Collecting and trimming foliage for balance

[Colorado Josh]

When I collect my rocky mountain junipers I have been trimming off the unhealthy looking foliage. In the first couple months after collection I continue to lose some interior foliage. Im assuming that the tree is continuing to find its balance. I have read that some collectors selectively trim foliage in anticipation of this. I think I read 30%.

Is it better for me to trim more than the unhealthy stuff, or let the tree self prune? What should I be trimming more of, long leggy growth?

 

[leatherback]

Some will cut back to weaker growth to ensure the weaker inner growth remains. I am not sure whether I would be in for such a game of chicken with the tree

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

The question remains why the foliage is unhealthy looking. Could be due to local conditions, could be because it's heavily infected with spider mites, a root that's hit a dry pocket.. When you take a plant from the wild, all those conditions change for the better.
I'm not a fan of playing chicken either. So I let the tree decide. Sure, I take off some stuff that makes transportation easier. But that's about it. About a month or three in, I can usually tell what stuff is staying too weak.

Of course it depends on what you're collecting and how it looks. Nothing is set in stone.

 

[Shibui]

Juniper foliage has a limited life span. After about 3 years the needles die despite what we do. This begs the question whether the inner die back is related directly to collection or to natural old age.

Collecting seems to be about a balance between root and foliage so hard and fast rules about top reduction are not possible to cover every circumstance. Trees with more root can cope with more foliage. Where more roots have been removed foliage may need more reduction. It may also depend on the age of the individual tree. Younger trees seem to be more resilient than older individuals. Health of the tree will play another part. Conditions after collection will play a major role in what is possible. i can root a small percentage of juniper cuttings with little or no added help but survival rates rise if I provide humidity, bottom heat, etc. I see collected trees as rather large cuttings so similar factors will play a part in survival.

There is a respected theory that auxins from growing tips play a big part in stimulating new root growth so taking off all strong, healthy leaders may be counterproductive. I have certainly had better recovery with transplanted field grown junipers where longer healthy leaders are left but weaker ones are pruned to reduce foliage mass.
I would not advise an overall reduction of long growth to try to achieve balance.
I am generally in favor of leaving a little more and allowing the tree to self balance. I know I can work to reduce length and get inner growth after the tree has survived collection. I can't do anything if it does not survive.

 

[Forsoothe!]

I understand the concept of "balance", but I don't use that much anymore. I think it's a relic of past conventional thinking in hort when things were transplanted in landscapes. Of course, our fathers also used to cut out and throw away any foliage that was deviant and now we relish the possession of something different and carefully air-layer off anything that might become the next rage. Chimera have always been there, but we have a million new, great variegated and dwarf cultivars now because we don't do things like our fathers used to.

I don't do anything to roots and tops at the same time, with exceptions. Generally, I want to have as much foliage as possible to feed the roots and vice-versa, so I do one or the other and expose the newly dug to sunlight as much as I think it can handle vis-a-vis its normal requirements. Full sun plants usually will perish, -slowly or quickly in shade, and shade plants will die quickly in too much sun, but watering enough, -just enough, helps a lot. Never letting something in peril suffer from drought for one minute is very, very important and I think once some catastrophic event is allowed the game is over, period. Getting a sun lover into a little sun every day, like maybe some early eastern, or late western, or lots of high, bright indirect sunlight, but never any mid-day is key in my mind.

So, my system works perfctly every time right? No, of course not because that's only one of many aspects, but it works well enough for me.