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Thinning shohin Japanese maple

December 6, 2019 by Jonas Dupuich

Creating branch ramification on shohin Japanese maples doesn’t happen quickly. After three years of producing short internodes, the tree is now ready for cutback to improve the silhouette and branch structure. (You can see the progress to date here.)

Before I started pruning, I removed the old leaves.

Fall color on Japanese maple

Shohin Japanese maple

After removing the old leaves

After removing the leaves

The cutback is straightforward. When there are more than two branches growing from a single location, I cut back to two. Beyond that, I reduced a few larger branches to make the tree more compact.

Here’s a close-up of how I thinned a busy area.

Before cutback

Crowded branches

As you can see, the internodes are mostly short, but there are far too many growing from the same spot.

Here’s the same branch after cutback.

After cutback

After cutback

I did similar work on the rest of the tree. Here it is when cutback was complete.

Shohin Japanese maple

Cutback complete – 7″ tall, 13″ wide

The goal for the next few years is to encourage the tree to produce even shorter internodes. In time – maybe three-to-four years – I expect the tree to have something closer to the silhouette I have in mind for it.

Winter Bonsai Intensive Update

There’s one spot left in each of the Winter Development Intensives to be held January 10-12 and 24-26.

I’ve started lining up projects for the classes (bare-rooting mature deciduous trees, repotting collected junipers, grafting, etc.) and am really looking forward to it!

As always, the bulk of the class will be hands-on to provide you with as much opportunity as possible to improve your skills.

Reserve a spot online for the winter bonsai intensives.

✕

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Filed Under: Bonsai Development Tagged With: Japanese maple, Pruning, Shohin

Previous Post: « Pot selection exercise – contorted quince
Next Post: Refining cork oak – initial styling »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Zack Clayton says

    December 6, 2019 at 3:46 pm

    Many people I know would be thrilled with the tree before your work. It’s sad that so many are satisfied with “good enough” that they never take the steps needed to get “Fantastic!”

    • Jonas Dupuich says

      December 6, 2019 at 8:10 pm

      Ha, thanks Zack! I’m the same way – bonsai is far more interesting when we try to make improvements to all of our trees.

  2. Bruce Winter says

    December 6, 2019 at 5:18 pm

    Thanks Michael. Another clear and concise teaching.

  3. Mark Powell says

    December 9, 2019 at 11:15 am

    On a different subject, Ginkgo or a maidenhair is dropping its leaves right now. How do you feel about trimming back the maidenhair
    .

    • Jonas Dupuich says

      December 9, 2019 at 12:42 pm

      Hi Mark – now’s a great time to prune ginkgo.

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