Regularly pruning your Japanese Maple Bonsai is key to enhancing its appearance and health.
Pruning means you will use either your shears or scissors to cut leaves at specific locations around the tree, allowing new leaves to grow at the center of the tree and bottom.
It is, of course, more complicated than simply removing leaves.
If pruning bonsais were as easy as cutting branches, it would not be considered a form of art.
For the particulars of pruning your Japanese Maple Bonsai, continue reading.
This is your complete Japanese Maple Bonsai pruning and care guide.
Why Do I Need to Prune a Japanese Maple Bonsai?
Many people first starting the hobby of bonsai training often do not know why bonsai pruning is necessary.
While it may feel to a novice as simply a waste of time, serious bonsai growers know that this type of practice allows the trees to be as beautiful and healthy as they can be.
Allow All Leaves to Receive Resources for Growth
In their natural habitat, Japanese Maple Bonsais grow both upward and outward.
As a result, most of the leaves in the center and lower part of the tree will die due to competition for sunlight and other resources.
If there is enough obstruction, even entire limbs or branches can die.
By prunning your Japanese Maple Bonsai, you will ensure that all of the most necessary leaves and branches receive enough sunlight and nutrients.
The result is that the tree will be much healthier because its leaves get distributed resources.
Train the Bonsai
The most rewarding and yet the most difficult part of owning a bonsai is training it to grow in the direction you want.
Pruning is a very effective method for training your Japanese Maple Bonsai tree.
With proper pruning, not only does your bonsai become trained, but also appears fuller.
This is because the more leaves that grow around the center and bottom of the tree, the more prolific the tree as a whole looks.
At the same time, by removing certain leaves you can train the tree to grow the direction you want to grow.
When Is the Best Time to Prune a Japanese Maple Bonsai?
Before you get started, it is important to choose the best time to prune your Japanese Maple Bonsai.
The left outside time frame is early spring, fall, and winter.
Instead, you should wait until the warmer summer months.
You should prune your bonsai in the early spring only when you see excessive dead twigs on the bonsai.
Why You Should Not Prune In the Early Spring, Fall, or Winter
You shouldn’t prune your Japanese Maple while it is in early spring because it has not started its spring growth yet.
Pruning the tree too early could set back its growth and even kill it.
You actually want to wait late enough into the spring that the bonsai has finished its first wave of spring growth.
Similarly, you do not want to prune your bonsai in the fall and winter months.
During the seasons of fall and winter the exposure to cold temperatures usually causes twig dieback. If the tree is pruned too much, it could become dead.
Instead: you can simply wait for the spring of the next year to trim, all the dead stems and leaves, that are leftover from the winter.
Prune During the Summer Months
This only leaves the summer months as the times to prune your Japanese Maple Bonsai.
These trees are best to prune during their vigorous spring growth.
This is beneficial for two reasons; you don’t have to worry about over-pruning the tree but it also makes sure that is receiving nutrition to all of its leaves.”
You’ll want to do this two to three times a season.
The only time you want to prune outside of the summer months is if there are dead branches at the start of the biomes spring show.
If you’re cutting dead branches, do it at the beginning of spring so that the live branches use the resources available.
How Do You Prune a Japanese Maple Bonsai?
When the time comes to prune your Japanese Maple Bonsai, it’s time to grab your scissors or shears.
While some plants can be pinched back with your hands, this is not ideal for pruning your bonsai, as you’ll want to have precision and accuracy.
Focus On the Leaves
Generally, you will want to revert your pruning practices back to the leaves and avoid twigs and branches.
You will want to remove any leaves that are deformed or growing in a part of the tree where you are not training your Bonsai to be targeted.
When you prune leaves, you want to take them off as close to the main stem as practically possible.
Leave only a short stub of the stem.
Only Prune Entire Branches If Necessary
If any branches are excessively large and obstructing light from branches below, or are obviously dead, it is okay to prune the entire branch.
Take your time & be especially careful of any branches you cut from your bonsai.
When done the right way, pruning and cutting the leaves and branches on your bonsai helps to train the plant to grow in the desired direction.
So be thoughtful, and deliberate, about the branches and leaves you are planning to prune before you cut them.
Final Thoughts
The task of pruning a Japanese Maple bonsai is no easy task, but it is certainly worth doing.
Pruning, in this case, means using shears and scissors to remove leaves and dead branches during the warmer months.
In doing this operation, you will be able to train your bonsai and make the branches healthier.