Pruning is the hardest and most important technique to master
when shaping a bonsai tree.
Basically, there is maintenance pruning and structural pruning.
Maintenance pruning is all about refining and maintaining the existing shape of a Bonsai.
Structural pruning is far more rigorous
and is applied to give a tree, and its primary branches, their basic shape.
In this video we first focus on maintenance pruning
and after that we'll shape this Azalea tree which needs a structural pruning badly!
Before we dive into the complex topic of pruning Bonsai trees
we need to discuss how trees grow.
Specifically, we look at apical dominance.
Apical dominance means that the main, central stem of the tree
grows more dominantly than its side stems.
This natural mechanism encourages trees to grow higher
to prevent them from being shaded out by competing trees.
By distributing growth to the top and outer edges
the tree's inner and lower branches will eventually die
while top branches grow out of proportion.
Understanding the natural growth patterns of trees
informs us on how we can use pruning techniques to counter the effects of apical dominance.
Because dominant growth occurs on a trees’ central stems
we know we have to prune the top and outer portions of a tree a bit stronger.
This forces the tree to redistribute growth to the inner and lower parts
which gives us control over the growth and design of the tree.
Maintenance pruning can be done throughout the growing season
usually from April to September for outdoor Bonsai.
Indoor Bonsai can be pruned year-round.
Don't be afraid to prune your Bonsai regularly
as this will help develop dense foliage and a fine ramification.
To maintain the shape of your Bonsai
simply prune branches and shoots that have outgrown the intended canopy shape
using twig shears or normal cutters.
For most of my Bonsai I prune them perhaps 4 times a year
and each time I would remove around 10% of the foliage.
Pine trees and some conifers should be pinched by hand
rather than cut with scissors.
Using scissors, cutters, or shears to prune some species of conifers
can lead to brown, dead foliage at the cuttings.
To prevent this from happening
hold the tip of the shoot between your thumb and pointing finger, and carefully pull it away.
The shoot will snap at its weakest point
and you will avoid brown or dead ends.
Different species need different maintenance regarding pruning and pinching;
some even need a combination of both.
Please consult our species guides for information per tree species.
Alright, this tree is an Azalea
and as you can see, it's a bit more out of shape.
So instead of a maintenance pruning, this needs a bit more structural pruning.
What we are going to do is
first bring back all these long new shoots, more or less to the same length.
And any shoot that has 4 or even 5 little branches
we bring those back to two. So we want bifurcating branches.
And to do so we use the twig shear, and prune back all these branches around the tree.
Once we've done that, the tree is a bit more open and we can see the structure of the tree
and then we can make decisions regarding pruning larger branches.
It is hard to provide rules that apply to all trees
but here are a few examples of branches that you can prune to enhance the design of your Bonsai.
1. Suckers that grow from the base of the trunk or 2. Branches blocking view of the trunk
4. Hanging branches or 5. Dead branches
7. Branches returning to the center of the tree or 8. Upward growing interior branches
12. Branches extending beyond the silhouette
or 15. Disproportionately thick branches at the top.
Setting the bones, or main design of a tree, is complex.
Even bringing back a tree in shape like this Azalea can be tricky
but try to apply the rules that we mentioned and you should be fine.
Also make sure to watch some of our videos on YouTube for more examples.
And if you are interested to learn more about these techniques
consider enrolling in one of our online Bonsai courses.
Here, expert teachers explain the relevant techniques
and you can ask them questions.
For a free lesson, go to: www.bonsaiempire.com/courses
Okay, that really cleaned up the tree significantly, just by applying that simple rule:
prune back all the growth to the back, to the same length, and to bifurcations
brought us to this much more open design again.
But we didn't make any decisions yet for the structural pruning
So this branch for example, I didn't prune it back because I'm sure that this is too long
and I want to remove it completely, so I'll do that right away.
This could be a nice cutting as well.
Just prune it back at an angle
and you could use this as a cutting.
Now let's study the tree a bit more
and see if there's any other branches that we'd like to prune.
And once we've done that, we could even wire 1 or 2 of these branches
just to bring it a bit more into shape.
Alright, so now the tree looks much more open and more structured.
So just before we cleaned the tree, a lot of the foliage was taken off
and now with a more structural pruning, again we take away more or less this amount of foliage.
Adding that up, I think in total we've removed about half of all the foliage
which is okay if you work on a very healthy tree, which this tree was
and you need to provide proper aftercare.
And for this tree that means that going into fall right now
we want to make sure that the tree is not enduring too low temperatures
so we protect it against frost.
Okay, so the only thing that we will do now is wire one branch.
This branch is really pointing upwards; it would look much better if it's going down a bit.
But the moment we take this down, you see this branch going up
and that doesn't look very well, so I'll prune this, and then wire the branch.
Learn how to create your own bonsai trees
by enrolling in one of our online Bonsai courses.
We explain techniques like pruning, wiring, and repotting
and you can ask questions to the teachers.
For the curriculums, and free lessons go to: www.bonsaiempire.com/courses