Refurbishing a Japanese Maple - the "Hedge Cutting Method"

Walter Pall wrote:


Picture 16: 2011-10:
In the fall, the tree’s crown is cut again with the hedge pruners, even the sacrifice
branches. As long as there a leaves on the branches it doesn’t make much sense to look
too closely where and what is being cut. That will happen in a few weeks when the tree is
bare. The picture shows real hedge pruners.

Hi Walter.

Hope everything is better now.

May I ask why you cut of the sacrifice branches and excessive growth in Autumn and not when the tree is resting in winter? Will it not encourage latent buds that will not harden off before winter?

Lennard

Lennard,
It is eaxtly explained in the article. Please read again.

Hi Walter,
Hope you're recovering well.

@Lennard, for your question: May I ask why you cut of the sacrifice branches and excessive growth in Autumn and not when the tree is resting in winter? Will it not encourage latent buds that will not harden off before winter?

I think its this part:

...
The second growth is then left until early August when it is also cut off completely. The beginning of August is an important time in Central Europe. Any later and the new shoots may not harden off in time for winter. Usually, the tree needs six to eight weeks to the beginning of October to harden off. Afterwards, not much grows. It can lead to big problems for the tree when it is cut after the beginning of August as green branches will not survive the winter.
...

I guess you must adapt to your climate and adapt the process based on when new shoots will harden off in your climate.
For me august is end of winter, start of summer.

I think I did not understand it because our autumn here in Rustenburg, South Africa is very short. The Maple trees here are just shutting down growth(stopped sending out new growth but the leaves are still green) even with temperatures of 23 degrees Celsius at night going up in daytime to 32 degrees Celsius. The trees will only start to change color in early June and bud out again in September. If I cut back all the strong growths now I will probably get new weaker buds growing?

If I read the growing season of Maples correctly it seems that dormancy/not sending out new growth is triggered by daylight length and not temperature so much?

I do have one that I can cut back to see how it reacts in my conditions.

Thanks for the replies Walter and Xavier.

Lennard

Hey Walter (and whoever else feels like taking a stab at the answer),

Do you treat newly repotted trees in this way or do you let them establish for a period of time?

Thanks for your time!!!
Sam

Walter answered my question on his blog.

His response was classic Walter: "All the same"

Happy growing folks!!!

Sam, also recently repotted trees. If they don't grow vigorously I let them grow freely longer. To prune a weak tree would mean to weaken it even further.
The key to this method is NOT to prune with a hedge cutter. The key is to strenghen trees by letting them grow much longer than most bonsai practitioners would. You can afterwards cut them with anything you like, even with a hedge pruner.
Judge by long term results and not by uneducated prejudices.

I am just a newbie. So I wanted to understand this method better. So i asked WP on his blog some questions...it seems I upset him since he told me to ask this questions on a forum, and kept my post for a day but the following day was deleted. I did not mean to offend him, just wanted to understand. I have lots of respect for his experience and knowledge.
So I found this topic, and since it is a forum I would like to ask, so I get a better answer and understand it better.
I leave in Africa...I have growth almost the whole year...in cold climates You have much less growth...so you try to achieve, as much as you can during the warmer month.
So my question is that.
If you just cut with the hedge pruners, any how, without looking where you cut slightly less than the final shape, You are bound to have some short and after that some long internodes...If you repeat that 3 times, you will have an alternation of : first short, then some long internodes, then again some short after the second cut and again some long ones...and then again some short ones after the third cut which is supposed to be the final one for the year in cold climates...Then when the tree is resting you go in and cut to the first two short internodes....so your result for the year is two short internodes....of growth.
I like what he is saying that branches should be left to grow long in order to strengthen the health of the tree, what I dont understand is why the hedge pruners.
I dont have 4000 or even 100 bonsai...and I enjoy trimming my bonsai...why not trim each brunch after allowing it to grow the same length like with the hedge method, carefully after the short (lets say 2 ), internodes, and then grow it in the same manner, and repeat with careful cutting. I am not in a hurry, and I like it.
If each time I cut carefully, at the end of the season I will have 6 internodes and all of them short, and not only two like with the hedge method. I can understand that this method is good for people with so many bonsai since it is efficient and fast, but how it is good for me?.
What is it here that I dont understand? What are the advantages of the hedge pruners for me?
I recently bought some gardenias...they were all trimmed at the nursery like a hedge...By the time I removed all the knobs created by 3-4 branches coming from the same spot, and untangled all the mess, there was nothing left. I can show you pictures to see.
So please explain to me where I am going wrong with my thinking....after all I am just a newbie, and maybe I dont understand something here.

This Japanese maple was exhibited on Kokufu Ten and on Noelanders Trophy, it costs about a yearly salary of a regular worker. There are many things people say abut me, but very rarely they say that I am stupid. Does anyone think that I prune this maple like a hedge to save time? Would I not use the traditional method if I though that it is better for the development of this tree?

The last image is what you get for having an ugly tree throughout the vegetation period. I fully understand that most folks would hate to see this in their garden. But then they just will not develop their maples and most will go downhill.

These gardening measures can ONLY be judged by long term results.
The main thing is health of tree, then quality of long term outcome, then time takes for outcome, then cost and time it takes to work .

Neli, you picked the least important argument and write as if I did this all just for saving time and otherwise there are only disadvantages. The opposite is true. I only do this for the health of the tree and long term quality improvement.
The disadvantages that you state are simply not present, just look at how close I cut. If you hate hedge pruners, take small scissors and achieve the same result in many hours.

