Summer pruning young deciduous trees – Bonsai Tonight

It’s been a while since I last pruned some young quince and crabapples I’ve been growing from seed. By pruning in summer I can encourage them to produce new growth that I can wire in fall.

Here’s a six-year old crabapple that I’m growing to be a shohin-sized tree.

Siebold’s crab

The trunk is close to the desired thickness so I removed several of the sacrifice branches.

After pruning

I left a single long branch to maintain the tree’s vigor through the rest of the growing season.

Here’s a close-up of the trunk.

Trunk detail

I did similar work on a crabapple that will likely become a kifu-sized bonsai (20-30cm/8-12″).

Before pruning

After pruning

I treated the wounds with cut paste and returned the trees to a sunny spot in the garden where they can grow freely for the rest of the growing season.

I did similar cutback on several Chinese quince.

Seven-year old Chinese quince

After pruning

I usually leave small stubs when I prune sacrifice branches, but I thought I’d try leaving some green growth on the pruned branches to see how that effects budding. If I don’t get new shoots along the trunk I’ll prune the tree back further in fall to encourage new shoots in spring.

Here’s another tree that I pruned the same way.

Chinese quince before pruning

After pruning

I plan for the quince to become either shohin or kifu-sized bonsai like the crabapples. When the curves in the trunk are tight I can aim for shohin and when they are bigger (as in the two above examples) I can aim for kifu or chuhin-sized trees (up to 45cm/18″).