Cutback and leaf pruning European beech

Now’s a good time of 12 months to examine the foliage on deciduous bonsai to see how full the crown is. In case you can’t see by the tree, it could be due for a while within the workshop.

Mature beech, for instance, are often good for a single flush of progress in spring. If the tree is wholesome, it’ll push lengthy shoots. Lowering these shoots to just some new leaves is usually sufficient thinning for bushes in center phases of growth, but when the silhouette is full or the leaves are giant, decreasing the leaf dimension can let extra gentle fall onto the decrease branches and attain into the inside of the tree.

Right here’s an instance of a tree that has been reduce and leaf pruned.

European beech – 33″

Earlier than thinning, many of the tree seemed just like the lowest department on the proper facet – dense! I eliminated about half of the leaves from the tallest tree and leaf pruned 80-90% of the remaining leaves to about half their authentic dimension.

The tree was bare-rooted this previous repotting season so I don’t count on many new shoots this summer time, however usually I’d count on no less than slightly summer time progress.

The following step for the tree shall be to take away the leaves and carry out fall pruning in November or December when many of the leaves have turned colour.

Within the meantime, I’ll preserve watering and fertilizing the tree to get it as wholesome as attainable earlier than winter.

Information and Updates

• The Sei Boku Bonsai Kai is internet hosting their thirty eighth anniversary present this weekend on the San Mateo Backyard Middle at 605 Parkside Means in San Mateo. Present hours are 10-4, Saturday and Sunday, June 3-4, with an illustration Saturday at 1 by David De Groot. David is the founding curator of what’s now the Pacific Bonsai Museum and writer of Rules of Bonsai Design, a wonderful useful resource specializing in bonsai kinds and styling. Come early to take a look at the membership gross sales and distributors within the backyard space. I’ll have instruments, provides, and some bushes readily available so for those who’re within the neighborhood, cease by and say howdy!
• In the end, the Bonsai Wire Podcast is again! Our publishing schedule received’t totally be again to regular for some time however we’d prefer to share a number of episodes we recorded final fall whereas we’re gearing up for what’s subsequent. On this episode, Sam Tan and Addison Galambos inform us how they progressed so quickly in bonsai each of their research and within the organizations that they assist run, respectively, the Bonsai Society of San Francisco and East Bay Bonsai Society. Try the episode on the Bonsai Wire Podcast.