My blog is not a forum. I am NOT interested in discussing things there much. I show what I do for free to the world and otherwise wish to be left alone by and large.

This is how I found out about the hedge cutting method:

Many years ago I got several batches of trees, one very similar maples, the other elms, and then some cherries. I picked the best ones of the batch and declared them part of my collection. I planted them into good pots and cared for them for many years according to what I had learned is the 'right' way.

The other ones were for sale. I thought highly of their quality and put price tags on them which were probably too high. They did not sell for a number of years.

One day in November when the leaves were off I finally had a close look at the sale plants and found something amazing. They were much better developed than the ones in my collection. Their trunks were about twice as thick, the nebari was a lot better. The ramification was much better. The only thing that bothered me was that there were way too many branches looking untidy. So I took one after the other and edited the crown. I had the greatest problem: there were so many branches and buds that it was hard to choose. Anyway, in the end my sales trees were MUCH better then the ones in my collection.

What had happened? Well, Every spring I started working on my trees, first with the best ones, of course. After a few weeks I had done abut 200 trees. I never came to the sales lot for lack of time. So I let these grow freely for a few weeks. When they were so big that they dried out very quickly for having too much foliage I took a large hedge pruner and cut them back ruthlessly. Two to three months later I did the same thing. And then in late fall when there was not the danger of the trees throwing shoots anymore. In between I used my aggressive watering and feeding regime, feeding MUCH more than most people would.

And then I decided to do this with all trees on a regular basis. From then on the quality of my collection suddenly rose significantly and continues to do so.

Neli,

I don't understand where your problem is. Of course during the vegetation period there may well be parts wit too long internodes. When the leaves are off the fine tuning will start. then you just cut off the part with the long internodes.

My problem is that You told me that I should not cut to two internodes...during the 3 cuts...and I would like to know why, that is not good for my tree.
Because if I do that at the end of the year I will have better production in therms of growth...as I mentioned before 6 internodes produced in a year, all short ones as opposed to cutting the branch to 2 internodes during the drastic final cut. Which means that my branch will be developed faster.
I want to know what is wrong with that?
What am I not understanding here.

I told you what??
When cutting during the year it better to cut to last foliage pair than to the second one in case of doubt. The reason is simply that new buds will appear right where the last pair of leaves was. When the leaves are off you probably don't want that and cut back again. Had you cut back to the first internode you wold have the new growth or buds right there and keep them. This is why I cut very close. The other reason to cut very close it that I don't want the crown to grow much. After a few years one would have a crown which is just too big.

Sorry Nelie, I just don't understand what you are asking me. I honestly have no clue where your problem is.

Just for your information: the last internode is always the one closest to the trunk. You may have many pairs of foliage. So you try to place your cuts so that there is only one pair left. If you miss one pair and leave two or more you will probably loose that growth in the end. But it is not so important. With this method you get so many new shoots and buds that you will have to get rid of some anyway.

Bob, seems like the discussion has been moved [ and debated/argued ] here : https://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t13460-hedge-method-by-walter-pall
I don't have much to say in either cases [not enough practical knowledge] and its seems that 0soyoung has pretty much explained it for my part and you just nailed it with your comment, but its an interesting exchange.
Personally I'm going to give it a try to both approaches on a couple of ligustrums and come back when I've seen the difference that you explained Bob.

The conversation initiated by Neli has, as mentioned above, has been given a thread of its own and can be found HERE Please feel free to assist Neli in her quest.

This immediate thread of Walter's is still live.

I do not see that my post got moved to the other thread - was it just deleted?

- bob

Bob, your post has been quoted in its entirety by Neli on the other thread and as such appears under her name. Because of that there was no need to transfer the original.

Call me a mad fool, but I've just attacked most of my acers with the hedge shears.

Very satisfying


timR

I'm planning on trying out this "Pall-arding" technique on my shohin one in the next couple of weeks.

fiona wrote:I'm planning on trying out this "Pall-arding" technique on my shohin one in the next couple of weeks.

I have prepared the trees for the experiment...Will post it soon Fiona.

fiona wrote:I'm planning on trying out this "Pall-arding" technique on my shohin one in the next couple of weeks.

"Pall-arding" Should officially be included in the IBC bonsai dictionary I like it . Do we have a bonsai dictionary here?

A Belgian 'friend' invented the term "Pallsai" to insult me. He claimed that what I am creating cannot possibly carry the honorable name 'bonsai'. I am flattered actually that a term is created with my name. I feel not insulted, but honored.
BTW: who would guess that the term "Impressionists" was invented to insult a group of painters about 120 years ago.

So it is quite alright to invent a term with my name for mutilating bonsai for a good cause.

fiona wrote:I'm planning on trying out this "Pall-arding" technique on my shohin one in the next couple of weeks.

Fiona could you translate this "trying out this Pall-arding technique " into normal english... ?

Naw. It loses its impact if you have to explain!!!!

Oh well okay then; it's a pun on "pollarding" - a traditional method of tree maintenance. And it has to be said that pollarding is a very effective method which has stood the test of centuries of practice. If "Pallarding" is as good (and I see no reason why it shouldn't be, otherwise I wouldn't be risking an expensive shohin on it), in decades to come it may just be regarded as one of those traditional methods we do without question because it actually works.

As I have said elsewhere on this forum, the shock of the new is very ephemeral thing - especially when evidence of its success and/or worth is staring you in the face.



btw Walter, the coinage of the term Pallarding was most sincerely meant as a compliment, and I am now quite flattered that you are honoured by it.