Did you pinch them?
I still have a hard time to figure out when to repot conifers... In this case a juniper (that was not well cared for obviously...)
This are it's "buds" right now...
View attachment 97899
Is it ready?
When mine start doing that what exactly should I pinch on it....
This is one thing iv had a hard time feeling confident with.
Never pinch, cut extensions back, check the resources page.When mine start doing that what exactly should I pinch on it....
This is one thing iv had a hard time feeling confident with.
...Pinching is still sometimes done on fully developed trees to prepare for show.
Apparently. ...Pinchy,pinchy!
Oh boy! Nwaite,be careful what you ask!
Apparently. ...
Pinch, twist, cut... yadda yadda ...
Thank you for explaining that part but besides Paradox you did not answer the question. .. cutting back in fall sounds easy enough but can it be to any point I want or just new growth.
Sorry to o\p for jumping in.
Never pinch, cut extensions back, check the resources page.
Aaron
Michael, even if you "pluck" the tips and don't crush, the very last tip end will brown. And the whole needle will eventually die because a new growing tip will not be formed on a "plucked" needle.Once again the wrong terminology leads to confusion. The word pinching can allude to using the fingertips which invariably leads to bruised foliage (crushed cells which die and go brown - intact cells which result from pulling them apart do NOT go brown).
When refining the outline of the juniper we ''pluck'' the tiny green points which jut out from the profile. This is the way to produce lush clouds of foliage. These days the look of shimpaku has changed from the 30's to 70's in Japan when these more natural billowing and lush foliage masses were preferred to the more slick, unnatural, modern, Kimura, plastic, contrived look with dead straight and level undersides to the branches. (sorry I just had to include that little rant) But anyway, You don't HAVE to employ the ''plucking'' but if you want density and refinement you will want to. Thinning out with scissors is obviously needed periodically just as it is with any other tree but saying that the only way to manage junipers and avoid weakness or tip browning is to only clip back more mature branchlets with scissors and avoid plucking is plainly not accurate.
A couple of us did point you to a resource that explains it all very clearly. Why don't you take a look at that instead of asking us to re-post it all here again for you? Once you're done, come back and ask questions. Here are the links if you are having difficulty finding them.
http://www.bonsainut.com/resources/how-to-trim-and-establish-pads-junipers-pt1.18/
http://www.bonsainut.com/resources/how-to-trim-and-establish-pads-junipers-pt2.19/
http://www.bonsainut.com/resources/how-to-trim-and-establish-pads-junipers-pt3.20/