JUVENILLE & ADULT JUNIPER FOLIAGE

Last year I have bought a nursery juniper which I do not know the exact species.
It is in training of course and it used to have scale like foliage.
This spring its new foliage is needle like.
Why is that happening?
I think that scales are the adult foliage form and needles are the juvenille form. Do I make a mistake? Please correct me if I'm wrong...
Thank you!

You are quite right. Adult foliage is scale like and Juvenile is spikey. Most if not all Junipers exhibit juvenile foliage at some point but some are much easier to trigger than others. San Jose Junipers just have to be looked at in a funny way and they start sprouting spikey foliage. Hard pruning, repotting and vigorous feeding can all trigger juvenile growth.

Hi Alexandra. As Will says, you are quite right about the juvenile and adult foliage being different on junipers. As we don't know what species you have, here is a pic of the difference as it is seen on one of my own junipers.



You can see the young growth at the front and the adult foliage at the back of the shot.

No need to panic. Hope this helps.

Fiona


btw, Will - that's the tree I PMed you about last autumn - the one that was going brown at the tips. As you can see it has made pretty much a full recovery. Phew! And Alexandra, if ever there was a time when I was glad to see juvenile foliage coming through, this was it. This is probably my favourite tree.

Thank you for your prompt answers!

will baddeley wrote:... ... Hard pruning, repotting and vigorous feeding can all trigger juvenile growth.

All three are implemented in my case, Will.
Well..., pruning was not hard though.

fiona wrote:... ... And Alexandra, if ever there was a time when I was glad to see juvenile foliage coming through, this was it. This is probably my favourite tree.

Haaaa haaaa, the same goes for me Fiona!
Because this juniper has gone under big stress last summer as well as during the repotting two months ago.
As fas as the species is concerned, I can say that it is identical to your photo. Which is...???

my nellie wrote: As fas as the species is concerned, I can say that it is identical to your photo. Which is...???

Hahah! Good question. I had to ask the same thing last year and this was the result:

JUNIPER ID


At least the pics will give you a better indication of whether yours is the same species.

Hi
Maybe it is good to say something about what to do with that juvenile foliage (stress foliage).
Myself i pinch it partly back, but only when the tree takes over with adult foliage.
After several times pinching further back and when there is enough adult foliage, i cut back till there.
But i always give the tree the time to get some vitality out of the stress foliage first.
Never pinch the stress foliage away when it shows, because it will cause new stress foliage.
Maybe the experts can ad or correct me if i am wrong.
regards, Sunip

Thank you, too, Sunip!

As far as I can tell, most members of the Cupressaceae exhibit this trait to some extent. Baby seedlings of arborvitae & some of their relatives start out with needles. Seedlings of Italian cypress look so different you might think it's another species. It's a snapshot of evolution in process.
Iris

bonsaisr wrote:As far as I can tell, most members of the Cupressaceae exhibit this trait to some extent. Baby seedlings of arborvitae & some of their relatives start out with needles. Seedlings of Italian cypress look so different you might think it's another species. It's a snapshot of evolution in process.
Iris

More likely a protective measure against being eaten I think Iris.

Although it is a product of evolution, it is more of an example of metamorphosis, Like Flounder.