Japanese Maples: Crimson Queen Trimming Suggestions, 1 by snapple45

snapple45 wrote:
wha - Try Niwaki style pruning. There is an excellent book by Hobson that illustrates the tenique.
http://www.amazon.com/Niwaki-Pruning-Training-Shaping-Japane...

I can maybe give a verbal description. First you remove any crossing branches ( no surprise there). You remove all small branches from the trunk, called epicormic growth. Those are the very small branches that sprout from the trunk between the main much larger branches. Now comes the tricky part. The goal is to prune for the horizontal. JM buds are opposite - they appear in pairs. You remove all pairs in which one bud points up and one bud points down. This leave pairs of buds that grow horizontal to the ground. From those pairs you work down the branch removing one bud/branch from each pair in alternate fashion. In other words if you remove one from the left side of a branch then next one to take off would be from right side of the branch. You literally remove 3/4 of the side branches eminating from the main frame work. Is this making any sense? I've pruned all my JM's this way for the first time just this month. I took a deep breath and said what the heck. I like the look it achieves for the frame work very, very much.

Attached is a picture of a Sekimori that was pruned this way. Note that anythoing that grew straight up towards the sky or straight down to the ground is gone. Then note that the side branches left are alternate and show a horizontal growth direction.