Newbie Juniper Help

[Scooter]

Hey guys,

Im super new to all this, and I have this Juniper, its obviously pretty young so im not going for greatness just yet, decided i wouldnt mind trying for a cascading effect, hence the flow of the main trunk down to the right. Im just so confused about maintenance pruning. I've read about snipping back the forks and such, but i just need clarification. Obviously i need it to grow in length and keep cascading, but all those little offshots are starting to get long and dropping leaves from near the main trunk. And the over all look is starting to get lost as a mini tree, and its just turning into .. a shrub.

Or is this a thing where i should just let it go nuts for a while before worrying about this kind of stuff. I've included a zoomed in pic of the parts im talking about, just wondering if im supposed to be cutting back a bit on those bushy ends to help divert energy where it needs to go etc?

Also any tip son the overall future planning of the style would be accepted also

Cheers.

 

[jk_lewis]

As wired, you have created a tree that goes off in two directions. That's a no - no. If I were you, I'd both shorten and bend the left hand branch sharply over toward the right. And yes, it is time to just let the tree grow wild. You can always prune it back.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I'd both shorten and bend the left hand branch sharply over toward the right.

Funny, I'd go exactly the opposite direction.

 

[Juniperific]

I can see growing at that angle.. all depends on what you do in the future. Maybe draw a sketch and post here what you have in mind for that branch. Or similar photo of the plan.

Bringing it back to the right now I can see if you are going to have the right branch cascade off the right. Which I think is what you want to do. So My vote would be for going back to the right and keep short.



http://www.google.com/search?client...ed=0CDYQsAQ&biw=1440&bih=764&q=cascade bonsai

 

[Scooter]

Cheers for the input all, as far as the left branch goes, overall was going for something more like this:



Where the left branch becomes almost a mini tree on its own, but also gives the over all bonsai a bit of height, dont think im too keen on the complete cascade where you have bare trunk comming out of the pot... Having said all this, i guess it would need to be a bit sharper than it currently is. Which my newbness then asks the question, when you guys say keep it short, as in now? cut it back and Keep it short and sprout sideways, or let it grow then cut it back? i heard letting it grow helps thicken the trunk...