How often can/should I be pruning this Juniper to advance its development?

[SilverShoe99]

I bought this one gallon Blue Point Juniper back in 2019 and did an initial styling as a formal-ish upright tree, probably sometime in the summer or fall. I chopped it back to a new leader, selected and wired a few branches down, left one branch on as a jin just because. No root work, it's still in its nursery soil. I haven't got any photos of the tree from when I bought it, or the first styling. Also, for whatever it's worth this is my first attempt at a juniper bonsai.

After letting it recover over the winter and growing out in spring, in May of this year I pruned it and wired out some of the secondary branches to develop some pads. It went from this:



to this:




It's grown well since then and today looks like this - the pads have grown out into just big ol' bushy pompoms:



So my question is, can/should I prune it again this year? I don't want to overwork the tree, but I also don't want to waste time. I've often heard that junipers shouldn't suffer more than one insult per season. Does that mean once per quarter (i.e. you can work them in spring, again in summer, and once more in fall)? Or is that more like one insult per season of growth, which I take to mean annually.

 

[ShadyStump]

Total newb myself, but my understanding is general light foliage pruning to maintain appearance is ok if you haven't over worked the wood or roots. Though I'd say that much even isn't really necessary until you have it shaped closer to how you want it. Of course, necessary and enjoyable are very different things.
Keep in mind that it will need foliage to keep it going through winter. Foliage on conifers is like fat on a bear during hybernation. Learned that the hard way... a few times.

 

[sorce]

I like to have a bit more folaige than that for repotting time, so waiting is probably good, so you can get it out of there someday.

Plus any additional energy may help it push buds on those bare sections.

I'm just starting to reign in my Blue Point Joint but still don't understand it's growth Habits at all!

Sorce

 

[Underdog]

I have Blue Star Junips and find it need the longer growing tips pinched back or they get leggy. Mine will put out two or more new growing tips at the cut site as long as you leave some green.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

What I do with needle junipers is letting them grow in spring, then pull the apical tips off at the end of spring. Then cut down on the feeding.
After that, they tend to respond with a second flush, sometimes a third. And a couple back buds.

I leave weak branches alone, and the strongest get a second pull session.

In this kind of juniper, pulling (and twisting) the tip off leaves no stub, just a small dent in between needles. Cutting them with scissors does leave a stub.

Not sure if that's the perfect technique, but mine have been pretty tight for three consecutive years.

Only communis seems to dislike this technique, need to figure out something else. I don't own any tosho so I don't know about those.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

You are in California, where your growing season is quite long compared to the rest of North America. You can easily get away with 2 or 3 pruning sessions per year, maybe even more. Prune, let grow out, prune, let grow out. Repeat.

Stop pruning, allow some foliage to develop about 3 or 4 months before you plan to repot. Allow at least 3 to 6 months after repotting before considering more pruning.

 

[RKatzin]

I think you have your cart way out in front of your horse. What you are doing and what everyone is talking about is work that you do on established tree that have developed to the point of styling. You need to put several years of growth on this tree before you consider working it the way you are.
Everything you've doing is detrimental to the development of the primary components of the tree. You must get this established before you start with these techniques.
A reasonable time frame:
First you look to the roots. Don't do anything else this year. Just let it run. Next spring do the roots and get the tree established in a good grow out container.
For the next two to three years let it run
Feed and water. Keep your trimmers away, don't touch it. You're growing a trunk and she'll need every bit of foliage to get er done.
When you're happy with the trunk and roots you can begin to cut back the bush, but these won't develop nicely without a good running head of foliage.

 

[SilverShoe99]

All, thanks for the input. This is good advice all around. After taking it all into consideration and having another look at the tree I went ahead and worked it a bit. Upon closer observation, it had backbudded quite a bit since the pruning in May with several buds behind the strongest runners on each branch, resulting in the foliage being quite congested. Also, the wire was starting to bite in quite badly in spots.

So, I unwired the tree and cleaned up the pads some. The plan going forward is to give it a couple months to recover, at which time I'll apply some more wire to shape the pads. Then, in the spring I'll do a (an?) HBR.

@RKatzin definitely hear what you're saying, but my goals for this tree aren't to grow out a trunk or get it first established into bonsai soil. I've got a few other junipers on which I'm roughly following the development plan you've described. I am much more confident in my ability to work roots and repot than I am with my pruning and styling skills. With this particular tree, I'm trying to learn pruning/wiring/styling/shaping more than I am building a trunk or getting it into a better substrate.


I was surprised how much wire came off the tree. The foliage hid it so well, especially on the secondary branches.




Two views roughly 180° opposed from each other.

 

[RKatzin]

Ok, my bad. The title threw me off, I thought you were wanting to develop the tree. Carry on.

 

[SilverShoe99]

Ok, my bad. The title threw me off, I thought you were wanting to develop the tree. Carry on.

Fair point...and not the first time in my life I've sent mixed signals. Next time, I gotta do a better job proofreading before I hit post!