What Do You Do If You Accidentally Prune The Wrong Branch Off Your Bonsai?

Sometimes when you are pruning your bonsai you make mistakes. Sometimes branches you want to keep …get cut off.

I can sit here and tell you take your time and think about each cut before you do it, but I know sometimes accidents happen.

It’s extremely frustrating when you realise what you have done …but what can do about it? Well, usually not much, but I will go through some possible options if such an accident happens when you are pruning your bonsai.

If The Branch Is Removed, You Can’t Do Anything

If you have removed a branch that you didn’t mean to …well, the branch is gone now, you can’t change this.

You just have to accept that you have cut it off and you can’t really do anything to undo that.

Sadly you can’t reattach it or anything like that, but this doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world, it just means that branch is no longer a part of your plan and will have to accept that and work with what is left.

You Will Have To Wait For The Tree To Re-grow

The simplest thing you can do is nothing, just leave the tree to re-grow.

This will really depend on the species of the tree. Some species will not back bud, meaning a new branch is very unlikely to grow in that same area. However, a lot of trees will, so there is a good chance that if you sit and wait a new branch will form where the old one was removed.

Of course this  branch is not going to be the same and it may take a while to get it to the same thickness and level of development, but it is possible, so your mistake can be fixed, it just make take a few years to correct things.

You Can Redesign The Tree

Something you can do right away is to reassess the whole tree and see if you can redesign it in a way that hides the fact that you removed the wrong branch.

This will of course completely depend on what you removed and what you are left with. It really will be specific to the individual tree, but there is always a chance that you can use what is left to make something interesting.

Perhaps you need to wire some branches to move them into the space where the missing branch was, or just change the viewing angle of the tree. There really could be a million possibilities for what you could do.

Maybe the branch you removed doesn’t really change things much, or just opens up the tree in a new way and makes it look better …so maybe it was a happy accident.

This is really on a question you can answer after you make the mistake and hopefully there can work with what is left and get a good outcome.   

You Might Be Able To Save It If You Have Only Cut halfway Through

If you have cut half way through and realised what you’ve done …you might be able to save the branch.

This is more likely going to happen if you have accidently snapped the branch, and it hasn’t fully broken all the way off, but I guess you could start cutting and realise it’s not where you want to cut and stop before you got all the way through.

Anyway, if you have a branch that is hanging on, it might survive. It is probably going to die …but there is a small chance you can save it.

This will really depend on both the species and how much you have cut through. You should immediately try and get it back to its original shape, so that as much of the two ends of the branch are touching again.  

You should then try and tape them together. Ideally you want to use graphing tape, but I know most people have not got this, so I would opt for some electrical tape and if you don’t have that, then some cling film, held in place by normal tape.

You want to wrap the tape around firmly so it holds everything in place and then hope that the two ends fuse together. Of course they are already connected, so even if there is no fusion you can hope that this small area that is holding everything together just grows and strengthens enough to hold both sides together again.

I would honestly say there is a 99% that the branch will die, but it’s worth trying to save if it was an important branch.

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

Use The Experience As A Learning Point

The most important thing you can do if you suffer from this situation, regardless of the outcome, is to learn from it. 

You caused this problem, so you need to look at what when wrong and try to learn from it.

Did you not pay attention? Did you just try and work to fast? Or did you just not think things through and not really have a plan.

What every the reason, you need to ask yourself how you can avoid it happening again in the future. I am sure you did not enjoy the feeling, so I am sure you will want to make sure it is not repeated.

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

Conclusion

So really, there is often not a lot you can do. There is small chance the branch can be saved if you did not fully remove it, but once it’s gone, it’s gone.  

You can either work with what you now have, or hope that it grows back. Either way it’s a hard lesson to learn and hopefully one you will not repeat.

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