Establishing how to transplant juniper bushes of the Cupressaceae family begins by considering their state of maturity. These plants need to be transplanted while they are still young, considering that the root system of juniper bushes that are older has expansive rootage that is difficult to pull out.
Be sure to transplant juniper trees in well-drained loose soils, and keep them moderately watered just to keep their foliage moist. A detailed description of the proper procedure is outlined below.
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How Do You Transplant Juniper Bushes?
To transplant juniper bushes to a new location, begin by moistening the soil around them. Mature junipers develop extensive roots that are difficult to pull off the soil. Use a shovel to lift the plants from beneath the roots and transfer them to the new spot.
1. Obtain the Right Tools to Use
Get hold of a pair of gardening gloves to safeguard your hands while working. Juniper bushes can have sharp and hard needle-like leaves that can prick your hands if you don’t cover them. Also, be sure to obtain a water can with a small hose attached to it for watering the soil around the bushes just before the transplanting procedure.
You will also need a garden spade or a small shovel to dig up the juniper bushes from their parent soil. The roots of juniper plants can become intertwined and difficult to separate, under which circumstances you may need a garden trowel to simplify your work around them. A pruning hook or shears will help you to cut away excess juniper rootage.
A wheelbarrow will come in handy for transporting plants if you are wondering how to move yew trees to their new site after uprooting them. You could also obtain small buckets to place the junipers in before loading them into the wheelbarrow just to make their movement convenient.
2. Prepare the Original Soil for Digging
Generously water the juniper bushes using the water can and hose to ensure that moisture reaches their roots. This makes digging up yew bush plants easier. Leave the watered area for a day or two depending on the weather. Hot sunny weather allows the soil to dry faster so that it reaches the ideal state that makes digging much easier.
The ideal state of the soil before digging up juniper bushes must neither be too wet and heavy, nor too dry and hard. Rather, it should be loose and crumbly to make the uprooting procedure easier while also preventing the roots from snapping while lifting them.
3. Prepare the Planting Holes in the New Site
Dig holes that are about three feet deep and equally wide apart to allow the transplanted yew trees to maneuver. Ideally, the new holes should be a few inches deeper than the previous depth of the juniper bush root at the original location.
Add a few inches of a mixture of loose organic soil and manure, or mulch, to the holes. Water the holes to ensure moderate moisture, and leave them to dry for just a day before transplanting.
4. Uproot the Juniper Bushes and Transplant Them
Use a shovel to create a circle perimeter around the juniper bush. Use this perimeter to dig and lift the plants from their roots upward using the shovel. Place the plants together with the soil around their root network into buckets and load them into a wheelbarrow to the new transplanting location.
Place each plant into its new hole with the original soil still around the roots. Make sure that the juniper root ball is almost level with the ground surface. To achieve the desired plant height, you can add some backfill soil to the bottom of the holes if the holes are too deep. Once the hole is filled, tamp around it to compact the soil gently.
When you transplant blue star junipers, do not expose the roots directly to the new soil as it may contain some traces of fertilizer that can contribute to transplant shock. This explains why we advise you to maintain mounds of original soil around the plant roots. If you want to add nutrients to the soil, only add N-P-K fertilizer supplements once the plant root network is established in the new soil and that should take a few weeks. Make sure to have blue star companion plants near it to help with the transplanting.
5. Water the Transplanted Shrubs
Immediately water the juniper shrubs after transplanting them to keep them moist. Watering also reduces the chances or severity of transplant shock. Repeat this procedure regularly throughout the first week, before watering the junipers only twice every other week until their root system is fully established in the new soil.
Junipers can survive for long periods without water. However, if they start suffering from water stress, the plants will begin to visibly dry out and the little branches become brittle enough to break easily. You can observe this sign, together with dulling and fading of the foliage’s color, as shout-outs that your bushes need watering.
When watering junipers, try as much as you can to keep the leaves, branches, and stems dry while adding water only to the soil around the roots. This maintains the upright stature of the foliage and prevents sagging. You even protect the foliage from moisture-related diseases this way.
6. Care for Newly Transplanted Juniper Shrubs
When your grey owl or blue point junipers start thriving, you need to start to regularly trim the excess foliage growths, as well as remove dead plant material, to maintain their health and shape. When pruning junipers, be sure to trim the branches one at a time to avoid destroying their desirable compact and spiral shape. Also, avoid trimming beyond the green foliage to a point where the branches are exposed as doing this may damage the plants beyond resuscitation.
To protect juniper bushes from the common pests that attack them, including bagworms, aphids, and spider mites, apply a dormant oil or systemic insecticide during winter. You can also apply pre-emergence herbicides like Benfluralin to prevent winter and summer weeds from germinating around the plants.
