How to Prune a 10cm Bonsai Tree
Pruning small bonsai is fiddly work, but this DIY tree is overgrown! Today’s work is focussed on establishing the secondary branches of my Lonicera shohin or mame bonsai and I will show you how to prune a 10cm bonsai tree.
Propagate Japanese Maple Bonsai tree from Cuttings (Step by step) is one way to create bonsai. I created this bonsai from cuttings. Today I’m not repotting large and difficult trees, nor Bending the Unbendable – Experiment with a Larch. no, This is how to make a bonsai tree, with pruning
Absolutely gorgeous highly underrated species these hey everybody i’m darren this is tiny tree tuesday and in this show i’m going to be spending some time working on one of my trees just going to chat through it talk about what i’m doing it’s just as simple as that let’s dive in so we’ve had a lot of nice lush growth we’re starting to extend in the upper regions we’ve had some buds lower down on the trunk as well i’m going to start by pinching out some of these buds i don’t need those down there and then with a toothbrush i’m just going to try and persuade this moss off just so i can see what we’re doing with the trunk there’s nothing particularly uh aesthetic about the bark on these it does have some texture and it kind of exfoliates in like a oh that was daft just knocked that off oh dear oh dear that’s not a good start is it not to worry i don’t think i need that branch in all honesty but that’s no excuse so i started this little uh tree as a as a cutting a hardwood cutting there’s a video for that [Music] i had to do that process and and whatnot the species is lunaceropiliata which is a shrubby honeysuckle similar to knitted la nissa and nittaner which has a smaller leaf and more of an upright habit they’re very easy to propagate from cuttings very reliable even from the you know even from thick pieces the front somewhere in here now and i’m looking at the structural branches i don’t see any um structural moves that i need to make right now what i’m more interested in now is start to build out the ramification in a sustainable way and that’s going to mean doing some pruning taking the length back a bit this particular species produces birds in an opposite fashion which means that that they are at the same level on a branch as opposed to alternate which go like that like that like that like that you can get three or more buds coming from one position on a branch and that can lead to structural issues i’m going to start with the lowest branches always so there’s a dead twig on the inside let’s just cut that off there’s a piece that’s very close in on the interior i don’t actually need that as i come further out with this branch i’ve got another upward facing interior piece that i don’t need and then out here look we’ve got a much stronger piece coming from the interior i’m going to leave that because i think we can make use of it we then have another small piece that’s going to be very hard for you to see it’s quite short just there i’m going to leave that one and then out towards the end we’ve got a small piece here and another small piece here and then we’ve got this strong tip that’s growing away and i cut this strong piece right back to three leaves and that’s brought the length of this branch in quite nicely and in general i’m happy with the length of that branch i’m just going to cut this one back a bit as well that doesn’t need to be as long and when it’s strong enough to wire i might use it to create a bit of a pad shape structure here in fact i am going to cut the end of this branch off completely and that’s going to leave this piece here and this piece here so i’m cutting back to two pieces of ramification that are really nicely oriented and i’ve got this piece here that can give a bit of a bit of internal growth so it’s not all out at the tips next i’m looking at the structure of this branch i like this piece of ramification that comes out here that’s looking nice i’ll just knock off that little that little dead stub there this divides into two it divides into three actually i like the position of this piece here and this stronger piece here and on the inside we’ve got like a tiny little shoot that’s growing back in towards the trunk oops that wasn’t what i meant to do this is all going horribly wrong the tree this size it’s really hard to show you what i’m doing and do it at the same time that’s my own fault trying to be too clever okay with this piece that’s left we’ve got a little bifurcation at the top there we’ve got a small piece again there so i’m just going to cut this bit the length of that bit back and also the bit that’s facing upwards that can come back trim that piece there underneath we’ve got a little stub that can go trim that back there i think this sub divides into two and then two again so that’s structurally okay yeah yeah it is but lengthwise let’s cut that back and finally it goes upwards here and it divides into quite a lot so it divides into like three or four here i’m okay with the bit that goes upwards i’m okay with the bit that goes towards the back of the tree so i’m going to remove this very strong piece that’s coming forwards because there’s already a branch it in that area to fill the space got the length of this piece back quite hard and this one can stay just a little bit longer there’s a weak piece on the interior there that i don’t need cut this strong scarred piece back to three pairs of leaves finally on the inside here we’ve got a bit that’s cutting right across the tree again and i have to be very careful coming in here make sure i cut the right piece this time there we go got it there’s actually a flower still there oh it’s falling the flowers on these are very beautifully scented i must admit they got like a very lemony citrus aroma the bees love them and if you leave the flowers on they become these beautiful translucent purple berries absolutely gorgeous highly underrated species these i think that branch is complete now so i’m just going to cut this one back just a little bit more there we go so that’s going to start to form the silhouette