Sunshine

flor1

Shohin
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How much do try and give your trees daily I'm talking about mostly Junipers and Japanese Maples. I'm located in north Georgia and the heat and sunlight can get beastly here at times. Icurrently have everything on the north side of the house with some afternoon protection any help or input greatly appreciated. Thank You
 

Rick Moquin

Omono
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IMO the East side would be better than the North side, at least it would get morning sun. The other solution is shade cloth in your display area where needed.
 

cquinn

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With the junipers it depends on the substrate and the health of the plant. If they're healthy they can take it all day long as long as they get a good watering in the evening before. You'll want the maples to get a little shade in the afternoon or the leaves will wilt on those dry windy days. I live in Ft Oglethorpe GA.
 

rockm

Spuds Moyogi
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I've used polypropelene woven shade cloth to shade my Japanese maples here in Va. The stuff comes in various protection percentages--from 20 to 80 percent. Basically, the cloth is tiny polypropelene threads woven into a sheet. The sheet can be tacked onto a simple frame or other support over your tree.

The individual tarps are a bit expensive. However, if you can find rolls of the fabric-similar to weed barrier cloth-- it's cheaper. I've found the bulk rolls at Home Depot, but apparently it's not that common there anymore. Do a search on Dewitt shade cloth and you can find a supplier. Here's one I found online.

http://www.catalogclearance.com/depts/shadecloth.html
 
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Rick Moquin

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In Nova Scotia I am fortunate that they do well in full sun unprotected. My backyard faces south. I have Japanese maples at all 4 quadrants in the landscape, not a problem with any of them. Mind you one that is on the west side didn't fair too well this winter, this was the first time in 4 years. I never sheltered them for any of the winters. We will have to wait and seen on that one.
 

banzaibonsai

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Your Maples will need some protection from sun in the hottest part of the day. My japanese maples get evening shade and they still get leaf scorch from the heat. Junipers can take full sun, but I give mine a little shade. My bench gets morning/early afternoon sun and evening shade so it works out good.
 

flor1

Shohin
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Thanks to everyone here for there help. As a follow do you think for Junipers particually is there a mininum of sun that they need. I've looked everywhere and can't seem to find this question addressed. Thanks again.
 

head_cutter

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sun

For many things in Bonsai there really aren't any pat answers. A lot depends on many factors surrounding the tree(s), soil, size of pot and soil mix, etc, etc.

Perfect example:
I have a very large Fukien Tea-about 20+ years old, everything I read says '1-2 or a few hours of direct sunlight a day'--it's growing well in a courtyard where it gets 80% sun for about 10 hours a day. I'm in Vietnam, about 12 degrees above the equator and the sun is brutal for about 8 months a year so go figure. All of the trees get watered at least once a day sometimes twice, they also get misted heavily a few times a day, they also get 3-4 months of monsoon rains, almost every day, all day.

Bob
 

shohin kid

Shohin
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How much do try and give your trees daily I'm talking about mostly Junipers and Japanese Maples. I'm located in north Georgia and the heat and sunlight can get beastly here at times. Icurrently have everything on the north side of the house with some afternoon protection any help or input greatly appreciated. Thank You

The best thing to do would probably be to put them under a 55% filtered shade cloth that gets sun all day.

One thing to consider would be to set up some tests. Buy shimpaku and japanese maple seedlings or rooted cuttings for cheap and set them in different places and see which ones look the best.
 

Vance Wood

Lord Mugo
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In Nova Scotia I am fortunate that they do well in full sun unprotected. My backyard faces south. I have Japanese maples at all 4 quadrants in the landscape, not a problem with any of them. Mind you one that is on the west side didn't fair too well this winter, this was the first time in 4 years. I never sheltered them for any of the winters. We will have to wait and seen on that one.

There is another issue here that is probably significant and I don't think it is the heat as much as it is the angle of the Sun. In Nova Scotia you are probably about as far North as you can be and still be able to grow J. Maples. At that latitude the angle of the sun is greater than it would be in Georgia. Even though you can grow them in full sun all day long the intensity of the UV is more diffused by the increased atmosphere the light has to travel through to reach them.. In Georgia the intensity is greater because the angle of the sun is less and the accumulated depth of the atmosphere is less, making the effects of the Sun more intense.
 
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