Juniper Roots

muddslinger

Hi All,
I just got a bunch of little baby shimpakus to play with. They arrived bare root and the root systems are pretty deep. I need to get them in some soil and was wondering how much of the roots I should prune Also, should I remove some foliage (there's not much yet). They can't go in the ground because I might be moving within the year. I'd like to put them in these shalowish 4" nursery containers I've got a bunch of.
Any advise is greatly appreciated.
Kevin

Here's a pic of a few of them:

Attached Images

shimpaku-bareroot_4-22-04.jpg (50.7 KB, 256 views)

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Carl_Bergstrom

Kevin,

I don't have any experience working with shimpaku of this size. If they were deciduous, I'd remove most of the taproot. For these, I'd guess that you should remove about 1/2 of the tap root this year, and more next year. Hopefully those with more experience at baby shimpaku care will chime in and correct this more or less uninformed guess on my part.

Cheers,
Carl

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TreeBay

Carl's right about deciduouos trees. You can cut back the root system rather severely when it is dormant and rely on the fact that the plant will open a proportional number of buds.

With an young, evergreen plant like these Juniper seedlings, you can pretty much cut as much as you want, but you'd have to commit to pruning the foliage at the same time to create a balance between what moisture the roots can provide and what the leaves will demand.

So if you were to say, cut the center root (out of the long three) in plant #1, you'd have to trim about 1/4 of the foliage

If you were to cut the entire tap root out of #2, up to where it side branches, you'd need to trim 1/3 of the foliage

#3 doesn't branch a lot. If you were to reduce its length by about 1/2 to about where those small side branches appear in the center, then you'd need to do the same with the foliage

When you prune the foliage, use very sharp shears and cut entire twigs off. If you cut through the needle foliage, it will turn brown at the ends and die back to the next junction.

Juniper can absorb and lose moisture through its leaves, too, so if these were going into a humid greenhouse, the top pruning wouldn't necessarily need to be quite as severe as described, but if were to be grown in an arid environment, it might be wise to trim even more foliage. So location is something to keep in mind.

When you pot the plant there is a lot you can do to arrange the roots radially. And remember, a good informal upright rarely comes out of the soil perpendicular to the soil. Usually it grows on a slant for a bit!

Good luck,

Matt

Edit: Corrected that bit about formal/informal uprights - thanks Carl!

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Carl_Bergstrom

Thanks for filling in the details that I didn't know, Matt.



You mean informal upright, right?

-Carl

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TreeBay

Yes I did!

Thanks, I will go back and change that now!

Regards,

Matt

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Attila

Hey Kevin,
are you sure those are shimpaku?

I have ten very little ones and when I bought them at Chikugo-en miniature bonsai nursery about four years ago, they had just a few more branches than yours.

Yet, I have never seen such juvenile foliage on them ever.
I am not saying that they are not, just that it's different from what I have.

Regards,
Attila

muddslinger

Thanks Carl & Matt,
I went ahead and cut off about half the roots and about a third of the foliage.
I can keep them in the cold frame for a while. It's on the north side so it doesn't get much sun, but it's plenty humid. Spring in Maine isn't very arid anyway.
Thanks again for the advice!

Hi Attila,
No, I'm not sure they're shimpaku. I "pre-bought" them on ebay last fall and just had them shipped. When I emailed them to tell them to ship, they told me the ones they had (which were supposed to be shimpaku) didn't survive the winter and they had ordered replacements. I got a really good deal, so I don't mind if they're not shimpaku, but it would be nice to know.
I'll email them and find out.
Best,
Kevin

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Bonsainut

Good eye atilla, my guess is like Juniperus chinensis procumbens "nana". Do you concur?

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dbz12fan

I would also guess that they are procumbens.

You could either chose to make mame trees out of these, or put them in grow pots and let them grow for about 10 years. It all depends on the level of patience that you have.

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