Styling kishu juniper advice

[TastyTreeTrunks]

Hello all,

I'm stuck on how to proceed with my oldest kishu juniper.
I've been developing it for the last few years with a design in mind (Design goal and pictures link) but some of the braches are already way too thick especially what I wanted to make the main left character branch, and I've had no success on backbudding on the lower braches.

Any advice with regards to getting towards this design or suggestions for alternative designs would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks,

 

[bwaynef]

You'll get (lots) more replies by posting the pictures here. Your design goals seem reasonable. I don't know for certain that backbudding is reasonable for what you have planned on a couple of the long bare branches. You'll be much better served by grafting, whether scion or approach. If that's outside your realm of comfort, you're going to have to rely on backbudding so work on cleaning the tree of downward hanging growth, crotch growth (that you're POSITIVE you won't be reducing back to), and the foliage between branches within 1/4-½" of the crotch. Any weak growth can be removed as well.

If you don't already have them, this cleaning will result in whips/runners, and those will drive backbudding.

^-- that video might be helpful to you as well.

 

[Shibui]

Can't help with over thick branches except to convert to dead wood and design around that.
Junipers back bud but slowly and reluctantly. You need to force them by feeding well and then pruning hard. Looks like that has worked for the right side branch. The alternative is grafting new shoots and, after they are growing well, chop the main branch and regrow more carefully from the grafted section.

 

[TastyTreeTrunks]

Added pictures for easier viewing







View attachment WhatsApp Video 2025-08-16 at 14.17.00.mp4

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Make sure when you repot that you get in and get rid of all the old soil in the rootball - particularly directly beneath the nebari. I'm seeing what appears to me to be a lot of old soil in amongst the roots. Junipers are very strong, and will handle repotting well, but they will punish you with weak growth and/or die-back if they are root-bound in bad soil conditions.



Your juniper looks pretty good, but you want it to explode with growth, and to do that it needs to be in good inorganic soil that you can fertilize heavily without the risk of root rot.

 

[TastyTreeTrunks]

Make sure when you repot that you get in and get rid of all the old soil in the rootball - particularly directly beneath the nebari. I'm seeing what appears to me to be a lot of old soil in amongst the roots. Junipers are very strong, and will handle repotting well, but they will punish you with weak growth and/or die-back if they are root-bound in bad soil conditions.

View attachment 610641

Your juniper looks pretty good, but you want it to explode with growth, and to do that it needs to be in good inorganic soil that you can fertilize heavily without the risk of root rot.

View attachment 610642

Thanks I will definitely look into repotting it next spring or this fall. Do you have any further advice on the tree styling?