Juniper styling and branch removal

Basically just a general question, I know we can work junipers from now into winter and into spring, but are there any benefits of doing bigger cuts and pruning now instead of waiting til spring? Does it assist back budding any differently? Or do we do this fall work on junipers because we've been letting them grow most of the summer and we are itching to work them and just don't want to wait til early spring just before new growth.

I am trying to chase foliage back. So would cutting back now be anymore of a benefit than performing these cuts in the spring

If you could post pictures it would be most helpful. Your questions depend on a lot of "It depends" type of responses. It depends on how old the wood is that you are trying to get growth to form, it depends on the variety of Juniper it depends on how healthy the tree is, it depends on how you are storing the tree, it depends on how much water, how fresh the cuts, how much sun light, what kind of soil and how long since the roots were disturbed. Normally most Junipers will back bud at major joints. Sometimes they will back bud what appears to be along bare wood but usually where there was a branch at some point. They are more likely to do this in Spring and Fall, not so much during the Summer but that brings us back to the depends.

Well done Vance....great reply......Yes "It depends"

This time of year is good for "cleaning" and refinement from my experience. Removing any just plain un-needed foliage, in crotches or growing downward. Or just to shape a bit. As for big cuts and wiring, big wounds wont heal till spring (maybe just a bit with fall growth). Would avoid stuff like that if leaving outside for the winter, maybe could get away with better in cold frame or garage. This is a sport of patients IMO, early spring will most likely give best results all around. -Jacob

Thanks Jacob. Basically this is what I figured. I resisted the urge to cut back and only went after crotch shoots, and applied some wire to some of the young material I've been working on. Here is a parsons I worked on tonight. I plan save any removal til late winter/ spring which I know is the safest bet.
and Vance most of what I am working with are nursery material that is either been repotted this spring with a full untouched recovery, or ones that I did not repot that got cut back late winter this year. Mostly parsons, and nana

hey B - from the picture, i am assuming that the last inch or so of your apex is to be jinned...

if so, the bark comes off much cleaner and easier when still alive and fresh (as your appears to be)
and that type of work is safe to do whenever you want (both of which you may already have known)

btw - i see tite bond on the bench...
thats what Arthur Joura uses for cut-paste...
(ditto sometimes)

You wanna leave that be until it grows more which will probably be next july/august. Juniper is dependent upon it's foliage for strength. Any significant cutting back will weaken this plant.

beer city snake wrote:hey B - from the picture, i am assuming that the last inch or so of your apex is to be jinned...
btw - i see tite bond on the bench...

the old apex yes. The new one is part of that top branch on the left. And as far a wood glue goes that was from another project. But yeah I've used it a few times as cut paste but swapped it out for regular old Elmer's white glue. ive noticed it comes off easier as the callous wood forms under it. That or plastine clay with some Vaseline mixed in works pretty well for bleeding maples and sappy conifers

augustine wrote:You wanna leave that be until it grows more which will probably be next july/august. Juniper is dependent upon it's foliage for strength. Any significant cutting back will weaken this plant.

thanks Augustine. I will leave it be til mid summer

I was reducing a 3 gallon pre-bonsai juniper over a period of time, became impatient said the heck with it and just cut it down to the size I wanted. While the tree is still ok the growth slowed and I probably added time to the process rather than saving time.

Someone wrote that in bonsai taking the slow way is the fastest way. I keep finding out that this statement is true.

Best,