How to prune an Acer palmatum bonsai?
Image – Wikimedia Commons / Ryan Somma
Chances are your passion for bonsai started when one day you started looking at pictures of these little trees. This happened to me when I saw some Japanese maples because they have leaves and placenta that I just love. In addition, they tolerate pruning very well and become very lovely with minimal care.
However it is vital that you know how to prune a bonsai Maple palmatebecause even if he recovers successfully from this, we must not forget that a job done poorly can complicate his recovery.
When should you prune a Japanese maple bonsai?
La Japanese maple pruning, whose scientific name is Maple palmate, this should be done at the end of winter when the buds have not yet sprouted, but they will soon; that is, it will be pruned when the buds begin to “swell”. But be careful because if slow frosts usually occur in your area, you will have to wait until they pass or damage may occur.
Moreover, if the temperature drops below 0 degrees and your plant has already started to sprout, it should be protected with an anti-frost cloth, otherwise it may lose its leaves. Pruning in these conditions will need to be delayed until temperatures improve.
What type of pruning should be done?
There are three types of pruning:
- Management: this is the one that, as the name suggests, is intended to shape the bonsai and give it style. It involves eliminating all those branches that do not fit the style you want to give it, as well as trimming those that grow too much. In order for the tree to suffer as little as possible, this is done at the end of winter (or in spring, if there are slow frosts).
- Maintenance: It involves removing dead and diseased branches and stumps, if any. This is also done at the end of winter.
- Biting: is a type of pruning that involves removing the newest leaves from some or all of the branches. Since green, fine material is being cut, this should be done all year round.
Photo – Flickr / jacinta lluch valero
What materials do I need to prune bonsai? Maple palmate?
You really don’t need much. While purchasing a set of bonsai tools can be a fantastic idea if you plan on collecting these types of plants, if on the contrary you only intend to have one, you can operate things you probably already have at home.
For example: To pinch, ordinary household scissors are enoughor even those used in the kitchen; for training and care pruning, anvil shears that you operate to prune rose bushes They will also come in handy provided the branches are 1 centimeter hefty or less, if they are thicker you will need to purchase a handsaw or handsaw.
Of course, it is vital that tools are cleaned before and after operate. Mushroom spores cannot be seen, but that is precisely why they are so perilous: they operate their “invisibility” (actually, under a powerful microscope, we can see them) to reproduce, and the worst thing is that pruning can be a unique opportunity to infect a bonsai. But to avoid this, I insist Tools should be cleaned thoroughly with soapy water or a damp cloth.
how to prune bonsai Maple palmate Step by step?
Photo – Flickr/Jerry Norbury
You usually buy a bonsai with a specific style, but even then the plant needs to be trimmed to maintain it. In any case, if this is not the case, you should know about it Japanese maple suits virtually any stylealthough the easiest is the one that takes into account the natural development of the plant.
Related article:
Bonsai Styles
In other words, if your maple has a straight trunk and a roughly triangular crown, its style will be chokkan; if instead it has more branches on one side than the other, you can give it a windswept or fukinagashi style; If several specimens grow in the same pot, try making a forest bonsai.
And that’s it the most lovely bonsai are those that have been pruned without excessive modification (apart from the size, of course). Once you are confident in the style of your Japanese maple tree and when the time is right, you can prune it as follows:
- The first thing is to decide what style to give it if you don’t have it defined yet.
- Then you need to remove all the branches that are dead (parched), as well as those that intersect.
- Likewise, if a branch grows forward, you must see if it can be of operate to you by connecting it so that it grows to the other side; otherwise you can cut it out.
- If one is very long, you should prune it by making the cut above a bud (buds are the little bumps that stick out from the branches).
As for pinching, this is done to make the branch branch out more. Therefore, it should be done in spring and summerby removing the newest leaves with your fingers (grasp them like tweezers) or scissors.
We hope this will make it easier for you to have a bonsai Maple palmate Lovely.