Masahiko Kimura The Bonsai Pruning 

Removing whole branches or some parts of them is customary in bonsai-trees creation and shape maintenance.

Formation pruning: it is carried out on virgin materials or pre-bonsai trees. It consists in a considerable reduction of the existing branches, in order to create the required shape and proportion. Removing or reducing operations can apply both to the main and to the secondary branches. Conifers need to have at least one or two buds left on the stump, because these species are not able to sprout after the pruning; on the contrary this problem does not exist with a lot of deciduous trees, as they can bud anywhere on the trunk and the branches (maples, elm-trees, olives, oaks, etc.) Such a characteristic allows removing completely all the vegetative part. This practice reduces the tallness of old characterized by wide nebari specimens and must be carried out in late autumn or at the beginning of spring. So, when the hot weather starts, the great vegetative push will help the birth of several buds, with which you can rebuild the branches.

Maintenance pruning:it is useful to keep the design-required shape and in the meantime to help the branches to thick. It applies to deciduous trees and consists in the removal of the twigs growing in unwelcome areas (it is the case of olives and oaks, which tend to produce buds everywhere and during the whole vegetative season), as well as in the cutting of twigs top. This practice is used for stimulating the birth of posterior buds and obtaining two new twigs from just one, others from every secondary twigs, and so on. In a short time you will get a new platform from a twig.

Trimming:you remove the 50% of the "candle" (the new bud) from Wild Pine, Mugo Pine, Pentaphilla and Red Pine as well as from fir-trees. This operation must be done in spring. From Black Pine you must remove the whole candle. All the pines require also the removal of old needles (previous year needles) at the end of September, leaving just the ones that will develop in spring. In this way all the resting buds are exposed to light and they will develop the following year.
On the contrary Junipers and Cypresses need continual trimming during the whole vegetative season: you will remove just the parts of the twigs that get out of the shape-line. You will also remove the twigs that grow low.
You will proceed to poll deciduous trees and Larches tender twigs at the first or second inter-knot from spring onward.
You should always use your fingers to trim all species, to avoid the left portion to brown.

Back  

 

 

gabymil@eircom.net                                           www.geocities.com/gabriele_milanese_bonsai