Gigantic juniper pile?

[JackHammer]

My house has a rather large patch of junipers. I expect they were planted around the 70s and got out of control for the prior home owners. They have ground layered themselves and expanded quite a bit. Some of the trunks are 8-10+ inches. The area is about 35 by 50 ft. and 5 ft high.

Any ideas on what to do with these? I already set up maybe 5 air layers and started some jins for trees that i can air layer at a later date.

I think it would be easy to say, "just make a bunch of trunk chops and dig them up" however, they are quite huge and managing the trees would need some commercial tools that i don't have. Other than an endless supply of air layers, what should I be looking for?

 

[Shibui]

Most junipers shade out lower branches so there is rarely any viable growth close to the original trunks. That makes it difficult to chop back to live branches close enough to get a viable stump. Remember that junipers need healthy green growth to survive transplant. Chop back to bare wood juniper rarely survives.
If you take a couple of years - chop back to healthy growing branches, allow light into trunks and hope for back buds on bare wood then cut back again later until you get growth close enough to make the stumps viable. Is the time taken worth the results?
Grafts on branches closer to the original trunks is an option but is long term project. Is it worth the effort and time taken?

 

[Potawatomi13]

Also be aware roots needed with 8-10" trunk and weight of tree. Likely better to use self layered branches. Perhaps could use main structure for in ground Japanese garden beginnings?

 

[ShimpakuBonsai]

Do you know what type of juniper these are?
I think digging them out of the ground will not give you what you want.
But I think you could get some nice trees out of it by airlayering some of the branches.

 

[JackHammer]

Do you know what type of juniper these are?
I think digging them out of the ground will not give you what you want.
But I think you could get some nice trees out of it by airlayering some of the branches.

I do not know the variety.
One air layer I started has a 6 inch trunk so there is a lot of potential for this method. I will see how they are coming along this spring.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I'd get a positive ID for the variety first.
If you upload a couple pictures of the bark, the foliage without snow and stuff like that, we're probably able to ID them for you.

But dang, if I had a patch like that, it would've been gone in a year or two and it would be replaced with wooden crates with the plants in them. Awesome!

 

[JackHammer]

I'd get a positive ID for the variety first.
If you upload a couple pictures of the bark, the foliage without snow and stuff like that, we're probably able to ID them for you.

But dang, if I had a patch like that, it would've been gone in a year or two and it would be replaced with wooden crates with the plants in them. Awesome!

Any ideas? I know there is serious potential but I am kinda at a loss at the scale. I am also allergic to juniper so it isn't my favorite to work with. You can see some of the air layers i started.

The red part on that brush is 11 inches.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Everyone is allergice to junipers, that's what they do. They make the skin itchy and rashy.
As for the pollen, that's also super common. So don't feel bad about it.

They don't look like pfizer/media due to the tight fronds and the lack of juvenile foliage.
So I'm thinking you're either dealing with very fine ERC grey owl in the worst case. In the best case, and what I suspect most.. You're sitting on a gold mine of olde juniperus chinensis.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Another small matter: Tiny air layer bags installed WAAAAAAY too small for amount of roots needed for those branches/trunks to survive separation.

 

[JackHammer]

Everyone is allergice to junipers, that's what they do. They make the skin itchy and rashy.
As for the pollen, that's also super common. So don't feel bad about it.

They don't look like pfizer/media due to the tight fronds and the lack of juvenile foliage.
So I'm thinking you're either dealing with very fine ERC grey owl in the worst case. In the best case, and what I suspect most.. You're sitting on a gold mine of olde juniperus chinensis.

Ah, I didn't realize everyone was sensitive to it.
That variety looks spot on. Only thing is that mine seems more blue, rather than gold. I will do some more looking but thank you for the id!

If anyone is in the great lakes area and wants to give me an afternoon of training... I can send you on your way with some juniper!

 

[JackHammer]

Another small matter: Tiny air layer bags installed WAAAAAAY too small for amount of roots needed for those branches/trunks to survive separation.

Good call, I should reset those. This is a multi year thing so I am not in any big hurry.

 

[JackHammer]

I did some chopping and found a few neat things.

I like this but it needs to backbud. I chopped the upper part back pretty hard.



I really like the movement here. I made a few big cuts, trimmed some of the leggy growth from the tips and added some wire to girtle and start a future air layer. It is hard to see in the picture but there are branches on the left of the first bend that go behind the tree. I tried to balance cutting back leggy growth while keeping enough activity to prepare for airlayering next fall/winter.


This is not a bonsai. I just cut it off to create a terrible reverse taper. I think it will be a real show stopper one day.