Welcome to our next installment of Tip Of The Week.
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You can leaf trim a maple two years in a row. Skip the third year,
then begin the cycle again. All the above applies to single bonsai or multiple plantings.
Interested in past articles? Click for your choice below.
This weeks topic is trimming bonsai with leaves. Whether you live in a temperate,
sub-tropical or tropical climate, there are native species of leaf trees,
and there are different methods of trimming different types of trees. Following are
a few pointers about trimming Japanese Maples. Next week I'll cover a few other types.
Japanese Maples feature opposing buds. New leaves grow in pairs,
side by side. It is best to remove one leaf of each pair, alternating from side to side.
Trim off both leaves at the tip of a shoot when it gets to the desired length.
If you wish to do a leaf-trim, sometime between the last week of June and the first week of July (NOT MUCH BEFORE OR
AFTER), remove EVERY leaf on the tree at the point where the leaf meets
the stem, leaving the stems on the branches. If you want to repot or root prune the Maple, this
is the time to do it. You can bare-root it and reduce the root mass by 1/3 or less, or you
can just trim off some of the outer roots but it should be done the day the leaf trimming is
done, or within a few days, but no later.
During this time don't forget to water. Put
the bonsai in a shady spot. With no leaves, it doesn't need sun. The shade will be helpful
to the moss. After about a week, the stems will fall off. After about another week,
new leaves will begin to grow. At the first signs of growth you should put the bonsai
back in the sun. You can now begin to breathe regularly again. The result will be
twice as many leaves at about half the size of the originals. That's a pretty good return
on your labor.