What next?

[PRNDL]

Not really sure where to go next with my Juniper. I like the windswept look. I think I want the end to turn down.

Any advice

 

[Forsoothe!]

Here's a plan you may (or may not) like...

 

[Forsoothe!]

Growing seasons around the world vary widely and it is difficult to get a perspective on what someone says when we don't know where in the world they are. If you go to the upper right hand corner and click on your Icon, you can add your location and people will be able to customize advice for you, and you might connect with another local.




<<<<< It will show here.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I'd just work on letting it grow out for the summer. You can trim to shape late summer and wire then if you like. If this is a new acquisition for you, just let it grow, and learn how often it needs water, and if it responds by adding new growth. Use the summer to get familiar with it.

Read up on junipers, we have a whole sub-forim dedicated to junipers

 

[just.wing.it]

Let that baby twig beef up for a decade then worry about styling.

Tough love.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Absolutely put in ground or grow box and grow trunk to decent size. Will never happen in dinky Bonsai pot.

 

[Forsoothe!]

As that old English bonsaiist Alexander Pope observed in 1732, "...as the twig is bent the tree's inclined.'

 

[PRNDL]

Here's a plan you may (or may not) like...
View attachment 389074

I like this, I just don’t know how to do it. How would I bend the main trunk back the the left (Using the photo as reference). Wire? Any particular time of the year that should be done?

 

[PRNDL]

Absolutely put in ground or grow box and grow trunk to decent size. Will never happen in dinky Bonsai pot.

I like the grow box idea. When and what do you guys recommend I feed it?

 

[PRNDL]

Let that baby twig beef up for a decade then worry about styling.

Tough love.

Good point. I think I’ll start there. Should I get a bend in the trunk going though.

It’s still in the soil I made it a while ago. I’m scared to move it. I’m worried it will die.

 

[PRNDL]

I'd just work on letting it grow out for the summer. You can trim to shape late summer and wire then if you like. If this is a new acquisition for you, just let it grow, and learn how often it needs water, and if it responds by adding new growth. Use the summer to get familiar with it.

Read up on junipers, we have a whole sub-forim dedicated to junipers

I have had it a while. Compare the photo to my thumbnail photo. It’s almost doubled in size since last year. I’m just worried it’s going to die so I don’t know what to do with it. I’m mean feeding and soil. I gave it a pinch on 10-10-10 fertilizer in the spring.

 

[PRNDL]

Growing seasons around the world vary widely and it is difficult to get a perspective on what someone says when we don't know where in the world they are. If you go to the upper right hand corner and click on your Icon, you can add your location and people will be able to customize advice for you, and you might connect with another local.




<<<<< It will show here.

Mine shows. West central Florida Tampa bay

 

[PRNDL]

I guess I asked all wrong. I didn’t mean styling. It’s the same soil from a year ago. It’s still growing pretty fast, but I’m worried the soil will run out of nutrients. Should I change the soil out? The consensus seems to say to put it in a grow box or ground. I prefer a box to keep it safe. Not sure about what soil to use. I had another juniper in “bonsai” soil I made based on a bunch of Youtube videos I had watched and it died. This one is in the same soil it had been potted in when I bought it and it’s growing fine.
Can I still train it while it grows? Wire wires and such?

 

[PRNDL]

I was thinking about wiring it in this position while in the grow box and let it be

 

[Forsoothe!]

I like this, I just don’t know how to do it. How would I bend the main trunk back the the left (Using the photo as reference). Wire? Any particular time of the year that should be done?

Check out bonsai clubs in your area. There is no substitute for hands on work like wiring with a mentor leaning over your shoulder. Older members are know-it-alls and love to tell young people what to do. (I know I do) This fall, about November 1st when the dry season has begun use 3.5 or 4.0mm aluminum wire to wire the trunk & all the way out to the tip of foliage and then bend it to suit your tastes. Leave it on until July or so. If you had "bad luck" with bonsai soil, then maybe it would be better if you just maintained the tree in the original nursery soil until you have had it another year or so. It will be "wetter" than bonsai mix and more forgiving for the learning curve of watering. Change to a bonsai media when the tree needs to be repotted in a couple years, spring of '23. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, you can shop for larger trees. You will pay peanuts for nursery people to manage for years and years the growth of landscape stuff that you can buy at big box. That, or sit on your hands for 5 or 10 years while you watch time elapse and trees common as dirt grow in a grow box. I urge newbees to buy cheap stuff and learn the game in the early years. Yes, buy some special varieties of better trees small & cheap and stick them into grow boxes and manage that growth yourself, but not run-of-the-mill stuff you can buy cheap in a lot of different sizes at every nursery. You are in tropical tree heaven, so buy a fig or two, too. Time: waste not, want not. (Ben Franklin, Poor Richard's Bonsai Primer).

 

[PRNDL]

Thank you for the advice. This little plant was cheap and I like it a lot. How long does the soil usually last?

 

[Forsoothe!]

The soil will last until it is consumed by the roots, or rootbound. It will become rootbound and you will notice that water stands on the surface instead of being absorbed right away when you water it. You can push your finger on the surface of the soil and it will be tight and hard because of the volume of fine roots. In the meantime you can fertilize it with any commercial liquid like Miracle Grow every 3 or 4 weeks in the growing season which is March through October for you. Do your minor wiring (not radical bending of wood) like foliage spreading any time of year and leave it on until you see it interfering with bark growth (where the wire is marking the wood).

 

[Darth Masiah]

could bend it a little more

 

[Forsoothe!]

There are limits and a penalty to pay for being too ambitious.

 

[Darth Masiah]

There are limits and a penalty to pay for being too ambitious.

oops, i used too many lines. won't happen again