Basically, we don’t pinch junipers. We cut new long extensions with scissors…and I know that will raise some eyebrows. I think the idea of pinching junipers with fingers started long ago in translated Japanese articles written by those who did not specialize in or have much experience in junipers. And then we bought into the idea of pinching because it seemed like a way to have fun with our junipers. But pinching, especially over-pinching where every growing tip is removed, has been killing junipers for decades.
There’s a lot of misinformation out there about junipers. For starters, needle and scale junipers are maintained totally differently. It’s essential to know what you’ve got so you can train it properly. This really needs to be addressed. There are far too many weakened and dead junipers out there because of a misunderstanding of how we handle their growth—in fact, I doubt I’m far off from suggesting that ‘pinching’ is the number one killer of juniper bonsai.
Junipers build energy from their tips. If we don’t let them grow we’re going to weaken them—and the more finger pinching we do, the more they weaken. That goes for both scale and needle junipers. But please take a look at these photos and read the captions—
This Kishu shimpaku has no need of any kind of foliage restraint. It’s growth is so slow and contained that it barely changes in size in one year’s time. Eventually the tree will outgrow itself and then some longer branches will need to be removed, and shorter ones will replace them.
This juniper is also a scale juniper like the Kishu above, and it has two strong shoots that have started to grow beyond the foliage pad. Unless you want a longer branch, basic juniper maintenance is to take your scissors and cut off these two extensions. Nothing else needs removal. If we pinched the remaining slowly growing tips, the tree would panic and weaken. Always leave many growing tips on scale junipers—you can cut shoots off, but don’t touch the tips of those shoots that remain. Read that again. And the selective strong shoot removal is only done a couple times a year, no more. Now we’ll talk about needle junipers, which is totally different.
This is a needle juniper, Juniperus rigida. We treat Foemina the same way. Unlike the scale junipers, the needle junipers will create long shoots from every growing tip, not just a couple. We need to let all the tips grow out on these trees to at least this long. Longer is often better to develop the energy of the tree. Then we come in, usually in early summer, with scissors and cut almost the entire new shoot off. On refined trees you’re maybe leaving 1/16″ or a bit more—That’s it! I know it’s shocking, but a tree growing in good soil with lots of roots and strong shoot growth over the entire tree will burst out with many more shoots. Then you get great ramification. If you let the tree grow out like this as you should, there is literally no way you’d be able to do it with fingers, by pinching. The shoot is partially hardened off by then. Both kinds of junipers need sharp scissors, but the growth habits of the two are totally different. Just identify which you have, and apply the appropriate technique and your junipers will flourish. One tip: the needle junipers love water and fertilizer. In the spring they can use as much water as a maple.
Michael,
How about Rocky Mountain Juniper?
Actually I think Rocky Mountain junipers deserve a blog post in and of themselves. It would seem that they are different, but really we treat them just like the scale junipers. It’s just that they look different—they are leggier in growth so that we don’t see the pad developing as well. But the program is the same. You identify the strongest shoots, and maybe there are only a few per pad that seem stronger, and you cut them off, back to another shoot. Everything else you leave. If you do that for several years all the energy of the pad is distributed to the smaller shoots, and eventually the tree gets the hint and all shoots produced are shorter and smaller and you’ll have greater density. It takes time, and it won’t look like much of a pad for a couple years. Be very sure you’re giving Rocky Mountain junipers lots of sun and heat, good watering and fertilizing. They love it in the 90′s.
Excellent article Michael. Actually I was yesterday in the Bonsai club (sunday meetings) here in Guadalajara, and I was talking with the members about NEVER PINCH Junipers as you teach me. And of course I got difference answers from people that always “knows everything”, but I will continue to talk about do the correct technique.
Jorge
Nice! Glad you’re passing on the info. I think much of this idea around pinching with fingers started long ago in translated Japanese articles written by those who really were not experts in junipers. And then we bought into that because it seemed like a way to have fun with our junipers. But pinching, especially over-pinching where every growing tip is removed, has been killing junipers for decades.
Great info. The book I was ‘learning’ from gave me all the Wrong info and I have killed several junipers, arggg! Gary Wharbrain instructed our group after learning from you and now I understand that my dear shimpakus need their sugar tips to grow lush.
Thanks as always for a great blog
Thanks Jorge and you for this information.
