How Often Should You Prune A Bonsai?

Pruning your bonsai is a lot of fun and more importantly it keeps your tree healthy, but there seems to be a lot of confusion around how often you should be doing this.

I get a lot of questions around this topic and people always seem to want to know exactly when they should be doing it, but the truth is …there is no correct answer. There is no magic number I can give you.

You have to prune your tree as often as you think is appropriate, which means you need to consider the trees health and also your goals along with the time of year and somewhere in between all this is how often you should be pruning. This really means things can change over time, but I will go through all this below. 

Prune Your Bonsai When It Needs It

You should prune your tree when it needs to be pruned …which is a ridiculous statement, but it’s the truth.

You don’t need to worry about timescales or frequency of pruning, you just need to look at the tree and asked “does this need pruned now?” and it’s either yes or no.

Of course how you decide if it’s a yes or no does depends on your goals, the trees health and the time of year.

As long as your tree is healthy, the time of year is right and it fits your goals, then you can prune. The frequency of this doesn’t matter and it will change a lot, but all that matters is that all of these things make sense, if they do, you can prune. If they don’t, you have to wait until they are. 

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

What Are You Trying To Achieve With Your Tree?

Before you even decide if you should prune your tree, you need to know what you are trying to achieve as this is really going to make a big difference to how often you are pruning.

If you are trying to develop the tree and get certain areas to thicken up, then you are not going to prune a lot. You are going to sit back and let the tree grow out. You will of course need to prune it back occasionally, but this will depend on what you are seeing. If you are happy with the progress, then prune it, if you are not, let it grow some more.

If your goal is to refine the tree, then you are probably going to start pruning a lot more frequently, every time the tree fires out some new shoots, you will probably want to cut them back and promote more growth in that area, so it becomes even more ramified and refined.  

Your goals for the tree really do matter and it will help you work out how often you should be pruning the tree, but it’s not all that matters, you need to also balance these with the trees health and the time of year.

The Health Of The Tree Always Comes First

While your goals are important …the health of the tree is always more important and should always come first.

This really means that you need to work with the tree and respond to what it can handle, not the other way round. You may want to achieve some fine ramification through pruning, but if the tree is not ready for it, then you just have to wait.

This is one of the biggest reasons why it is so hard to say exactly how often you should be pruning. Every tree will react differently and even the same tree can react differently from year to year which means that how often you are pruning can change a lot.

Basically you have to not worry about how long it has been since you last pruned, just worry about the trees current health and if you think it can handle being worked on right now.

You need to look and see if it is growing well, check if it is healthy, and also look to see if it has it fully recovered from any previous work or anything could be making it weak, such as pests, disease or even the recent weather.

Sometimes things might look okay, but you might want to just give it a little longer to build up some extra strength before you work it, other times it might be slow to recover and you just have to wait until it looks healthy enough to work on again.

The health is hugely important, but again, you also need to balance this with your goals and the time of the year.

The Time Of Year Matters

You really need to consider the time of year as this can really make a difference to how well the tree can recover from the pruning. If the tree can’t recover properly, it is going to become unhealthy and as I’ve already mentioned the trees health always needs to come first.

I will just go through the seasons and explain why some times of the year may be more appropriate for pruning than others.

Winter

In the middle of the winter, the tree is dormant, so it is not going to be able to respond and start healing, but if you are pruning at the end of the winter, right before spring, then the tree is about to explode into life, so this can be a great time to prune. It has the whole growing season ahead of it to recover.

Spring

Pruning in spring is not ideal as you want to just push out its new shoots and get healthy, it may also be recovering from a repot, so it’s best to just wait.

Summer

Late spring into early summer is going to be a great time, the tree is growing and it is going to recover quickly and also has plenty of time to put on new growth.

Autumn

As the summer comes to an end and autumn starts, you have to start asking if pruning makes sense or not. Your tree will probably be healthy enough, but will there be enough time for tree to recover. You don’t want new shoots trying to open at the same time as the tree is starting to go dormant.

Do you also want to remove the foliage that the tree would be using to prepare itself for winter with? When the tree sucks all the energy out of the leaves, this can actually really thicken the tree, so the more leaves at this time of year the better.

If you have seen any of my videos you might have noticed I don’t really prune after July. The trees are certainly ready for it and my goals are often to prune as much as possible …but I know they will not fully recover by winter. I know pruning too late in the season is going to end badly, so I just wait.

How Often You Prune Will Change

How often you will actually prune the tree will change from year to year due to the fact that all the above factors can vary.

The growth rate of the tree can vary, as well its general health and even how long it takes to recover. This can all be affected by the time of year and even the weather along with any other work you have done to the tree such as repotting.

Just because you pruned a tree on the 1^st of June last year, doesn’t mean you will be doing it again on the same date this year. Perhaps it will be around that time, but maybe not.  

You also need to remember that your goals can change too so really you need to balance this all up and decide if the tree needs pruned or not, which means things can change.  

How Much Time Should You Wait Between Pruning Sessions?

If it isn’t clear already, the time you need to wait doesn’t matter. It’s not about time, it’s about everything else.

So let’s imagine you prune your tree today. How long you wait to prune again will be totally dependent on your goals, the time of year and the trees health.

If all of these align after 3 weeks… then prune.

If it takes 3 year for them to be aligned again … then that’s how long you wait.

Of course these 3 factors can change drastically, so this is why the window of time you can wait can vary so much and is why I say you shouldn’t worry about.

Just ask yourself what your goals are, then if the tree healthy and ready to be pruned, and finally, is it an okay time of year to do this, which is really asking if the tree will be able to recover.

So long as you can satisfy these 3 things, you are good to go.   

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

Should You Prune The Branches Of Your Bonsai Tree More Than Once A Year?

If you want to prune a tree more than once in a season, it all comes down to the 3 factors I have discussed throughout.

Is the tree healthy, what time of year is it and what are your goals? …if these 3 things all line up then you might end up pruning the tree multiple times a year.

If any of these are not quite right, then you will need to wait. Maybe your tree isn’t quite healthy enough, however, maybe by the time is ready, it’s too late in the year, so now things are still not in balance.

Every tree and every situation will be different and constantly changing, so it’s not really a question of “should you” it’s more, can you …and only you can decide based on all the information you have.

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

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can understand that asking how often you should prune isn’t a good question. Instead you need to look at the tree and see if it is healthy and ready to be pruned, as well as taking the time of year in to consideration and also your goals.

If you can get these factor to line up then you can prune, it really is as simple as that.

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