’s most important is to put lots of movement in the lower trunk in that first year in the ground, and then remove the wire and let them run wild. These have been in the ground since year 2 with no real pruning yet. Not great photos, because they’re buried deep.
Itoigawa, which seem to grow faster, low and wide, but trunk up slower:

Kishu stays compact, but trunks up about as fast. They’re about the same age as the 2 itoigawa above:

What you might try is Hollywood juniper, torulosa. They grow fast, so maybe you bend up some small trunks, grow them out, and then graft kishu or Itoigawa to them.

 

[Walldepartment]

75 miles North of you, my ground-grown Shimpaku are 2-2.5” diameter from cuttings made about 8 years ago. What’s most important is to put lots of movement in the lower trunk in that first year in the ground, and then remove the wire and let them run wild. These have been in the ground since year 2 with no real pruning yet. Not great photos, because they’re buried deep.
Itoigawa, which seem to grow faster, low and wide, but trunk up slower:
View attachment 321522View attachment 321523View attachment 321525
Kishu stays compact, but trunks up about as fast. They’re about the same age as the 2 itoigawa above:
View attachment 321524
What you might try is Hollywood juniper, torulosa. They grow fast, so maybe you bend up some small trunks, grow them out, and then graft kishu or Itoigawa to them.

Thanks, this is what I'm going to do. I wasn't too familiar with grafting before.

 

[Shibui]

The quickest juniper I have grown was an upright, prickly, blue/grey colored one. Produced great trunks but painful to work with and they just wanted to grow up all the time. Eventually I grafted shimpaku onto them.
This is the one I kept. Trunk is about 3' diameter above the roots.


It appears that even the shimpaku grafts grow faster on this rootstock so it may even be possible to graft when the trees are smaller and then put them in the ground to grow out.

 

[leatherback]

It appears that even the shimpaku grafts grow faster on this rootstock so it may even be possible to graft when the trees are smaller and then put them in the ground to grow out.

How big a difference it there in thickening up between the rootstock and the scion though? Might be a thing to consider when grafting young.

Itoigawa, which seem to grow faster, low and wide, but trunk up slower:

Yeah, it is what I concluded too, compared to "unidentified" chinese juniper. I found them less drought resistent last year, when all my ittoigawa in the ground dried/died out, and the others were growing.

 

[BuckeyeOne]

my ground-grown Shimpaku are 2-2.5” diameter from cuttings made about 8 years ago

Brian, Are your shimps in full sun? I'm building a new grow bed that gets a full day of sun.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Brian, Are your shimps in full sun? I'm building a new grow bed that gets a full day of sun.

Yes, 100% full sun all day.