Summer pruning and die-back

[leatherback]

Over the weekend I spent a bit of time getting rid of a major junction on one of my new maples. I received the feedback on fakebook straight away that the trunk would die-back to the roots after the work I did. I was thinking: The whole tree is now actively pushing sugars, nutrients and water around. So it will now respond quickly and start working on callus, rather then die-back. What are your thoughts?

 

[BobbyLane]

what have you gone and done, this could be the beginning of covid-20

on a serious tip. sometimes they do sometimes they dont.
you have active growth in one of the trunks, so should just carry on growing.
but the one that was chopped will either begin callusing quickly or you will get a little die back in the shape of a V.
i chopped an orange dream last year, while in active growth, to a stump, with nothing but trunk. and planted in the ground. it died back from the root base up, all turned black!

what you did is similar to how i treated my katsura project 1 tree. that was done in aug last year.

 

[cheap_walmart_art]

Will it callous over before it starts to die back? I'd be worried that this will cause a big crater in the trunk.

 

[River's Edge]

Over the weekend I spent a bit of time getting rid of a major junction on one of my new maples. I received the feedback on fakebook straight away that the trunk would die-back to the roots after the work I did. I was thinking: The whole tree is now actively pushing sugars, nutrients and water around. So it will now respond quickly and start working on callus, rather then die-back. What are your thoughts?

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Your first picture shows that the trunk you reduced already had little or no growth on it. It appears that it was reduced previously and did not produce a lot of new shoots. For this reason I feel you have a good chance of the new scar healing and the tree surviving! Perhaps in the future simply reduce the stub down to 1 inch or 2.5 cm, leave for a month and then go back and clean up the cut for final position. And as you have already done , seal your work, if done properly it does have benefits.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Hopefully, it will just keep growing and callus over. Nice work. Time will tell.

 

[TomB]

If I understand the pictures correctly, you've done a partial removal of a trunk/branch that still has some greenery up top?
That should be OK, though it's more of a risk (and will take a lot longer to callus) if there's not much active growth further up that trunk.

 

[LanceMac10]

Looks like the right technique to remove large limbs to me. Cut long, allow for sap to re-route itself and then remove stub? And cut-paste too?!?! I would have said that unsealed, you would definitely get a "v-shaped" portion of die-back at the base of the wound. Cutting in growing season might give a "fatter" callous than you would like so think about making the wound a little "hollow" so the callous will roll-over a bit smoother.

Well, at least you/we can see what results you get...as long as you update?

 

[leatherback]

as long as you update?

I think it too early for an update

 

[GGB]

you should've stopped at the point when you took the second photo. The callus would've closed more rapidly with the 2nd trunk above pulling juice. Not that you did anything wrong by removing it completely of course. But it would've been safer. If you have a branch directly above a wound it closes faster. hope that makes sense, removing large branches or trunks in two seperate stages. I'll attach a photo from my phone.

 

[GGB]

Will start using this method myself next summer

 

[just.wing.it]

Will start using this method myself next summer

I was thinking that too....I need to remember that technique for future chops....

 

[LanceMac10]

I think it too early for an update

Referring to the

Will start using this method myself next summer

Yes. And take note, the notch is on the inside. @leatherback version is incorrec

 

[LanceMac10]

crikey!!! 10 attempts to post the above trainwreck!!

 

[River's Edge]

Will start using this method myself next summer

This method is only useful if the branch above still has sufficient active foliage! Not apparent in the OP picture presented!
Also it is good to remember that if the first cut is smaller and presents a larger callus one can always rework for a more finished product later on. Actually it is often a better result to rework the scar in successive stages as long as the initial cuts leave room for that process. If you wish to study that process it is well documented in Meriggioli's ne book " Bonsai Maples"

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

you should've stopped at the point when you took the second photo. The callus would've closed more rapidly with the 2nd trunk above pulling juice. Not that you did anything wrong by removing it completely of course. But it would've been safer. If you have a branch directly above a wound it closes faster. hope that makes sense, removing large branches or trunks in two seperate stages. I'll attach a photo from my phone.

Nice technique! I’ve seen it somewhere and can’t remember the source. Can you please tell us your reference?
Cheers
DSD sends

 

[River's Edge]

Nice technique! I’ve seen it somewhere and can’t remember the source. Can you please tell us your reference?
Cheers
DSD sends

Page 338 Meriggioli's book on Bonsai Maples!, It is originally credited to Mr. Ebihara and probably mentioned in many previous magazines and books.
I have previously seen it in Golden Statements and Bonsai Focus but cannot remember the specific references for those.

 

[GGB]

@River's Edge Thank you for the notes, and I didn’t even think of the fact that the op’s tree is lacking foliage in that area. I am aware of the scar healing methods because I own meriggiolis book, which is where that picture came from.

If I can add, after I posted those two photos I realized that Andrea requests that information from his book isn’t reproduced online. So, oops, I obviously can’t take that back but meant no disrespect to the king of maples.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Page 338 Meriggioli's book on Bonsai Maples!, It is originally credited to Mr. Ebihara and probably mentioned in many previous magazines and books.
I have previously seen it in Golden Statements and Bonsai Focus but cannot remember the specific references for those.

So sorry about that! I figured out that I saw this before referenced in a Bonsai Empire forum. Here’s a link with both Ebihara’s root and trimming sacrifice branches in Moonlight bonsai
cheers
DSD sends

 

[GGB]

Thanks diver, that is just about the most root bound I’ve ever seen a tree

 

[leatherback]

Thx. I know of the technique. I even considered it. But I did not see a way of doing this with the trunk I have . Too little space between the two, and they had actually over some inch of so, all but fused. Which is why in spring I held back the trunk to be removed, hoping that stimulates the roots to feed of the other trunk more.