Repot and style Juniper Prucumbens

[DWHorv722]

Hi there,

Just trying an experiment as I am new to outdoor bonsai with a cheap nursery stock Juniper bonsai, I pruned back maybe 30-35% of the foliage and did a gentle repot (not my best work as I’ve never worked with something this small) so as not to disturb the roots to much.

I gave it a fairly heavy watering and have it shaded for now, looking for suggestions as to how best to help it recover/keep an eye on it.

Thanks!

 

[BrightsideB]

Hi there,

Just trying an experiment as I am new to outdoor bonsai with a cheap nursery stock Juniper bonsai, I pruned back maybe 30-35% of the foliage and did a gentle repot (not my best work as I’ve never worked with something this small) so as not to disturb the roots to much.

I gave it a fairly heavy watering and have it shaded for now, looking for suggestions as to how best to help it recover/keep an eye on it.

Thanks!View attachment 611422

If you’re just starting out. Try to keep it to early spring for repot and root work. During summer the foliage really needs roots to sustain itself. After a repot they need time to grow and acclimate before heavy transpiration occurs like in the hot months.

Since you say it was gentle. You should be ok. Keep it out of direct sun during the hottest time of the day for a week or so. See how it is doing. Morning sun is ideal. But sun during the scorching part of the day is taxing on a tree. So intact roots are necessary.

Add your climate zone and general area you live in so people can know your climate. It’s important for us to understand when giving any advice.

Your tree is young but you are starting out well and how most of us do. Think about branch selection during spring before growth starts. Start to develop the branches you choose and wire them if needed. So thin out growth you don’t need and start focusing on the branches you want.

If you have any local clubs around. They are great for many things! My last club auction had great starter material for great prices!

 

[DWHorv722]

If you’re just starting out. Try to keep it to early spring for repot and root work. During summer the foliage really needs roots to sustain itself. After a repot they need time to grow and acclimate before heavy transpiration occurs like in the hot months.

Since you say it was gentle. You should be ok. Keep it out of direct sun during the hottest time of the day for a week or so. See how it is doing. Morning sun is ideal. But sun during the scorching part of the day is taxing on a tree. So intact roots are necessary.

Add your climate zone and general area you live in so people can know your climate. It’s important for us to understand when giving any advice.

Your tree is young but you are starting out well and how most of us do. Think about branch selection during spring before growth starts. Start to develop the branches you choose and wire them if needed. So thin out growth you don’t need and start focusing on the branches you want.

If you have any local clubs around. They are great for many things! My last club auction had great starter material for great prices!

Thanks for the suggestions! I live in a 5b zone so winters can get pretty harsh but there’s a good 3-3.5 months until the cold really starts to set in. I really didn’t cut any roots so the root ball is still intact (I’d say 95% of how it was out of the nursery pot at least) so hopefully that gives me enough leeway. Really appreciate all the advice and I will be sure to use that going forward, just getting started on my learning curve

 

[Shibui]

It would really help if you had a location in your profile. For a start that lets us know if it is currently Spring (southern hemisphere) or Autumn (Northern half) because that definitely impacts what we can do and how. Adding that location info to your profile means it pops up every time you post and saves us all having to scroll back or remember every member's details.

With just the gentle repot and moderate protection from hot sun and wind for a week or so the tree should be OK. Don't leave too long in the shade because foliage slowly adapts to conditions and when you move back to sun the shade adapted foliage can sunburn.

 

[DWHorv722]

It would really help if you had a location in your profile. For a start that lets us know if it is currently Spring (southern hemisphere) or Autumn (Northern half) because that definitely impacts what we can do and how. Adding that location info to your profile means it pops up every time you post and saves us all having to scroll back or remember every member's details.

With just the gentle repot and moderate protection from hot sun and wind for a week or so the tree should be OK. Don't leave too long in the shade because foliage slowly adapts to conditions and when you move back to sun the shade adapted foliage can sunburn.

Just added that to my account so you all can see, I am located near Chicago, Illinois

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

For those living closer to "Da Lake", aka Lake Michigan, weather has shifted, and summer has cooled somewhat. East breeze at night is becoming fairly frequent. There is a spurt of root growth starting as the summer nights begin to cool, repotting in the Chicago-Milwaukee area around August 15 is an acceptable window of opportunity, especially if the root pruning is not drastic. I live within the "Lake Effect" zone, near the Illinois - Wisconsin border. I used to repot a lot in middle to end of August when my work schedule did not allow Spring repotting. Now that I'm retired, I have mostly shifted back to spring, but for our "near enough to Great Lakes to have Lake Effect" climate, this August repotting is not a bad time. Note: this is for people in a Great Lakes microclimate. If you are in Texas or Missouri or California, this IS NOT for you. Even Iowa is too far from the Lakes to benefit from the microclimate.

If you are close as I am to Lake Michigan, I found a serious problem raising Japanese Black Pine. JBP don't wake up in spring until daytime temps are well above 70 F for most days of the week. I have had springs where the ground would thaw by May 1, but I'd get steady east breeze off the cold Lake water, and would not get daytime highs into the 70's until well into June. This means my JBP might just be forming their spring candles July 4. This tardy growth means I had to treat my JBP as single flush pines, as there was no time to grow out - candle prune - then grow out again before first frost around Oct 31.

How close (or far) from the Lake are you?

Luckily juniper grow at cooler temperatures than JBP. Keep us posted on how your tree does.

 

[DWHorv722]

For those living closer to "Da Lake", aka Lake Michigan, weather has shifted, and summer has cooled somewhat. East breeze at night is becoming fairly frequent. There is a spurt of root growth starting as the summer nights begin to cool, repotting in the Chicago-Milwaukee area around August 15 is an acceptable window of opportunity, especially if the root pruning is not drastic. I live within the "Lake Effect" zone, near the Illinois - Wisconsin border. I used to repot a lot in middle to end of August when my work schedule did not allow Spring repotting. Now that I'm retired, I have mostly shifted back to spring, but for our "near enough to Great Lakes to have Lake Effect" climate, this August repotting is not a bad time. Note: this is for people in a Great Lakes microclimate. If you are in Texas or Missouri or California, this IS NOT for you. Even Iowa is too far from the Lakes to benefit from the microclimate.

If you are close as I am to Lake Michigan, I found a serious problem raising Japanese Black Pine. JBP don't wake up in spring until daytime temps are well above 70 F for most days of the week. I have had springs where the ground would thaw by May 1, but I'd get steady east breeze off the cold Lake water, and would not get daytime highs into the 70's until well into June. This means my JBP might just be forming their spring candles July 4. This tardy growth means I had to treat my JBP as single flush pines, as there was no time to grow out - candle prune - then grow out again before first frost around Oct 31.

How close (or far) from the Lake are you?

Luckily juniper grow at cooler temperatures than JBP. Keep us posted on how your tree does.

Thanks for the info! I had a JBP last year that just never woke up from the winter so it’s interesting to hear someone else with the same issues! I will be sure to keep this thread updating with how the tree is doing, so far I have it out in the sun from 8am-noon and in the shade during the high intensity sunlight. I am a little inland from the lake about 45 mins tops.

 

[Tree Fam]

I started one in pre-bonsai 4 years ago. I just began pad ramifications. nice root