Features of growing Chinese juniper at their summer cottage

Many of us have heard the name juniper more than once, but not everyone knows what kind of plant it is and what aspects of its cultivation. If you want to give your summer cottage a mysterious breathtaking oriental civilization, you can take advantage of planting Chinese juniper. The atmosphere of the East soars in the name. Juniper will look good on estates, in rock gardens, rabatkah. The plant is so versatile that it can be given any shape, adjusting it to an existing landscape design.

Chinese juniper: species description

Chinese juniper has the following description. This plant is originally from northeastern China, Manchuria. Shrubs or trees of Chinese juniper can be both single and bisexual. Plant height reaches 25 meters. The crown of trees, depending on the variety, may be columnar, narrow or wide conical.

Shrubs have a creeping, spherical or pyramidal crown. The branches of the plant are erect, have a dark green color. The thickness of the shoots reaches 2.5 mm. The bark has a gray-red color, exfoliates. The needles of bushes (trees) can be needle or scaly. Cones may be angular, elongated or spherical. Juniper fruits are covered with a bluish bloom. As the cones mature, their color changes from green to brown, blue or black. The diameter of the fruit does not exceed 9 mm. Inside the cones are oblong triangular seeds of brown color. Cones ripen within two years. Chinese juniper is quite simple to grow. Juveniles grow slowly, then the growth rate increases. Chinese juniper belongs to frost-resistant, drought-resistant plants that easily transfer high levels of smoke and gases in the air. As a room flower, Chinese juniper Stricta is grown in containers, giving it the appearance of bonsai or forming a dwarf from a plant.

Features of planting Chinese juniper in the garden

As the juniper grows with creeping shrubs or tall trees, a place for planting should correspond to it. Choosing a plot where the plant will grow, you need to consider how much space it will take, whether it will interfere with already growing green pets.

How to choose the soil for planting

Since the habitat of shrubs and trees of Chinese juniper is a steppe and forest-steppe, it is not picky about soil fertility. Most often for planting seedlings prepare the substrate of peat, sand and sod soil in the following ratio 2: 1: 1. Given the characteristics of varieties, the ratio of the components of the substrate change. The soil should not be neutral.

Choosing a place for planting Chinese juniper

The area where juniper grows should be well lit. Wherein The plant does not tolerate long-term direct sunlight, therefore the place of planting of a bush (tree) should be shading. The plant does not tolerate full shadow and loses its decorative appearance: the shoots are deformed, the needles crumble.

How to plant Chinese juniper

Chinese juniper can be planted in a container or planted in open ground. How to start a shrub (tree) on your site is also up to you. There are several ways of breeding Chinese juniper: seed, cutting, seedlings. Let's take a closer look at each of them.

Reproduction of Chinese Juniper Seeds

If you like to experiment and tinker with seeds, then this method of breeding juniper suits you. Before sending the seeds to the soil, you need to stratify themi.e. for a month, they are mixed with wet sand, stored in a room with an air temperature of at least +20 ºC, then for another four months they are kept at 15 ºC.

Sow seeds in the month of May, pre-freeing them from the shell and breaking the top layer in the planting fossa.For the best development of the germ in a hole with a depth of no more than 3 cm, it is necessary to place the soil from under the bushes or juniper trees. This will allow mycorrhiza to spread, without which the development of the plant’s root system would not be complete. It is done.

Now have patience, because the first shoots will appear within 1-3 years. At emergence of shoots it is necessary to mulch a ridge with seedlings. Periodically water the seedlings, loosen the ground and free the plants from weeds. The emerged shoots are better for two - three weeks to priten, so that the seedlings do not get stung. Upon reaching the seedlings of three years of age, they are sent with a near-clod to their final place of residence.

