"Oh my, it's so big!
What am I going to do with that thing; it's so long?"

It's not the length, it's WHY you use it.

by Arthur Skolnik, January 25, 1999

Many years ago I watched John Naka styling a tree during a convention. Just after removing yet another large branch, someone in the audience gasped. John looked up and said, "Don't worry, trees want to live too." What he meant was, not only is pruning necessary in the creation of good Bonsai, but sometimes being a severe severer is just as important. Pruning would not kill the tree.

For those who cannot 'see' the resulting pruned tree (in their mind's eye) before branches have been removed, severe pruning can be imitated by masking or covering (potentially) unwanted branches with a large sheet of paper or a towel, etc. The spaces between the keepers (remaining branches) becomes more evident and the best combination or pattern of remaining branches, can then be seen. Suddenly a feeling of confidence rises in the pruner's heart and hand and even thick branches cry to be cut.

A common mistake is to keep thick lower branches and remove thin lower branches at the expense of better branch placement. The position of a branch is a vastly more important criteria than whether or not it's thickness is appropriate relative to its position in the branch placement hierarchy. (Thicker branches on bottom, with successively thinner ones positioned higher up.) Why? Because a thin branch in the right position will thicken with time but a thick branch in the wrong position will always be in the wrong place.

Greater control over shaping the tree becomes realized (albeit slowly) when arguably the simplest technique of all is employed. It is not a closely guarded secret, yet it is not commonly explained in books or used by even long time growers. What is it? Free growing branches! By allowing branches at different levels on the tree to grow freely for several years, one can vastly improve the taper of the trunk and fatten (those well positioned yet) thin branches.

A novice has little, or no experience watching a tree grow or seeing how time, growth over time specifically, especially selective growth sights, can effect the shape of the trunk, branches and bark. By letting just one back branch grow long unchecked, the thickness of the trunk from the ground up to the position of that branch will increase dramatically. As the energy travels up the trunk and out to the increasing amount of foliage quick thickening happens. Ideally a back branch is chosen to 'run-away', because once the desired trunk diameter is achieved, that branch is removed or sacrificed and the scar won't be visible from the front.

The girth of a thin side (or back) branch can be increased the same way. Don't prune it! Pruning stimulates new growth and ramification. Once the desired thickness is achieved, remove the long (now unneeded for design) portion, which took several years to grow. Don't prune foliage to thicken foliage pads and expect a branch's thickness to increase at the same time. Focus on one aspect at a time.

Sometimes however depending on the variety, the foliage migrates outward as the branch lengthens revealing a long bare area of the branch closer to the trunk. If the subject tree is a conifer, do not remove the branch to a point where no foliage remains. An intermediary step must follow; chasing the foliage back. After several severe cuts of foliage, the bare 'keeper' part of the branch will bud back. Wait until the emerging buds show signs of vigor, and then remove the rest of the branch.

For the novice, control over the shape of a tree is often limited to pruning and wiring. Grafting, a multi faceted seemingly complex and exacting technique for improving various defects or faults in trunks or branches, is demonstrated in books. It usually isn't attempted until a broad base of confidence in basic Bonsai ability is built. But creating taper and thickening-up branches is simple. Either plant the tree in the ground, or it can be kept in a container, but the key is to wait and not prune. Most people's focus is not directed at improving taper from the start. The technique is simple, the wait isn't.

In Japan, many producers of very fine Bonsai have small growing fields neatly planted with weird looking pre-Bonsai. The trees may be 1 to 3 feet tall, but a trunk thickening run-away branch, is be allowed to reach (in some cases) an astounding 8 -10 feet in length! Each of those trees is much thinner above the point where the branch is positioned on the trunk, compared to the thickness below that point. Once the grower is satisfied with the thickness of the trunk, the sacrifice branch is sacrificed. In some cases the difference in taper between the upper and lower portion of a tree has become too exaggerated. This defect is easily fixed, using more of the same technique. Many of those trees in the ground in Japan have several sacrifice branches, positioned at different levels up the back of the tree and allowed to grow to different lengths, depending on how much trunk thickening is needed. It is not uncommon to see a pine or maple, for example, 3 feet tall, with an 8 foot long low sacrifice branch, a 5 foot long sacrifice branch positioned roughly at the mid point up the trunk and perhaps a third branch, also on the back, 2 feet long.

The Juniper (procumbens nana) in the photo (PICTURE MISSING) was the subject tree of a workshop in the video, "The Growing Art of Bonsai". At the time of it's birth as the first branch of a Bonsai, this branch was much thinner then it is now. It became thick because the branch length and foliage were allowed to run away. Now that the thickness suits its position on the tree, more than 2/3 will be removed. It is noteworthy to mention, the foliage on the rest of the tree was kept (more or less) in check during the 4 years it took to thicken the branch. The time factor would have certainly been shortened if the tree were grown in the ground. It has been suggested the branch is now too thick in relation to the trunk. How to fix the problem and thicken the trunk? Let a back branch grow long.

To the uninitiated it is possible to create instant Bonsai. But the progression toward high quality Bonsai design, takes years of thoughtful planning and precise, deliberate execution.