Reblogged this on futterwithtrees and commented:
I thought this was worth re-blogging. It’s very interesting info on Juniper training.
Great information!
Not to be a smart ass or anything (well maybe a little), what do you make of this young lad pinching a shimpaku in this here video? (skip to 3 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fJh9PXEkpI
But here’s an actual question. Where does procumbens fit into all of this? I guess the foliage is more like needle than scale. But I see a lot of them with juvenile foliage, which is still quite small and compact, so I wonder if a lot of people don’t even notice.
Great question—Look very closely at what Ryan is doing—he’s not pinching the tips of the shoots, he’s taking off interior shoots. It’s cleanup.
We treat Procumbens as a scale juniper, even though it’s a bit needley in character. Most junipers are like this. Very few have the great energy of the needle juniper from Japan.
Cool. Thanks!
I am the editor for the San Antonio Bonsai society in Texas. Would love to put you post on “Pinching Junipers” or not in our newsletter. I am hoping you can respond asap, I am on deadline right now. Will of course, give full credit and list your blog in the article.
Thanks, Donna
Donna L. Dobberfuhl, MFA, ACLS, NSS Sculptural Designs Atelier 1514 Broadway San Antonio TX 78215-1251 (210) 399-1667 voice/fax (210) 326-0860 cell http://www.sculpturaldesigns.com http://shadolinc.com Blog
________________________________
Yes, please feel free to republish! Thank you-
Could you add a picture showing exactly where to cut on the scale juniper? I know the exact location depends on several factors, but perhaps pointing to a couple of locations with an explanation of why you would cut there would be helpful.
Sorry I did not include an arrow anywhere, I don’t have a image program that offers that. If you look at the long shoot on the scale juniper, essentially you’re putting the scissors slightly inside the foliage pad, and cutting there. So you won’t see the cut. Hope that helps. On the needle junipers the entire new shoot is removed, but it’s easier to see where to cut because the new shoot yellow. And we cut almost all of it off, leaving a tiny stub.
Thanks for the post. Would you elaborate on this topic focusing on the difference between ‘maintaining’ and growing into the envisioned design? Love your blog!
Good question…Yes, there is a difference. Maintaining a juniper is what this post is about. If you’re working on growing out branches so that they are the right length and all, then you would not cut off the extensions as I describe. You’d let them grow until they are about as long as you want the branch to be, then you cut it back somewhat to dampen the extension energy. It will redirect into the side shoots and those will gain energy and you’ll have the beginnings of ramification. At this point you’re at the maintenance stage, and you do what the post suggests—keep cutting off any shoot that shows greater energy than the others—it may only be a few per foliage pad—and the rest you leave alone. Eventually maintenance is simplified because the tree is not shooting out like this very much, and you’re simply cleaning out the inside when older foliage yellows and dies. Which is natural, and will happen mostly in the fall.
Thank you. Now another: I had just finished (a few weeks ago) pinching all the new shoots on my juniper procumbus, as I had been taught. Now that I know this has weakened my tree, what would be the best course of action. Leave it in its current bonsai pot, and don’t do anything else to it for a year or more, or put it in the ground or something else? Thanks!
If it was strong to begin with you should be ok. Simply leave it in the pot it’s in, give it good sun, fertilize moderately, and most importantly do not overwater it. Water only when the tree is getting dry. Then it will recuperate. A tree can usually take one hit. Two or three in a row, like a pest coming in or poor care, and we’re in trouble.
Michael, have you worked with the native J. Communis at all?
I like them. J. communis seems most similar in energy to the needle junipers, so that is the way I train them. Be VERY sure you’ve a gangbusters strong tree, though, before cutting new shoots on them. If you’re not in a volcanic soil like akadama/pumice I really would caution working on them as I do, however.
Thanks, I have been using Turface; does this fit or would you recommend something else? — Also how soon do you suggest removing all of the old soil form collected juni’s? It seems like Walter Pall suggests removing all of the old soil from yamadori immediately… I’ve done this on a couple of recent collections/(pines) to compare but I’m not sure what’s best yet.
This post has been very helpful. I sent the link on to all of our club members who are growing junipers. Thanks for all of the teaching you do on your blog!
Turface is an odd particle. I’ve seen a lot of turface potted plants, and I’ve seen good root systems in it, and as many bad ones. It does not seem to be an ideal soil for trees.
