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Just like all bonsai the rigida has some very specific techniques and timings that need to be followed to get the best from your tree. Left to their own devices the foliage will grow into long weeping thin twigs with spread out needles, hanging down from bare inner branches, a far cry from the tight pad like growth we are looking for.
Soil
The soil mixture is very important as it needs to freely drain but retain some moisture for a short period of time. I believe it also needs to promote new root growth to help the tree recover from repotting in as short a time as possible. By volume I mix 60% kiryu japanese grit, 30% seived akadama and 10% fresh chopped sphagnum moss. This mix works for all junipers and has worked very well for a very old needle juniper that has been potted in it for the last 3 years. This particular tree has lived in the Uk for about 35 years to my knowledge, and was part of a large commercial collection for at least 20 years. Over those years the tree has stayed alive and kept virtually all of its branches, but to be fair it was very sparse and had minimal ramification with no pads formed at all. Most lower branches only had 5 or 6 green shoots as they are the weaker ones so these would need care so they didnt die off completely.
Year 1 working an old unrefined tree
For the first year I had the tree I fed it with Naruko and miracle acid, then cut back all the long thin growth to a few centimeters, back into brown wood at times, but always making sure there were needles on the pruned twigs. Then i wired the entire tree with copper wire - but only extending the wire to brown woody branches, not the fresh green newer growth that hate being touched by wire or bent.
Mid summer this caused an explosion of new inner buds back on the bare branches so the tree was left to grow for the rest of the year, and once the new buds had extended into little branches and hardened off all the wire was removed. The tree was very tightly rooted, with water refusing to soak into the areas near the trunk but it was still a weak tree with thin foliage so I certainly did not want to repot in yr1 so i drove holes into the soil around the trunk with a screwdriver so water could reach all parts of the rootball.
Year 2
This spring the tree was repotted with the leaf-mould, compost and grit mixture fully removed, the outer roots were gently teased out and the hard compact inner core of very old akadama under the trunk was scraped away. I cut a small amount of the outer roots off all the way round and cut out two big pie slices of the ancient compacted rootball - all the way to the trunk but lining up with deadwood, not live veins! This was a huge repot by any trees standards but the tree was desperately in need of it. I put in a 1" drainage layer of large particles then a 1" layer of pure live sphagnum moss to sit the tree on - now it was like a big layer and would root quickly into the moss.
Late spring and all the buds wake up and start extending - but they must be left to grow and certainly not pinched. If you pinch before the first flush of growth stops the shoots still extend and you get sparse, spaced out needles. By June the growth had slowed so with scissors all the new extensions were cut back to just 2 or 3 needles - literally just 2 or 3mm of new green branch growth kept (unless the branch was being grown longer as part of the design). The tree was looking bare again, just little stubs of 2 or 3 needles all over the branches, but it was strong and bursting with vigour. Because all new growth was virtually cut off mid summer the tree opened even more new buds - all around the cuts and even further back on the bare branches. These were left to grow for the rest of the year unless they looked too strong - if they did the tips were piched off to direct growth to the inner shoots. The tree was wired again and that was it for year 2.
Year 3
No repotting is planned for at least 5 years, maybe even 7 or 8. There is a trend to repot trees too often these days and I believe it uses lots of the trees reserves to cope with it. The tree was left to grow out the spring flush, then it was cut back to 2 or 3 mm again, then the wire was removed once more. Buds continued to form and this time the stronger ones that were appearing in some of the dense areas of the forming pads were pinched off. Here is the tree showing some bare areas still but there is 100 times more foliage than last year
If all goes well and the tree is happy a 3rd set of buds will form in these areas and the foliage is smaller, finer and stays shorter - these are the shoots that the pads will be formed from.
The tree was fed my own cakes and miracle acid all summer and the new strong growth was regularly pinched up until late september. This brings the trees story nearly up to date - it is now December and the tree has stopped growing and is ready for some detail wiring soon to begin defining some of the pads. This will be all 1mm copper wire and a few guy wires. This final picture for now shows an increase in foliage over the last 3 months
These trees are very hungry - they will respond to plenty of fertiliser all through the long growing season, they like water too, and especially having the foliage misted in hot dusty weather
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