bonsaial1

This juniper needs to be cut back hard. It looks healthy enough for a good wacking. I would take each globe of foliage back down to half. This will induce budding back near the branch junctions and along the trunk. You don't really have the right branch system in place to make a suitable tree. junipers respond well to hard pruning and soon enough you will have a load of buds to nurture and choose for branches in a couple of years. A growing box is a good idea, but you could chop now and have branches by fall just by leaving it in the can. In the spring you could repot into the box and work on enlarging the trunk. Lots of water and feed heavily. Use orgnic fertilizer so not to burn, and push it to it.

Hope this helps, AK

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