Old soil is best removed eventually, although I was surprised that in Japan some of the old bonsai there still had quite a bit of mountain soil under the base. Frankly, I think in most cases it’s best to remove it. I agree with Walter. Do be sure you do it piecemeal and leave a lot of untouched fine roots on conifers—in contact with soil. Work on sections at a time. That’s really important. Don’t do any of that bare rooting stuff.
[...] Michael’s latest post is titled ‘Never Pinch Junipers.’ In his own words… Basically, we don’t pinch junipers. We cut new long extensions with scissors…and I know that will raise some eyebrows. I think the idea of pinching junipers with fingers started long ago in translated Japanese articles written by those who did not specialize in or have much experience in junipers. And then we bought into the idea of pinching because it seemed like a way to have fun with our junipers. But pinching, especially over-pinching where every growing tip is removed, has been killing junipers for decades. There’s more here. [...]
Hi Michael
Thought that I’d let you know that your comments are extremely appreciated & helpful, all the way down under in Australia.
JC
Glad they’ve been helpful!
Thst is good advise. The difference between the two types of juniper is clear.
I stopped pinching in general a few years ago. Its nice to read info on this experience. I will certainly reinforce this in my teaching my students.
Yay Aaron!
[...] Michael Hagedorn’s posting Never Pinch Junipers is excellent and provides much of what you need to know about the [...]
Also, we are told to give San Jose’s a total haircut. In light oif your info, this sounds like a bad idea.
I don’t think the earlier “pinch me” info is necessarily a mistranslation: I think it is a sign of a paradigm change. As technique matures, old concepts are replaced by better info. Some of the older books and magazines I have (in Japanese) quite clearly indicate pinching.
So: like cigarette smoking, now we know better.
Michael: another issue that may have had some mistranslation, or a change of concept: about thirty-five years ago Murata Kyuuzoh told an audience in Atlanta that one problem with American bonsai was that the soil was all level with the edge of the pot: it should “rise up” from the pot. This was taken to suggest that the soil should be convex across the pot.
Since then, judges have slammed me for that. One has indicated the center should be higher, but the soil should be below the rim at the edge of the pot. So: changing concepts, or bad information/translation? What is current thought? Personally, I think soil level should be: non-boring.
You are probably right about the paradigm shift; we know better now how these trees grow.
The San Jose energy pattern is more closely aligned with the scale junipers, so should be treated that way. Pretty much anything that can produce some scale foliage may be considered a scale juniper. Rocky too.
Ha, yes, non-boring. I think this is a case by case issue; my teacher Shinji Suzuki did a lot of mounded trees, but how mounded it was was very relative. That’s something that you’ll have to feel around rather than take any general guidelines about. And listen to those you respect.
Michael, Thanks for this great post. An excellent followup to your Juniper workshop in Spokane earlier this year. Changing the subject somewhat; but do you believe a similar approach applies to other species with somewhat similar growth habits like hinoki and sawara cypress, cryptomeria and giant sequoia?
Good question-
Yes, the hinoki cypress and any of those cypress trees may be trained as a scale juniper. The cryptomeria we cut all the extensions off like a needle juniper. The sequoias and redwoods are a different matter. They are best grown out a lot to develop the energy of the branches. Then there is the refinement techniques, and actually I’d defer to the Shimons for that info. Their refinement work looks excellent-
I just red this article today, however I was a day too late, yesterday I pinched my juniper like I always did. I will not forget this and will never do it again! Thanks Michael!
Sorry to here this… but keep your tree in good sun, don’t overwater it because it’s now not using as much water, and fertilize moderately. A tree can usually take one insult, but not repetitive ones too well.
Reblogged this on Tony Tickle and commented:
The best post I have read about working with Junipers
Wonderful, thanks for reblogging it!
You are most welcome Michael
Can you comment on using these techniques on Thuya?
Thuya is the same as a scale juniper. Leave many growing tips, and just remove any long extensions.
Wowww,… never pinch juniperus again,… !!! Great article.
I would like to translate into spanich with your permission,… of course telling from were I learn
Regards
Gabriel
You’re welcome to translate this article– it would be an honor.
Thx!!!!
: )
Certainly! Please feel free to translate into Spanish—
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[...] was a woman who won it) I will again link to Michael Hagedorn’s article on juniper pruning (here) for the corrected, suddenly uber popular, technique. No more [...]
[...] Never Pinch Junipers!. [...]