Acer Palmatum Leaf Pinching

Mattbonsai · 03-14-2011, 01:26 PM

Hey All,

I have an Acer palmatum Dissectum in my collection who is ready (in my eyes) to be refined, and this will require regular pinching of shoots etc. However, last year I pinched out all the new shoots leaving a pair of leaves at each point. This caused the tree to freeze, and it didn't put out ANY growth at all for the rest of the year, well actually thats a lie, it made a cracking lot of roots! Anyway, I obviously want to avoid that happening again this year, so what do you lot recommend? Should I wait a bit, and let it put out 2 pairs of leaves on each shoot before pinching or is there something else I could do?

Many thanks in advance.

-Matt-

P.s. The bottom right branch in the picture needs pruning back to make it fork, and I'm going to wait until she is growing before I prune it.

P.p.s Do you like the pot? I made it in a workshop at the Cheshire Bonsai Society with Walsall Ceramics.

RED · 03-15-2011, 06:47 PM

The main objective of pinching back acer palmatum growth is to keep internodes short.
Acer palmatum branches with long internodes have poor ramification and denseness of foliage. Creating branches (and trunks on young maples) with short internodes means that creating a tree with dense foliage much easier. To achieve this objective, the first shoots in Spring should be pinched out.
The most vigorous shoots are the first to open in Spring and so pinching out these will remove all shoots that have the potential to produce long internodes.
With tweezers, open the newly opening leaves just as they begin to openand pinch out the central shoot. If you wait until the central shoot can be removed with the fingers, the internodes will have already extended to much. A second weaker budding will follow in 2 to 3 weeks time with shoots that have shorter internodes.
The most vigorous shoots open first, by pinching the first crop of new buds to open, you help balance the trees' vigour throughout the whole tree. Energy and vigour is diverted to the slower, weaker buds on the insides and lower parts of the tree.

03-15-2011, 06:47 PM	#2 (permalink)
RED Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Amanzimtoti KZN 4126 Posts: 38	The main objective of pinching back acer palmatum growth is to keep internodes short. Acer palmatum branches with long internodes have poor ramification and denseness of foliage. Creating branches (and trunks on young maples) with short internodes means that creating a tree with dense foliage much easier. To achieve this objective, the first shoots in Spring should be pinched out. The most vigorous shoots are the first to open in Spring and so pinching out these will remove all shoots that have the potential to produce long internodes. With tweezers, open the newly opening leaves just as they begin to openand pinch out the central shoot. If you wait until the central shoot can be removed with the fingers, the internodes will have already extended to much. A second weaker budding will follow in 2 to 3 weeks time with shoots that have shorter internodes. The most vigorous shoots open first, by pinching the first crop of new buds to open, you help balance the trees' vigour throughout the whole tree. Energy and vigour is diverted to the slower, weaker buds on the insides and lower parts of the tree. __________________

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