Bonsai / Pruning And Trimming Your Bonsai

Pruning And Trimming Your Bonsai

A great deal of pruning is often necessary if starting with a nursery plant. Only excess foliage and undesirable limbs should be removed. Make all cuts above a bud, a side branch, or a main fork of the tree. Remove all buds except those on the outside of the trunk to force growth outward and upward. Leave stubs flush with the stems. Avoid cutting back so far that the main branches are weakened.
Do not shear bonsai as you would a hedge; the objective is to make the plant look like a replica of a mature tree. Keep branches growing toward open space and away from each other. Do not prune too zealously; plants must have sufficient leaves for photosynthesis.
Heavy pruning usually only takes place once in the life of the bonsai. Once the basic form is established, shaping is done by nipping or pinching back. This procedure controls new growth. Nipping is done to shape the plant and to develop luxurious foliage. Nip off tiny spurs that appear on the trunk before they are large enough to leave scars when removed.
Roots must also be trimmed. Try to keep all fibrous roots and maintain a balance of one branch for one root if at all possible. Remove any roots that were damaged in digging. Leave surface roots intact. Prune the roots with sharp, sloping cuts to avoid damaging them.
Pruning is necessary to maintain the right shape of a bonsai and encourage new growth. Some plants naturally respond well to pruning, regardless of how intense, while other plants can find it hard to recover, especially when pruned at the wrong time of the year.
To prune correctly you must find out the type of plant your bonsai is and research when the best times are to prune old and new season growth. Generally, new growth is pruned during the growing season to maintain the shape of the bonsai, while pruning of hard wood (old season growth) is done in mid-autumn.
One of the main forms of pruning for bonsai, especially evergreen coniferous bonsai such as junipers and cedars is 'finger pruning'. This involves pinching back new growth which does not come within the general shape of the bonsai or is at the top of the bonsai - helping to encourage bushy foliage and a more tree-like looking bonsai.
To do this, take the growth between your thumb and forefinger while holding the branch with your other hand and remove with a twisting movement. This is better than trimming the growth with scissors. Using scissors leaves an unnatural look and leaves the foliage an unsightly brown.
For deciduous trees such as maples, the Chinese elm and cotoneaster, scissor tip pruning is best. When trimming outward or 'overenthusiastic' growth, trim shoots back to just after the next series of leaves, but don't cut the foliage as such.
Leaf pruning (also known as defoliation) in bonsai is used for several deciduous and tropical plants such as ficus or maples to reduce leaf size, remove unsightly leaves and speed-up growth by causing two seasons' growth in one. For deciduous trees such as maples it also means that their autumn country is brighter. This is done in mid-summer, by cutting 60-90% of the leaves off the tree, only leaving a few to ensure that the tree keeps its energy.
Remove leaves with fine scissors, cutting them from directly behind the leaf. In the next few weeks make sure that you keep the plant in a hospitable position and climate and supply it adequate water. Remember however, that this form of pruning is only applicable to certain types of plants.
Scaffold branches are selected early on as the only branches to be allowed to prosper, while the excess branches are mercilessly pruned off.
Be careful that you really consider which branches need to go and stay so the plant can keep in balance and be pleasant to the eye. Try to prune the plant into a tree like form - or a form that is commonly seen in nature - to keep with the principles of bonsai.
Trimming and pruning are the means by which a bonsai is kept miniature. This involves the systematic removal of vigorous growth in the spring. It is important however, to understand that for the health of the tree one should never remove all the new growth at one time. The roots are trimmed and so is the foliage on the plant.
You do not need to prune your bonsai every day as many people think. Two or three times a year is enough - usually at the start of spring, end of summer and sometimes during late autumn or winter.
When the plant has been pruned to your satisfaction, it can then be wired.

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