Forwim clondythe vym pyrdraith
Lon harwonda owmwe douth
Sor wipnu windee
Rhon jol i har
Golgindash eys gar
This month my bonsai trees are all opening their buds. I have been busily pinching most trees to promote back-budding along all the stems and branches.
In this article, I will be sharing my pruning work on this single tree pictured above.
By sharing with you, I enrich the community blockchain while cushioning my own coffers, but more importantly I store the wealth of knowledge and experience gained from growing this tree along its lifetime.
Hawthorn
Some trees, like this hawthorn grow so vigorously all at once from a single stem. After only two weeks of allowing it to grow without my little pinchy fingers doing their work, it has managed to fill out with lots of plush growth and long leaders.
Hawthorne have lots of sharp needles. After years of painful pricks and stabs, I learned it is best to snip this off whenever they appear. Although they are dangerously beautiful, they simply make the entire tree too awkward to do any intricate refinement work on.
The Plan
Today, I decided to do some light pruning on this tree. In Bonsai, we sometimes refer to this kind of light pruning as merely a routine cleaning of the tree. Since the goal is not to change the style of this healthy tree, but simply to maintain it, I focused on three main strategies with my pruners.
- Reduce unneeded length of shoots to no more than two leaf buds away from the branch it has grown from.
- Pinch off small leaves and stems growing between the new stem and the older branch it is growing from.
- Cut off any additional branches and stems growing in parallel or symmetrically attached to the same place as another stem I prefer. Preserve thick branches near the base of the tree. Preserve smaller shoots near the top of the tree.
Why
- Reducing stem length will redirect growth hormones inside the tree to support the growth of other smaller buds and branches. As the growth hormones are better spread out throughout the tree, all new growth will have the same sized stems and leaves. Small leaves and branches are very ideal on bonsai trees.
- The first set of leaves that usually open are the bud leaves. They tend to be very small and weak. By removing this first set of leaves, it opens up paths for rays of sunlight to strike the new wood. The green wood warms up in the sunlight allowing growth hormones to be channeled through the melted sap more easily. More buds will form. Also the branches will become more visually appealing, as the spaces between branches becomes more visible. In bonsai, being able to see the shape of the tree structure inside the leaves is ideal.
- Whorls often form on the upper branches of trees where many branches, stems, and leaves emerge from a single node. The area becomes swollen, and the strength of all attached branches eventually become weak. By allowing one dominant branch and one secondary branch to remain, and cutting off all others attached, the area becomes balanced and stronger. In a nicely tapered tree, the thickest/oldest branches are the lowest branches, and the narrow/new branches fill the highest parts of the tree. Bonsai should always strive to be in proper balance.
Reduction of mass from the top of the tree is an important task to perform on any bonsai tree. Eventually a tree will outgrow its pot. When that happens it can suffer the effects of having a root system that is too small and weak to support the large number of limbs and leaves it has made.
A tree with too many limbs for the roots to support will either die, or it may self-select branches to sacrifice and allow to die so that other branches can continue to live on what little food it has left.
By reducing the amount of mass existing on the bonsai tree, the pot-bound roots can fully feed all living tissue with an abundance of life.
Detailed View
End Result
This tree has been featured in some of my past articles. Check them out if you are curious about the past legacy of this tree's journey through past seasons.
Past Articles
- Green Trim for the Hawthorn Tree
- Fantastic Tour of my Spring Bonsai Collection
- Sticky Situation
- A little Candi for your daily inspiration
Historical Information
ID: 0012
Nickname: Candi
Type: Hawthorn
Age: 6.5 years
Grown: yamadori (collected from my own yard)
Last repotting: 2016?
Wired: never
Bonsai!
Saturday, May 18, 2019
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Photos in this post are all #originalworks by 
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#pruning #bonsai-pruning #leaves #creativity #learning #growing #before-after