Juniper Thinning

Hi IBC. Just a quik question about working on my Juniper Chinensis. My Juniper is about 70cm tall with a mass of foliage, howerver it has a fair bit of straggly growth and some weak parts further towards the trunk. It is mid summer here and i am wondering if this is an ok time of year to thin my tree and get rid of the weak shoots? I am attending Burrs this year and may choose this tree to wire and style whilst there you see.
Thanks for any help that you can give me.

Mikey.

Wait until you get to Burrs to do anything, the guys and gals there will advise you. Here in Florida we would only do very minor pruning this time of year, but our daytime temps are always above 90 F.

I excess of 90 degrees!!!!. I'm not sure he'll understand you. Last time temps went over 90 in leeds, was during the Blitz.

will baddeley wrote:I excess of 90 degrees!!!!. I'm not sure he'll understand you. Last time temps went over 90 in leeds, was during the Blitz.

That is OK, I was born here and I still find 90 plus HOT.

Just worked up a sweat mowing the lawn and it is only 08:45 EDT.

Our "heat index" at 1500 EDT is projected to be 103.

But, then we get two inches of rain and it cools off a little.

Thank you for the replies.

uk summer is fine for thinning junipers (especially in leeds! ) - its the best time to get rid of the weak straggly branches and to reduce the very dense growth in the strong areas. then you have the rest of the growing season for the tree to put on more growth and for new inner buds to form where you've let in more light.

I use the scissors for this thinning then continue finger pinching until the growth slows down (november in cornwall).this will direct more growth to the new buds and the usually weaker lower branches of the tree.

If you dont thin the tree the inner growth will go yellow and fall off anyway, but more always seems to drop and you get the bare inner branches that take longer to develop new buds.

Ah thanks very much Marcus. Just what i wanted to hear . That gives me something to do for the next couple of days then. Thanks for all the replies. IBC you are helpful as always.