Chinese Juniper first pruning, cutting back too much? Also styling advices needed

[Japonicus]

Thanks for reassuring!
At the moment, my feeding routine for my trees is: Westland organic seaweed once a month (followed the instructed ratio), few biogolds on top of the soil.
After some reccomendations and some digging, I'm planning to add fish hydrolysate or emulsion depends which one I can find in the UK, and humic acid.
So ideally, my future routine will be: keep using biogolds as they will be slowly released into the soil everytime I water; seaweed, fish and humic acid mixed with water, feed once a month, and occasional foliar spray with humic acid.
My question is, will that routine be too strong for the trees, or should I use the seaweed fish humic acid mix twice a month? if it sounds good I will go ahead and make some purchases, please share your thoughts, thanks again.

Since you ask...and I don't find it fool hearty to make recommendations on fertiliser.
I've just had best responses from my juniper when using fish emulsion. The one I'm using has a 5-1-1 analysis and I use it monthly 1 TBSP/5 litres. As you should know from using seaweed as I do too, anything fishy attracts yellow jackets.
These fertilisers are quite low in their analysis that you're using. So I wouldn't think rotating in another would be anything but beneficial for this juniper at this early stage.
I fertilise most of my trees with rather high nitrogen once/week except in high heat and my Japanese White pines I restrict high nitrogen till late Summer.
True there are many many differences in fertilising and it is partially a matter of preference until you're preference is lacking or is over abundant. Just make sure you're gettin the trace elements .

Hope that helps while not pressing any real regimens or practices, as I'm not as educated on all the processes and nuances involved in fertilising.

 

[Shibui]

Seaweed is generally not sold as a fertiliser. Note they call the Westland product a 'growth stimulant' and do not give a NPK ratio for the product. The reason for this is that nutrient levels vary depending on time of year, where the seaweed comes from and how it is processed. Seaweed doesn't tend to have much N, P or K so it may or may not give all the nutrients your plants need but does have good levels of micro-nutrients which are also important. It's those micros that give seaweed products the growth booster ability but growth can only be boosted if there's also enough N,P and K
Potted plants definitely need more N, P and K than garden plants so best to use a fertiliser with known quantities of macro nutrients and use the seaweed occasionally as a booster.
Any fish product will have good N but they do tend to be a little smelly.
My trees don't have any special preference for organic over manufactured. They are only interested in the nutrients so don't seem to care where the fertiliser is made. I just use the cheapest per unit N liquid fert as a main fertiliser and give them a bit of variety with some organic pellets occasionally.

 

[zizz]

you're good... assuming you take care of this properly I don't see any problem.... here is 3 pictures of one of my junipers... first one as bought, second one after first cut, third picture recently...

... they are very resilient... but my rule is to touch them only twice a year... once in autumn/winter and once around that time of the year...

Thanks for replying. Oh wow that's a big transformation, around 2.5 years of work that's impressive to get the pads to this stage.

 

[zizz]

Since you ask...and I don't find it fool hearty to make recommendations on fertiliser.
I've just had best responses from my juniper when using fish emulsion. The one I'm using has a 5-1-1 analysis and I use it monthly 1 TBSP/5 litres. As you should know from using seaweed as I do too, anything fishy attracts yellow jackets.
These fertilisers are quite low in their analysis that you're using. So I wouldn't think rotating in another would be anything but beneficial for this juniper at this early stage.
I fertilise most of my trees with rather high nitrogen once/week except in high heat and my Japanese White pines I restrict high nitrogen till late Summer.
True there are many many differences in fertilising and it is partially a matter of preference until you're preference is lacking or is over abundant. Just make sure you're gettin the trace elements .

Hope that helps while not pressing any real regimens or practices, as I'm not as educated on all the processes and nuances involved in fertilising.

No it's totally fine, as everyone's routine will be different, guidance is always appreciated and I will do research to see if that's suitable for my situation or not haha.
I actually didn't know about the yellow jacket situation, so I did a bit of a dig, they are a type of wasps right? if so I wouldn't worry too much as I do have some wasps visiting my garden now and then, most of the time they are fine, and I actually like to see them feasting on other pests in the garden haha.
In terms of low NPK on my fert, yes I'm well aware, however in the UK I can't seem to find something with high N, I know miracle gro has high N but someone in the forum did mention that it takes a while for the urea (what miracle uses for nitrogen) to break down, and due to the frequency of watering, it will be flushed out before it even start to do much, so I'm sort of in a dead end there, it will be appreciated if someone can recommend something that's available in the UK that has high N.
Thanks again!

 

[zizz]

Seaweed is generally not sold as a fertiliser. Note they call the Westland product a 'growth stimulant' and do not give a NPK ratio for the product. The reason for this is that nutrient levels vary depending on time of year, where the seaweed comes from and how it is processed. Seaweed doesn't tend to have much N, P or K so it may or may not give all the nutrients your plants need but does have good levels of micro-nutrients which are also important. It's those micros that give seaweed products the growth booster ability but growth can only be boosted if there's also enough N,P and K
Potted plants definitely need more N, P and K than garden plants so best to use a fertiliser with known quantities of macro nutrients and use the seaweed occasionally as a booster.
Any fish product will have good N but they do tend to be a little smelly.
My trees don't have any special preference for organic over manufactured. They are only interested in the nutrients so don't seem to care where the fertiliser is made. I just use the cheapest per unit N liquid fert as a main fertiliser and give them a bit of variety with some organic pellets occasionally.

Thanks for replying.
Yes I'm aware that the seaweed isn't enough, I use it as a tonic once every few weeks for the micros, at the moment my main fert is biogolds, I have just mentioned why on the reply above this one, I guess I need to do more digging on which one to choose and accessible in the UK.
In terms of the smell, well on the seaweed I'm currently using, it's actually pretty mild, I don't really mind, even if it smells a bit, it shouldn't linger for too long haha.

 

[zizz]

Looks much better with its new haircut. I don't think you took too much off. Very interesting trunk movement.

Think about where you want your tree to go from here. I'm seeing some alternating branches and back branches. Looks fine. I wouldn't be concerned.



I think this tree is amazing and really cool. Really, well done with it.

Thanks for replying!

That haircut is well needed haha, I will just try to take good care of it, waiting for it to recover and back buds, then see from there.