Proper Juniper Pinching

BonsaiBen

I bought a Juniper this spring and have been learning the intricacies of the species on it. When I first bought it, I did some improper pinching. Now the tips of those shoots have turned brown. Some of them i pinched off (hopefully correctly this time) but was wondering what would happen to the browned tips that I did not get to.

Do brown tips just die back, eventually fall off and then start growing again from the previous node? Or does it just die back? Is what I did the proper remedy for that?

Also while we are on the subject, I have found that it is very easy to pinch fresh new light green growth but much more difficult to pinch darker green growth. At times the growth comes off but a white spine inside remains, looking like a very thin jin. Is there a better way to get to this old growth or am I just pinching wrong?

Thanks in advance for your replies...

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TreeBay

You can really only pinch the succulent green growth. The older growth you are talking about has begun to lignify so it actually has a core of wood.

If you pinch improperly or cut through a juniper's scale foliage, it will turn brown and die back as you've noted. How far it does is sort of a race that's governed by the health of the twig and its ability to sprout buds before it dies back to the next node. The dead foliage will fall off eventually on its own, but you can be proactive and cut back to the next node if it's convenient, or try re-pinching.

Regards,

Matt

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BonsaiBen

So how do you prune older juniper growth without the tips turning brown?

TreeBay

You'd have to cut back to the nearest twig, which is a process typically called thinning. I don't know if your juniper has scale foliage or needle foliage, but pictured below is an example with needle foliage. Any of these green tips in Figure 1 could be pinched back. Where the stem shows reddish, the branch has begun to lignify, so if you were to cut at that point you could expect dieback to the nearest branch union.

If we cut back at the point marked by the pencil point, although it is woody, there would be little risk of dieback because there are strong terminals, A & B.

Figure 2. shows after the cutback. Similarly we could choose to pinch back or to thin the tips here around A and B. Just for illustration's sake we'll Thin the branches at A and pinch back the branch tip at B, as shown in Figure 3 in A' and B'.

Hope that helps. If you have other questions, just ask!

Regards,

Matt

Attached Images

thinning2.jpg (27.5 KB, 305 views)

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DNA Perfect

The tips some times turn brown when pinched hard. Later when the pads are more developed you will just be removing the tips that grow past the boundry you've set for the foliage pads. The problem will decrease over time. Use tweezers to pick off the brown tips. Buds will almost always sprout from there. Misting junipers daily is very importand during the growing season, especially after pinching. As for the old foliage, use some small clippers and cut it back below were you want the new buds to sprount. Try to cut in between the needles to reduce browning. A lot of people use the process of thinning on junipers. I have had a lot of luck getting junipers (especially p-nana) to backbud strait from the cut, not the last branch. So cut it back just a little before where you want it and it will either sprout new buds or die back to the next branch. Again, mist your junipers as often as possible during the growing season. (3-4X a day for me) I even put diluded fertilizer in the spray water once a month as junipers can take in a lot of water through their foliage. Good luck. After pinching junipers for one whole growing season you will have a good idea of how it is done.
~Ken

BonsaiBen

Thank you so much Matt. As always you are amazingly helpful. Great diagram!

My Juniper has scale growth but I am assuming that it is the same concept.

BonsaiBen

Thats great advice. Thank you. Last night I did something similar to what you describe on my juniper, gently pulling off the brown tips and further thinning out the tree. I have been misting it regularly but will do it even more vigilantly now.

I wired it for the first time the other day but gave it a couple of days before pinching and thinning. I took some photos of the tree prior to wiring and will take some more photos of it now. Since I dont have a digital camera I have to finish the roll before I post it but hopefully it will be soon so I can get some styling advice.

BonsaiBen

I have a follow up question. About how long does it take for browned tips to resolve themselves and put out new growth (if they are so inclined)? Thanks.

TreeBay

Any new growth is going to be coming from some point behind the brown tips. The tips are dead and aren't going to recover. It might take a few weeks to a month to see anything happen. It might die back a bit and bud out somewhere else.

Regards,

Matt

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