Planting seedlings

Chinese Juniper prefers to plant it in the garden according to all canons. It is best to plant seedlings of coniferous trees in spring, during the beginning of active sap flow, or in late autumn. Weather for landing should be wet. Since grown plants are difficult to tolerate transplantation, it is necessary to preserve the integrity of the root ball. In case of violation of the integrity of the root coma, the root system is better treated with a root growth biostimulator. At the bottom of the landing pit lay drainage layer of up to 15 cm of stones or bricks.The seedling is placed in a planting hole, the depth of which is no more than 70 cm, so that the place of turning the root into a stem rises no less than 10 cm above the edge of the planting hole. Soaking the earthen clod in water in advance (up to two hours).

Reproduction of Chinese juniper cuttings

Cutting is a faster and more efficient conifer breeding process than breeding with the help of seeds. Another positive aspect of this process is the number of seedlings, which you can adjust depending on your needs. Material for cuttings are cut in February from lignified young stock. Shoots should be no shorter than 7 cm with two internodes. Another very important point is that the shoots are not cut with shears, and gently tear off. At the bottom of the cutting should be part of the bark from the parent escape.

The shoots are dipped in "Kornevin" and placed in a ready substrate (1: 1: 1 of sand, peat, manure), which is sprinkled on top with a layer of 3-4 cm coarse sand. The cutting depth of cuttings up to 2 cm.Cuttings covered with banks. Landing area for planting material should be well lit. Until the seedlings are well rooted, it is necessary to irrigate them regularly. Until early September, the cuttings take root. Replace them with shkolki no earlier than two years.

Chinese juniper: care

Chinese juniper is not very whimsical, but still worth knowing how to care for him. Before you get this ornamental plant, you need to familiarize yourself with some aspects of its cultivation. The main thing to take care of is to prevent spring burns, avoid fungal diseases, and provide full winter care.

Watering and spraying

Chinese juniper as a decorative culture can be grown only by providing it with full care. At first, until the juniper roots have grown and are not able to fully receive water from the ground, watering should be frequent. During a drought, young stock is irrigated at least four times a month. In order to conserve moisture in the soil, the juniper root zone is mulched with sawdust or straw.Adult plants are watered no more than once a month. After the irrigation, the soil of the tree circle is fluffed. Since the Chinese juniper does not tolerate the dryness of the airspace, in dry weather the plant should be irrigated with water at least once a week in the evening.

Chinese juniper grown in the garden, requires preventive treatments in the spring. In late April - early May, trees or shrubs are sprayed with a fungicide solution (1% Bordeaux mixture). Inseminated plants are treated with insecticides.

Fertilizer and dressing

When grown on fertile soil fertilizer is not necessary. In other growing conditions, in the spring (April - May), plants are fed up, applying about 40 g / m² of nitroammophos or complex fertilizers to the soil. In the summer, do not feed. In the winter (October - November) fertilized with potash fertilizers.

Cutting and trimming the crown

Chinese juniper requires pruning annually.To form the juniper begin only a year after disembarking in open ground. Since juniper is an ornamental plant, it can have a curly hairstyle.

Pruning of bushes and trees is carried out from March to October. The average daily temperature should be at least four degrees. Forming haircut carried out twice a year. The first is held in February-March, until the growing season began, the second - in August, so that the branches grew woody until the beginning of winter. To reduce stress and create a lush crown, during the second pruning cut off a third of the length of the shoot from the increase for the current season. The branches on which the needles are missing are also cut out. Having made a trimming trim, be sure to process the crown with a growth biostimulator.

As you know, trimming Chinese juniper is not necessary. There are varieties that can easily be given the desired shape with the help of vertical supports or pinning shoots to the ground.

Features care for Chinese juniper in winter

Chinese juniper is a plant that should not be taken care of in winter.In late autumn, dry, broken and deformed branches should be removed from the bush. This is followed by spraying of the near-wellbore soil with a disinfectant solution of Bordeaux mixture. The plant is frost-resistant, not requiring shelter for the winter, although the young for the winter is covered with reeds. Adult bushes and trees are wrapped and tied up with a rope. The parts of the plant that have been subject to formation should be covered to avoid their deformation under the thick layer of snow. In winter, in the period of a large amount of snow, it should be shaken off.