and this piece here will give us a bit of body to work with the next branch that i’m going to turn my attention to is this stronger piece that’s going off up here there’s a couple of interior pieces coming from this crotch that i definitely don’t need i just get those out very carefully there’s one underneath as well it’s going to make it much easier to see what i want to do structure wise get those lines nice and clear lovely i’ve got a group of four here all in very close proximity to each other it’s gonna make the decision a lot easier if i cut this very strong bit back to two side shoots cut it back here and this shoot on the inside i don’t know whether i want to keep it but for the time being i definitely don’t want that bit cutting all the way across the trunk we do still have a group of three in here we’ve got the piece to the back we’ve got the piece underneath and then we’ve got the piece in the middle to the front they’re not creating a structural issue in the immediate future so i’m going to leave those as they are so the length of this one i think i think just there’s quite nice and i think we’ll cut this one a bit shorter yeah i’m happy with that branch no mistakes there either okay so on this back branch i’m gonna start by just trying to clean up a bit so i can see what’s happening we definitely have a structural issue with this branch it comes up to here and divides into two equally strong bits and that’s creating inverse taper there’s a lot of visual weight here that’s catching and holding your eye i think this one’s a bit straighter it’s got less ramification there we are i think that’s a lot nicer we’ve got this strong skyward bit i don’t like the way it’s facing back in and it’s getting quite strong so i’m just going to remove that one clear out that crutch there of some small buds because it’s quite congested in here i’m just going to pop off a few leaves just so that i can see what i’m doing clear out the junction a bit that’s going to make it much easier to get in and around it’s very congested there and i want to make the right decision up here now we’ve got two interior pieces coming off the top we’ve got a piece facing forward towards the end here we’ve got a bit of an awkward bullhorn structure where the branch has been cut and these two pieces have come off at quite obtuse angles okay so the move i’m going to make is i’m going to cut this piece off there got some nice ramification out here let’s just go back in length on that one this one’s okay yeah so from the front this bit’s just sticking straight up and it’s quite it’s quite an awkward angle it’s a little bit coarse as well so i’m just gonna i’m gonna knock this piece off the end here i’ll just transition to this bit which has got some nice ramification out on the end so we’ve got a nice bit of ramification forming out here but i think it’s a bit long i’m gonna leave a couple of pairs of leaves on that one finally we’ve got this one don’t mind this one being a bit longer let’s cut it back to there and all of these pieces are going to be able to make a nice little pad looking at it from the front that’s going to give us a nice little bit of depth there now we’re working our way up the trunk line we’ve got to change the direction here there’s this small piece coming off here and then around towards the back there’s another piece now looking at it from the front this piece is nice and visible this piece at the back is completely invisible and there are branches above it that i can use so i want to come in and knock that one out do a better job on the stub there though there we go we do have some unwanted crotch growth so let’s pull those buds off clean up with the shear that’s where it’s left some bits behind [Music] then in here we’ve got we’ve got a shoot here and above it there’s another one at the same level as the trunk leader and a branch i’m going to get rid of that one it’s on a funny angle there we do have a group of three in here but it’s because it’s not causing any structural issue i’m happy just to cut this back there’s two nice little shoots there that i can cut back to and this upwards growing one i’m just gonna pinch the tip out of that there we go and then we’ve got a group of three coming off this piece here take the middle bit out and again i’ll pinch the tip out of that vertical piece there i’ve got this strong bit shooting off this way pluck a few leaves off the structure here so i can see what’s what again just so i can get a feel for what’s happening because we’ve got a lot of weight on this branch that’s very horizontal i wonder if just taking some of the weight out of it will just make any decisions a bit easier so i’m just going to quite roughly cut it back to there chop that bit there by removing that we’ve got a nice couple of we’ve got a piece just there i’ve got a piece here to use for ramification on that bit and then on this bit we’ve got another group of three with one that’s very vertical and getting stronger so i’m going to take that strong piece out pinch this one back pinch that one back prune and prune in here i’m going to clean out some foliage on that bit and cut right back to there for that one this is looking much airier the structure has been clarified we’ve chosen our secondary scaffolding as ryan neil on bonsai mariah calls it in fact i’m just going to pinch the tip out of this there we go that’s looking a bit better okay that’s like a nice a couple of stubs down here there we are we’re done and this summer hopefully we’ll get some plenty of back birds form i’ll start building out some denser pads it would mean the world to me if you could check the subscribe button if you’re not already subscribed this is the ideal time to do so i’ve got tons of content planned videos on creating bonsai from scratch training accessible material as bonsai as well as my usual tree updates and working on my own bonsai so if you’re not subscribed already it would mean the world to me if you’d hit that button it’s free and you can always change your mind later thank you so so much for watching and i’ll see you next time
