I dont understand what the difference between cutting and pinching can someone explajn. Both remove the shoot? How does uskng a scissor or shear not produce the same auxins
It's not the tool. Improper "pinching" or "cutting" yields the same bad result.
The term "pinching" means removing the growing tip of juniper foliage. Never, ever, just remove the tip. The part left between the new truncated end and where it is attached to the branch will never grow again. It will stay green for a while, but it will eventually die off.
If you need to shorten juniper foliage, remove whatever needs to be removed at the point where it branches off from its supporting branch. Don't leave stubs.
I'm not discussing jins in this description. Just talking about the green foliage part.
It doesn't matter if you use fingers, scissors, or light Sabres, remove it at the joint.
Now, someone will say that they have seen Kimura pinching a couple of his junipers in his garden. Even say they've seen Ryan Neil pinching junipers. First off, Ryan isn't "pinching". He's using his fingers, yes, to clean out the old weak, and yellowed interior growth of the tree he's working on. But he's removing the entire twig. That's not "pinching". And Kimura? The video shows him strolling thru his benches as he's being interviewed, and as he walks along he casually sees a bit of foliage that's grown taller than the Sihlouette of the pad, and he reaches up and pinches it off with his fingers. So... "Pinching" is ok, right? Kimura does it! But what you can't see is exactly where he's detaching the foliage. He plucks the foliage off at the base. He leaves no stub. Sure, he's pulling it off with his fingers. But it's more of a "finger prune".
It's NOT the tool. It's WHERE it's cut.
