new shimpaku juniper - really great price. what would u do? (Massive Pics Warning!)

bonsainewbie221

here are a couple quick pics i took of it today. if ud like more then just ask. looking for style advice. when to prune/repot etc etc.

thanks

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waltr

Look pretty nice. The main thing I noticed is the lack of foliage close to the trunk. If the soil its in is good then I'd cut all the branches back some (leaving plenty of needles) to stimulate some back budding. Then lots of sun and fert.
In a year or two it will be ready for styling.
If the soil is not good then repot. Cut back when grow becomes vigorous.
In the mean time study it and find all possible new trunk lines. Make sketches of these as you will have a guide and plan when you do the style.

bonsainewbie221

the soil is pretty peat heavy so i was thinking about a repot before i do anything to it. when is the best time to repot, cut back etc?

Vonsgardens

Don't prune it, where is Hilmar? Does it freeze heavily this time of year? (if it does could you remember to protect this tree?) If it doesn't repot now, get the old junk sil off and repot into a good freely draining mix. Leave it alone for a month then fertilize a little, and continue fertilizing more and more. With the wood exposed to light, rapid root growth and good fertilizing should stimulate some back budding- then shorten the branches.

Cheers,
John

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bonsainewbie221

hilmar is about 2hrs south of sacramento, california. not really any freezing this time of yr. most of my deciduous trees are breakin buds. ya i have some good soil for it already just wasnt sure when to repot and such.

Vance Wood

The two most important things to do with Shimpakus. First get yourself some rooting hormone and a good planting mix for all of the foliage you will probably remove. Second take some time just looking at the trunk and all of the branches and how they tie into each other. The idea here is to find the best trunk line and develop the tree around that. I see some wire here and there around the tree suggesting that someone is trying to make a bonsai out of this tree using all the existing branches. This is probably not possible so you have to find the good super structure hidden in there.

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bonsainewbie221

i have some rootone and someother powered rooting hormones or should i use somehting else? the tree had the wire on it already when i purchased it 2 days ago for $15. i dont have to much experiance with junipers in general, so i dont really know what can be done with one cutting back and pinching etc.. i just felt it would be a good learning tree for the price and has a fairly thick trunk already so maybe it could be a nice bonsai one day. but ill def take it slow before i do anything major to it.

kompik

I bought a nice nursery juniper to practice on about a year and a helf ago, and am only now getting around to it's first repot and styling this spring.

Okay, I'm no expert, but if those wires came with the tree I'd remove them ASAP (cut them into small pieces, don't try to save the wire for reuse or you'll probably damage the tree). For $15, I don't expect that they were put there by some bonsai master and they may already be cutting into the bark. Besides, you'll want to determine which way to bend the branches yourself.

If you've got the room to grow things, whenever you cut off a branch, take cuttings. Last year when I gave mine it's first rough pruning (trying to stimulate back-budding) I took all of the branches and stuck them into the dirt outside, just to see what would happen. One of them actually made it! With a little bit of reading on the subject, you're likely to be able to get about a dozen little junipers growing just from pruning "waste." Not bad for $15!

Also, when removing a branch from the main trunk, leave about 2" on the tree with the intention of using it for a jin later on (or right away if you feel up to it). If you decide against it, the branch won't have thickened any, so it should heal over just the same when you prune it back to the trunk.

As for styling, I could see (from the first two pics) going for a cascading windswept look. I might jin all the branches growing up the left side, maybe bending a few of them to the right to show a failed struggle against constant harsh winds. I'd use the wired branch on the right side of the top photo as the new leader, and keeping all the developing branches & foliage rigorously aligned to show a tree shaped by the wind rather than the typical canopy spreading to reach for the light. The lowest branch on the right I might just remove altogether; perhaps starting a shari at that point that twists up the trunk to the new leader...if you're that ambitious.


I must admit that I'm confused about this. How does rooting hormone relate to defoliation, unless you're suggesting drastic root reduction to correspond to severe pruning up top? Even then, are you suggesting a liquid hormone (or something like Superthrive) that could work its way thru the entire root mass?

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weeble

He means rooting hormone for the cuttings..... makes the odds much better that they'll 'take'

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