Question about pruning.

I have yet to do any pruning to help shape my trees yet. I have stuck to removing branches that are in problem spots, and cutting back the leggy shoots to get them to back bud(which has been pretty successful.) The thing is, it seems like several of the branches on my tree are about 2/3 of the final size I would like, and already have established secondary branches, as well as the odd tertiary branch.

What I would like to know is, when you cut a branch back to one leader, does the base of that branch continue to thicken much? Or is it basically fixed in that size? I probably have about another 5 months of warm weather, so if I could start working on actually developing the branches, it would be really cool.

The more side branches a main branch has, the fatter the main branch will get. If you remove the side branches you at least will slow the thickening of that branch.

JimLewis wrote:The more side branches a main branch has, the fatter the main branch will get. If you remove the side branches you at least will slow the thickening of that branch.

But, the base on the main branch that leads up to the cut(and consequently, the new leader) will continue to thicken, right? I want to take advantage of the new set of buds that are getting ready to break, and develop things a bit more.

We just had a thread dealing with a similar topic.
https://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t9612-a-plant-physiology-question
-Jay

drgonzo wrote:We just had a thread dealing with a similar topic.
https://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t9612-a-plant-physiology-question
-Jay

Yeah, I read that a while ago. I think I may have gotten a little lost, as it seemed to become more technical.

You will get the most and fastest thickening if you do not cut the branch or apex back. The general idea is that once the primary section has reached a thickness you are happy with then you should cut back to a lower bud and allow that to grow until you are happy with its thickness then cut back again. This is how you produce nice taper on trunks and branches. This said the branch or apex will continue to thicken after the cut, but much more slowly. If you cut a branch and leave secondary branches below the the cut the will continue to thicken that section and aid in the callousing process.

The tree will always continue to thicken as it grows its just a matter of how fast you want this to happen and how much you wish to control the internode spacing. Different species react differently to these techniques and part of learning bonsai is experimenting and seeing how the tree responds, overtime these experiments add up and you learn from both the mistakes and successes. I have found that I've learned the most from my mistakes.

Todd