susieq

Dear Obliverate, I will not presume to give advice here, but I will tell you about my own experiences with junipers. I have been working on them for about 30 years. Here in Florida the season for root pruning and heavy foliage and branch pruning is from the last week or so of January, until the mid to end of February, depending on how quickly it gets warm. Once the cool weather is over, I quit that part of my work. (same with deciduous trees.)

In fall of 02, I bought 12 San Jose' junipers in 3gallon containers, as they were a good deal. The elderly man grew strictly for the bonsai hobby and was having health problems so he was selling off everything. When the end of Jan. rolled around, I cut about 75 to 80% of the roots and foliage off of the trees, repotted them in shallow growing pots. (5 and 7 gallon black nursery pots that have been cut down to 6 or 7 inches high.) I used Super Thrive in the water (there is a debate about that too) and kept them mostly in partial shade for about 3 weeks....until new growth appeared. Then back out in full sun. In all fairness to the truth, I did lose one.... but never had a problem with the other 11. One year and a half later, they are really thriving, very robust. Lots of ramification, lots of new growth. During the growing season, all summer long, I pinch and bud nip. I take the little bundle of needles that haven't opened yet, at the tips, between my thumb and fore finger, and roll it, till it pops off. This encourages compact growth and more fullness because at the point where the bundle popped off, several more little branches will pop right behind that point.

If the little green branches behind these bundles are too long, then I use my thumbnail and press the branch between thumbnail and finger to cut it off by half. Once there are "pads" developed, during the Jan-Feb time you can shear them with scissors for a fast hair cut. They will brown at the tips, but in a few weeks when the growing season starts, they put out new growth pretty fast. Shearing is frowned on, but if you have 50 or so junipers to groom, the old fashioned way is very time consuming.....but still gives the best results.

My oldest San Jose' is 25 years old. I started it from a cutting off of an other plant. I was so happy with the 11 junipers bought in fall of 02, that in spring of 04 (about 3 weeks ago) I went back to see if he had anything left. They were pretty picked over, but I managed to find 10 more that I could be happy with. These have only been lightly pruned. He wasn't able to take real good care of them, so they are pretty ratty and need lots of TLC. This summer I will concentrate on spraying (they had mites) and feeding them.....and doing a little stratigic pinching to promote some fullness where I want it. By this coming January, they should be ready to root prune. As they are growing and developing, I will root prun several times over a period of years, to get the nice radial of fine feeder roots around the base. When root pruning, I try to remove anything growing straight down from the bottom of the tree. If lots of fine feeder roots are present around the base of the tree, I remove anything that is thick root. If the fine feeder roots are mostly out on the ends of heavier roots, then all you can do at that time, is shorten them up a bit to promote fine roots behind that point.....and go back another year and do it again. This routine has always worked for me. I hope this has been some help to you. Best wishes for your success.
susieq