Can Bonsai Trees Be Pruned Too Much?

When it comes to pruning your bonsai, there is a limit. You can end up pruning your tree too much and it will cause you problems.

While the goal of bonsai is to prune your tree, you need to take a balanced approach, balancing the trees health with its progress. It is better to take things slow, so you know the tree is always going to be healthy.

Pruning Will Refine The Tree But Also Weaken It  

Pruning your bonsai really is a double edged sword. Every time you prune, your tree will grow back twice as many branches. You can go from 1 branch to 2, and then prune these 2 to create 4 and so on. 

It makes sense to prune a lot, you are going to end up with a very refined tree with hundreds of branches. This is exactly what we want, so you would assume that pruning a lot is the way to go …but there is one big problem with pruning …it also weakens the tree.

Every time you prune you are literally removing some if its ability to produce energy and this causes the tree stress and it has to use some of its resources to recover from it.

If you prune too often, this is going to cause you tree a lot of problems as it is not going to be able to recover as it is in a contestant state of weakness.

(You can read more about – Pruning Aftercare Advice For Your Bonsai)

You Need To Let Your Trees Grow

As much as bonsai is all about pruning a tree to shape, it is equally about letting it grow. A lot of things in bonsai revolve around balance and this is especially true with pruning. 

You have to let you tree grow at times, it needs this. A tree that is growing can build strength and vigour, which will keep it healthy. If you are always pruning then the balance will be off and it will be constantly in a state of response, trying to overcome the weakness that has been caused by the pruning. 

I think people forget that every time you prune the tree you are removing some its energy and in an attempt to recover from this, the tree will dip into its reserve supply of energy …causing it become even weaker.

Of course it does this so that it can bounce back and become stronger, but if you don’t give it the time to recover properly and replenish itself, then it will just become weaker and weaker and eventually die.

(You can read more about – How Can You Tell If Your Bonsai Tree Needs Pruned?)

Growth Helps Prepare The Tree For Winter

Letting your tree grow out is also important for its winter survival. Every autumn your tree will suck all the energy out of the leaves and pull this down into the roots. This energy can help it survive winter as well as grow next spring.

This means if you are pruning the tree too close to the end of the growing season, the tree isn’t going to have as much energy available to prepare itself for winter and you could be putting it at risk of not actually being able to survive the cold.

If you watch any of my videos you will see I leave my trees alone at the end of summer, even if they are ready to be pruned, I would rather the tree has that energy available to it …I can prune it back in late winter when the danger has pretty much passed. 

You Can Prune Evergreens Too Much

When it comes to evergreens, especially conifers, it can be very easy to prune them too much.

You have to remember that they get all their power from the foliage, so the more you prune them, the weaker they will become. 

This problem is made worse by the fact that they will not easily back bud on older wood in the same way that deciduous trees will. This also means that if you totally remove all the foliage from a branch, it will just die. It will not just push new growth out like a deciduous tree.

You have to manage a conifers growth very differently and carefully or you can quickly end up in trouble. Your tree will either end up being far too large, or dead, both of which are not ideal for bonsai.   

Can You Prune Too Much In One Sitting?

Pruning too much in one go is possible, sort of. It really depends what your goals are. If your tree can handle heavy pruning, then really you can go as heavy as you want. You can hack a tree right back to a stump and it will re-grow.

However, does this help with the trees progress as a bonsai? …sometimes it will. Doing a trunk chop makes sense on some trees, but is this something you should be constantly doing? …absolutely not, as then you just end up with a trunk after every session and the tree makes no progress.

How much you prune back during an individual session really depends on your goals. Just because you tree can take a lot of work, doesn’t mean it needs to be worked to the extreme every time. If a light pruning is going to help with your trees progress, then that is all you need to do.  

(You can read more about – Frequently Asked Questions About – Pruning Your Bonsai)

You Will Just End Up Pruning Parts You Want To Keep

If you are pruning your tree too much, you are going to end up pruning away parts you want to keep.

Let’s say I prune my tree up today, which should be fine …but then what happens when I come back and try and prune it before its ready?

The tree will not have grown yet, there will be nothing new to prune, which means, I need to just prune things I had left alone last time? None of this makes any sense. Surely everything l left alone last time where the parts I wanted to keep …so what I am going to do now? Decide that I should now prune these parts back?

We are trying to build the tree, not just slowly hack away at it. If you don’t not let your tree grow, you can’t prune it and you will just be cutting away parts you want to keep which is just insanity.

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can see that pruning your tree too often may seem like a good idea on the surface, but it will inevitably weaken your tree and cause it to suffer in the long run.

Let your tree grow out and get some vigour, then prune it back and allow it plenty of time to recover again afterwards. This may feel like you are making slower progress, but slow and steady will win the race.

Don’t over prune your tree, it will not end well, just take your time and allow your tree to be healthy. 

(You can read more about – How To Prune A Bonsai Tree – A Beginners Guide)