Slice branch on long axis to make Kengai/Han-Kengai?

[nearbeer2001]

Good day and thank you very much for taking time to review my question. I am very new to the hobby (yet to get my first tree/plant) and have a question about cutting a limb/branch for the purpose of shaping it.

My late grandmother has a Japanese Maple on her property that is over 12' tall and we think it is about 20+ years old. I would like to remove one of the more flexible branches, slice it along the long axis and make two halves or four quarters, and begin bending it so that I can make a Kengai style bonsai.

Will slicing into quarters kill off the branch?

Have a great day!

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Probably, yes.
In conifers you can get away with this most of the times. In deciduous trees it can be problematic, because they compartimentalize less.

It might be easier to chop at a node, and make it produce a bunch of buds that you grow out into branches.

 

[Gabler]

Good day and thank you very much for taking time to review my question. I am very new to the hobby (yet to get my first tree/plant) and have a question about cutting a limb/branch for the purpose of shaping it.

My late grandmother has a Japanese Maple on her property that is over 12' tall and we think it is about 20+ years old. I would like to remove one of the more flexible branches, slice it along the long axis and make two halves or four quarters, and begin bending it so that I can make a Kengai style bonsai.

Will slicing into quarters kill off the branch?

Have a great day!

Focus on getting the branch to root first. Once it's established, you can worry about cutting it to shape.

Design is the exciting part, so it's what newcomers tend to focus on, but you should learn the horticultural basics before you go about styling a tree. First keep a tree alive in a pot for a year or three, and then start bending and twisting it.

For what it's worth, softwood trees (i.e. conifers) tend to be shaped more by wiring, and hardwood trees (i.e. broadleaf deciduous) tend to be shaped more by pruning, although both genres involve both techniques. Hardwoods are called hardwoods because they have hard wood, and it's harder to bend the wood when that wood is hard.