Juniper Training Opinion Needed

I live in zone *b on the East Coast of Florida. This tree, a San Jose Juniper is one of my first(of the few that survived ; ), and I've had it a couple years.

I have two questions.

First, the bottom branch is too short, and not as dense as the rest of the foliage pads. I have been debating what to do with this for a year now. Could I loosely fix a translucent plastic grocery bag over all of the plant except the bottom branch to force growth to that area without harm to the rest of the banches? Would this be effective? Or, do I have to cut this tree back a lot to allow this branch to catch up? I really don't want to so that.

My second question is, I have read a couple miscellanious exerps about junipers being able to survive long term in this climate. Some claiming each way. Some sources claim they can't be grown for bonsai here without killing them, but others disagree. Junipers are used in landscaping here. However, they are commonly seen struggling also. I think due to lack of water. The well upkept yards do quite well with them. Does growing them as bonsai stress them to where the less than ideal dormancy can kill them in the long term? What techniques could make their life here, on the sun, be more healthy?

Thanks in advance for any insights ; )

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TreeBay

Hi there STTT,

Thin and/or shorten the branches on which you want to restrict growth and favor the ones that you do wan to grow by letting them be longer and more dense.

If you find a way to shade the tree's pot from the sun, it will go a long way toward helping it survive the summer season. *The problem is typically, that the pot heats up and cooks the roots, and once the temperature in the pot rises above a certain point, the tree can't move water.

So you could try shading the pot (or the entire tree) at that time of year. *Some go so far as to wrap the exterior of the pots in aluminum foil, but I think a little shade cloth would be a better idea.

You will also see mist kits appear on this forum below from ***CHARLEY*** on this forum, which can reduce the temperature, but evaporative cooling is only effective when the humidity is low, so if you get heat & humidity where you are, pretty much all you can do is block the sun.

Please also take a look in bonsaiTALK Links and search on ARIZONA as some of the club members there have similar issues.

Good luck,

Matt

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Tony

You may be right at the edge of the zone where junipers can be grown. I know most junipers won't grow on the southern tip of Florida because the winters are too warm [zone 11 I think] but if you have junipers in the landscape you should be able to grow one as a bonsai.

The plastic bag would only cause fungus problems. As Matt said, just keep the foliage pinched back on the other branches while the small ones catch up.

Tony

That was supposed to say zone 8b in the previous post.

thanks for the advice. Another problem that I just realized today. One of my other trees, a procumbens nana, has just started yellowing in the top few branches of the apex. Thinking it may be spidermites(although I didn't see any), I just sprayed it with Safers Soap and a fungicide. Any insights on this?