Keeping shimpaku foliage close to the trunk

I have this shimpaku that is not very great but there is some potential in there some where. I know it needs to grow out but i cant figure out how the foliage stays close to the trunk. How to growers get these nice shohin shimpakus with the foliage close to the trunk and branches that aren't huge? Is it only by grafting?

I have a similar problem with my only shimpaku. I think that one way to combat this is with extreme movement in the branches, but mostly I would guess that in some cases grafting would be the only wy.

Sacrifice branch/trunk. The technique everyone knows about, but has never heard of or considered using on juniper. I know there is sort of a culture of keeping development techniques secret, especially in Japan, and the only teaching we get is on finishing techniques. So let me spill the beans on this one.

Allow a strong sprout to grow away, while trimming all other sprouts and maintaining the lower foliage. The best are those fat, yellow-stemmed sprouts. They are like juniper water sprouts. The sacrifice should either go vertical (which you'll likely need to stake), or horizontal. This way it will not shade the foliage you're trying to keep. In early summer, cut the foliage from the lower (closest to the trunk) part of the sacrifice to promote growth at the tip, but don't take too much foliage from the sacrifice or it will stop growing altogether. A good balance is about 25%(kishu)-35%(itoigawa) of tip foliage. For instance, for a foot long sacrifice, you want 3 to 4 inches of foliage at the tip. This amount will obviously vary depending on the health and natural vigor of your particular plant.

You may also have to grow a series of sacrifices (in successive intervals) to keep the them from fattening the trunk too much in one area. I have never done it, but I suppose it would be fine to grow a vertical and horizontal sacrifice at the same time, so long as they're not too close together on the trunk.

Stan Kengai wrote:Sacrifice branch/trunk.  The technique everyone knows about, but has never heard of or considered using on juniper.

Sounds about right. A nice description on growing sacrifice branches may be found here as well: http://www.growingbonsai.net/sacrifice-branches/

Stan,

Thank you. I know how hard it was for you to give up your secrets:)

Leatherback,

Ill watch that asap.

Tmmason,

Now we know. Haha. I would love to see your shimp and what your plan is.

where commercial propogaters & growers will always have the advantage is that they know from the first moment what the tree will be. If they decide it will be shohin they allow branches not needed in the finished design to grow longer - this fattens the trunk and then they are cut to stubs to use as jin. if the tree is destined to be chuhin or larger the growth will be allowed to extend further but is still cut back hard every couple of years to promote inner shoots to develop. - juniper makes loads of inner shoots in the branch crotches if well fed.

i think is the west we get hold of any random material and we decide we want shohin, or we want informal and then we spend years trying to make our plan work when in all reality the tree was not suitable in the first place to fit our wants. shohin conifers mostly are destined from day one and managed to reach that goal. it has taken me 20 years in this hobby to see the tree that is possible from the material on the bench in front of me, but the first 19yrs were good learning experience  

cheers