What should I do with this Chinese juniper stricta?

[Tntthunder]

Hello, I am very new to bonsai (a few weeks) and recently came to acquire a Chinese Juniper stricta that a neighbour was throwing away. I had to cut a lot off as it was dead and the tree seemed pretty unhealthy.
I plan to let it gain its strength and so on but after that I am clueless.

I mainly grabbed it cause "free plant" aspect or the possible practice element of looking after plants or possible future styling.

I'm not sure how I should style it once it gets stronger, when to repot it as the soil seems pretty compacted under the top soil etc.

Haven't cometely finished removing all the brown needles yet either. It is pretty tedious and prickly lol.

 

[sorce]

I wouldn't worry about styling as much as keeping it alive until you kill it to learn things.

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce

 

[Tntthunder]

I wouldn't worry about styling as much as keeping it alive until you kill it to learn things.

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce

Oh I will, I plan to try and let it grow for a few years but after that I have no clue. It is just so straight, seems to be very inflexible at the trunk and even at the trunk it has multiple bits coming out.

So this question is more out of curiosity and such. Like a "what is even possible with this?" type of thing.

Just looking for interesting opinions/outlooks from experiencenced people

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Don't keep it indoors. That's a good start. ;-)

The stricta variety is pretty strong in my opinion. In the sense that it can take a beating as long as the roots are alive.
Over time you'll be able to bend it quite radically with some heavier copper or alu wire. I wouldn't worry about the dead stuff, because next year it'll shed even more, and every time it grows it will too, that's just renewall of the old foliage. Removing dead stuff now will be a tedious task with no real gains for you; you might just want to remove an entire branch later, so spending time plucking dead needles now would be a not-so-effective time investment. They will drop off on their own eventually too.
Keep it healthy, let it grow wild. That's a good objective for now.
Over here they're about the cheapest junipers around, if that's the case over there too, you might just want to buy a couple to play with.

 

[Tntthunder]

Don't keep it indoors. That's a good start. ;-)

The stricta variety is pretty strong in my opinion. In the sense that it can take a beating as long as the roots are alive.
Over time you'll be able to bend it quite radically with some heavier copper or alu wire. I wouldn't worry about the dead stuff, because next year it'll shed even more, and every time it grows it will too, that's just renewall of the old foliage. Removing dead stuff now will be a tedious task with no real gains for you; you might just want to remove an entire branch later, so spending time plucking dead needles now would be a not-so-effective time investment. They will drop off on their own eventually too.
Keep it healthy, let it grow wild. That's a good objective for now.
Over here they're about the cheapest junipers around, if that's the case over there too, you might just want to buy a couple to play with.

Yep! All my plants are out on my apartment balcony getting between 3-7 hours direct sunlight depending on the time of year.

As for the dead foliage and not removing them what do you mean they just fall away? These are like little individual needles on the trunk/branches that are dead from a lack of light it seems. Should I not bother getting rid of that? How long till they would disappear? Cause I notice som individual needles are brown on a full branch of green and I leake those but the stuff Im removing is the dry, rough and super prickly stuff on the thicker branches if I make sense? Should I just leave it all?

I'm probably misunderstanding something big time, sorry to be a pain.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

You can remove it if you like. But what I mean is this: your juniper is in a recovery phase. When it recovers, it's best to leave it alone. Pulling needles will make it move inside the pot and so on.
If your plant grows, it will push those dead needles off of the branch.
I like cleaning up trees when they are ready for styling, because while they grow they will produce more needles, and they will shed the old ones naturally. If you remove all dead needles now, you will have to do that again next year too. If you wait until next year, half of the dead needles will have fallen off naturally and the rest you can do in one single session. Does that make sense?

 

[Tntthunder]

You can remove it if you like. But what I mean is this: your juniper is in a recovery phase. When it recovers, it's best to leave it alone. Pulling needles will make it move inside the pot and so on.
If your plant grows, it will push those dead needles off of the branch.
I like cleaning up trees when they are ready for styling, because while they grow they will produce more needles, and they will shed the old ones naturally. If you remove all dead needles now, you will have to do that again next year too. If you wait until next year, half of the dead needles will have fallen off naturally and the rest you can do in one single session. Does that make sense?

Ahhh ok, perfect sense! Thank you!