Apply the herbicides in fall and spring respectively, prior to the seasons that the weeds would likely sprout. Aside from this, not much needs to be done to exercise juniper care as the plants are naturally resilient.
What are the Critical Factors to Consider When Transplanting Juniper Bushes?
The critical factors to consider when transplanting juniper bushes include soil drainage, environmental temperature, and pH. One characteristic feature of juniper shrubs is that they can tolerate a wide range of environmental and pH conditions, making the plants easier to transplant and care for.
– Temperature Requirements
Common juniper tree bushes ideally require moderate temperature climates within the range of 32 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. However, juniper varieties, especially the blue star type are generally resilient and so can thrive under harsh temperatures and weather conditions. Regardless of this beneficial trait, we still encourage you to expose them to mild to moderate temperatures as much as you can.
Junipers are naturally resistant to the adverse effects of cold weather, hence their ability to thrive during winter, without any additional measures to protect them from frost. However, extremes that go below freezing may require you to wrap the juniper bush branches and trunks with non-woven fabric for more protection.
– Water Requirements
Common juniper shrubs can thrive with very little to no water once their root network establishes enough ground cover. As such, the plants are less likely to be affected if you don’t water them regularly. Watering them more than they require is actually detrimental to their health as it can initiate the onset of conditions like wet root rot diseases and discolored leaf margins that turn yellowish.
During prolonged dry spells, ensure that your juniper plants have only just enough moisture to keep the leaves green by watering them only once every two weeks. Under normal weather conditions, you may need to water newly transplanted juniper shrub plants twice each week until the roots are fully established. Once the roots become active, watering the shrubs biweekly will do just fine.
– Soil Type
Be sure to plant juniper shrubs in well-drained soils to ensure effective root establishment. Transplanting blue star juniper plants in well-drained loam soils that have a rich organic content guarantees the best results as the roots receive good aeration.
Clay soils or those that tend to hold water for relatively longer periods are not ideal for junipers as they can cause the plant roots to rot. Excessive soil water is also one of the major contributors to juniper transplant shock.
– Recommended pH Range
We recommend growing juniper plants in slightly acidic pH soils, within the range of six to seven, to optimize the plant’s chances of survival. If your soil is highly acidic, you can add peat moss or any other alkaline organic medium such as pelletized limestone to neutralize it.
If the soil is strongly alkaline, you may add aluminum sulfate, chelated iron, or soil sulfur to neutralize it and make it conducive for the juniper shrubs. Organic compost, or mulch, can also aid in neutralizing soil alkalinity to match the juniper plant requirements, while also adding some organic nutrients that the shrubs need.
– Sunlight Requirements
The new site for transplanting juniper bushes should ideally receive at least six hours of daily sunlight for the plants to thrive. The plant’s aesthetic appeal is severely reduced by shady environments considering that such conditions tend to promote loose growth instead of compact leaf orientations. Shady environments also reduce color vibrancy in blue juniper.
Frequently Asked Questions
– How Do You Know That the Time is Right for Transplanting Potted Juniper Plants?
You know that the time is right for transplanting potted juniper plants when their roots begin to outgrow their pots. When previously restricted juniper plant roots begin to protrude from the pot’s drainage holes, then you know it is time for a repotting procedure.
– Can You Transplant Juniper Shrubs as Layering Cuttings?
Yes, you can transplant juniper shrubs as layering cuttings. Prepare the juniper cuttings in late summer by cutting the bark off their parent stems to slice off the shoot. Plant the cutting in all-purpose soil and place it in an area that receives plenty of sunlight and moderate temperature.
The plant is ready to be transplanted outdoors or repotted when its new roots form, usually around springtime.
Conclusion
Transplanting juniper bushes the proper way is now easy for you, especially now that you have new knowledge. Just be sure to remember these handy tips as you do so.
- Keep the soil around juniper bushes moist before uprooting them to prevent the plants’ intertwined root network from snapping.
- Maintain conditions of temperatures lower than 95 degrees Fahrenheit, a pH of between five and seven, up to six hours daily of sunlight, and well-drained soils, to ensure that juniper plants have the ideal growing conditions.
- Dig holes for transplanting juniper bushes that are three feet deep and just as wide, and ensure that all the plant roots are below the ground surface when you transplant the shrubs.
- Water juniper shrubs just twice each week after transplanting them and then once every fortnight thereafter, as juniper bushes require very little water to thrive.
- Apply dormant oil or systemic pesticide to prevent pest attacks from bagworms, aphids, and spider mites on juniper shrubs.
Begin applying the easy steps to propagate these wonderful plants and you’ll soon have a thriving juniper garden. Go ahead and beautify your home with junipers!