Pruning and the tree's energy

[TeT12a_sPiN]

Apologies if this is the wrong thread and if this topic was brought up somewhere else.

I am 2 years into bonsai. When I first started, I was eager to prune at any sign of new growth. I wouldn't let branches run, as I thought pruning as often as possible would fast track development. As I've learned throughout the past 2 years, I'm letting my trees flush out and gain vigor before pruning back down.

I recently hard pruned a few cuttings to try to start to build branch taper and the tree has pushed out new buds all over like crazy. So my question is, can I start to get rid of new shoots I don't want right now? Or should I let ALL the branches grow out 4 to 6 nodes or so, then go back in to select my branches? Not sure if pruning this soon will hurt the tree's energy or not. Thoughts?
I appreciate your help with this.

 

[Shibui]

Removing anything will limit the tree's ability to harvest sunlight and therefore energy BUT sometimes it is better to prune than o allow growth that will case problems further down the track.
I let ALL branches grow, sometimes much more than 4-6 nodes UNLESS I think that growth might cause some problem.
Problems can include:
shading or competing with more important branching I want to retain later
inverse taper - especially where many shoots are close together.

 

[Goodbrake]

The general advice I've seen is to wait until the leaves harden off, and then prune.

 

[pandacular]

It sounds like you’re applying refinement techniques to a young plant when they are in need of development. If you’re interested in learning more about this distinction, the Bonsai Empire course on developing from seed is really good.

 

[bwaynef]

Any advice should really start with clarity on your goals with this plant. To answer your question, removing them at this stage will put a damper on energy. That COULD still be the fastest path forward to your goals. It could just as easily NOT be the fastest path. Where would you like to lead this tree?

 

[jeremy_norbury]

Forget pruning - get wiring.

 

[TeT12a_sPiN]

Forget pruning - get wiring.

Wire what?? All the branches were cut down short in order to start growing runners out. Once they thicken, I plan to chop back down not as far and repeat, building branch taper as if you were building trunk taper. Wiring won't come until the branches fill out more and then I can direct them.

The 2 tiger bark ficus I own, I've done nothing but wire the branches and trim at any sight of growth trying to ramify. The result is longer skinny branches with little taper.

I'm just trying to fatten branch bases then taper off towards branch tips...like we all are i suppose.

Pics 1 and 2 below are a cascade TBF I've been training for almost 2 yrs. I grew out all those branches at first for options of ehat to keep and what to cut. But I'm not thrilled at how long and thin they are all over. So my plan is to cut them hard back down to maybe 3 inch branch spikes, let it back budding from the hard prune and start to build taper and essentially reshape the tree in the process.

Pic 3 is an example of a tree i saw on ebay that has somewhat decent branch taper that I'm after.

Pic 4 is one of my branches on another TBF I own that, again, I'm not too crazy about the lack of taper. I'm looking for more of a drastic, quick reduction. Fat to tiny, like in the last 2 pics.

The last pic of I think it's a premna, is EXACTLY my vision of hard pruning branches down to start regrowth and building of taper...thanks for the replies and for bearing with me with these paragraphs.

 

[TeT12a_sPiN]

It sounds like you’re applying refinement techniques to a young plant when they are in need of development. If you’re interested in learning more about this distinction, the Bonsai Empire course on developing from seed is really good.

To be perfectly honest, it was just a few examples of cuttings that I wanted to show the new buds after a hard prune. Where they're all coming out at one spot and letting them be would just become a huge knot.

I know that these cuttings are nowhere near the point in ceasing development to begin refinement.

Was just trying to show what I was talking about on a few different examples. That's all. I apologize for the confusion.

 

[TeT12a_sPiN]

Any advice should really start with clarity on your goals with this plant. To answer your question, removing them at this stage will put a damper on energy. That COULD still be the fastest path forward to your goals. It could just as easily NOT be the fastest path. Where would you like to lead this tree?

I need to develop these trees much more, i know that. I wanted to try my hand at a couple mame ficus and i know i need go let them grow more and to not prune them to develop trunks. I was just showing these cuttings as examples of my original question.

 

[TeT12a_sPiN]

Removing anything will limit the tree's ability to harvest sunlight and therefore energy BUT sometimes it is better to prune than o allow growth that will case problems further down the track.
I let ALL branches grow, sometimes much more than 4-6 nodes UNLESS I think that growth might cause some problem.
Problems can include:
shading or competing with more important branching I want to retain later
inverse taper - especially where many shoots are close together.

I appreciate it. Thanks for the reply.

 

[TeT12a_sPiN]

The general advice I've seen is to wait until the leaves harden off, and then prune.

Ok thanks a lot.