Procumbens_AC

[Adamski77]

Purchased procumbens... liked a lot the size and strength. Like with all junipers if you don’t see and touch you don’t know... here are the best 4 photos of the base

 

[Adamski77]

Inspiration... think achievable from second photo... some bending required... later this year...

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I'd go for triple trunks! With the second picture being the best front for it, agreed.

 

[Adamski77]

I'd go for triple trunks! With the second picture being the best front for it, agreed.

Agree… like the one on inspiration but with extra trunk towards the back. Potential clearly there. Will put raffia and start bending next weekend… hope nothing will break

 

[Potawatomi13]

Agree… like the one on inspiration but with extra trunk towards the back. Potential clearly there. Will put raffia and start bending next weekend… hope nothing will break

Is this proper season?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Agree… like the one on inspiration but with extra trunk towards the back. Potential clearly there. Will put raffia and start bending next weekend… hope nothing will break

Don't. Please wait until fall, early winter or late winter.
I just did some procumbens shari and the bark peels easier than a moldy orange.

 

[Adamski77]

Don't. Please wait until fall, early winter or late winter.
I just did some procumbens shari and the bark peels easier than a moldy orange.

Thank you for advise… thought bending with raffia would be ok… just wanted to pull the trucks closer to ultimate set up and let it grow… strong growth should help them to stay where I want them… but will think about it little bit more based on your advise…

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I thought so too! But the pressure of the wire, even with the raffia in place, can depress the soft tissue a whole lot. Dieback of that bark wouldn't be visible until it falls off. Maybe I just suck at applying raffia. Finer, smaller branches I have been able to wire in summer, but I save the bigger bends for dormant seasons just to be sure.
With a trunk like this, I think you're in no rush; most of the work has been laid out already.

Instead, I'd see if you can eliminate some bad branches and maybe reduce the length of the ones you want to keep. That might even produce a second flush of growth just before fall.

 

[Adamski77]

That’s a great advise… thank you. I’ll hold the stuff till winter but potentially do some ‘clean up’ to stimulate growth inside.

 

[Adamski77]

Time is slowly coming… though still 20+ Celsius here in Shanghai… but want to start thinking about it as there is couple/few issues. Attached the pictures of current status and what I’m trying to get out of it. Would appreciate any comments/directions also in overall plan for this tree.
Few things:
- trunk no. 1… quite thick… kind of an inch thick… but need to get some movement there… planning to put raffia/wire along/raffia for bending. Guy wire with some support necessary but the only approach is through the bottom hole of the pot. Fear is that it will end up parallel to the ground. Doable? Options?
- trunk no 3… thick as well… afraid I’ll rip it off the big trunk… planning to use some little rebar to get this in position. Obviously raffia needed.
- trunk no.3 … there is actually 2 of them but planning to get rid of one… this is the thinnest so with raffia and wire we should be ok

Appreciate any comments/directions in overall plan as well as particular technics to make the project happen.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I would remove trunk 1 all together.

 

[James W.]

I agree with @Wires_Guy_wires, you have a nice tree without "1"
But if you can get that movement into the trunk it will look good.

 

[Adamski77]

Thanks for taking time to look… appreciate… seems I might have extra degrees of freedom when trying to bend no.1… I can practice and learn… if get some decent movement this can always be an option, if can’t bend or break/kill the branch apparently not a big problem.

 

[Adamski77]

Delayed update… did some bending on trunk no.1 late fall last year… rafia, wire cage, rafia, electric tape … bended as much as I could (or rather the tree could). Trunk no.3 also repositioned with set up of branch structure for that trunk. I didn’t want to structure all tree in one go so stopped there… I like the way it overwintered and responded in spring. Tomorrow part two… left hand side of the tree.

 

[Adamski77]

Continued today… took a little bit of time to prune and wire up initial structure. Quite a lot of foliage cut off from the middle… implementing initial idea of two trunks. Happy with outcome… didn’t really remove all up/down growth on remaining branches as didn’t want to push the tree too far… it already got quite a stress. Now in shade (with little bit morning sun) for the next few weeks. Set up for growing this season… depending on response might do some light pruning late summer… up and down growth to start shaping the pads. Next spring will repot to something more appropriate… this tree has great base but now deep in the “growing container”… Chinese stuff… that thing must be 15kg by itself
Photos are front before, after and shot from above with probably better view on the structure. Still working my photo skills… can’t give justice to my conifers with my skill level

 

[Adamski77]

... it's been a long time... I actually realized that I'm making progress on a lot of trees but never really document anything... so here we go.

Year and a half later the tree is doing very well... repotted spring this year... tree grew very strong. Spent some time recently to trim it back, reposition some branches and give up on some others. Still feel there is too much going on on this tree... but cutting is always easy . Lowest pad on the left-hand side is much lower than it should be... I had to open it more than necessary to promote some interior growth and ultimately push left hand side to smaller size.

There is an invisible problem on the left-hand side as two branches are crossing... will be trying to resolve it in spring with help of some grafting techniques. Need to do a lot of reading... not sure if such a solution is possible at all.

Before and after picture of recent work below...

 

[wiggles15]

Love to see progression threads. I styled a juniper this weekend and I second guess every decision!

I’m just a little seedling but FWIW I think this tree would look more proportional / aesthetic without the left canopy. You’ve got a pretty interesting main trunk line already.

 

[Adamski77]

Love to see progression threads. I styled a juniper this weekend and I second guess every decision!

I’m just a little seedling but FWIW I think this tree would look more proportional / aesthetic without the left canopy. You’ve got a pretty interesting main trunk line already.

don't disagree... started with material that was telling me "make 3 trunks" ... so far we are down to two but your thought is not lost on me. Might eventually end up this way... first want to see what I can get out of this left part...