Thanks Marty great advice
You are correct (IMHO) defoliation should be one of the final steps in
bonsai design and it is rear to have a sacrifice branch and the tree being
at the point where defoliation is the proper thing to do, but I believe this
was the correct step in the training process for this tree. It had a nice
compact top but the extended overcast, rainy weather caused the inter-nodes
on the top to increase and the petioles to get way long. I left the
sacrifice branch just to increase the taper at the base of the tree. Next
year (2004) I will be cutting this branch completely off and then the
following spring (2005) I believe it will be time for it's first Bonsai pot.
I think it will make a decent small (8-9") bonsai.

I was wondering if defoliating the sacrifice branch was the proper/safest
thing to do even though it is contradictory (slows girth growth) to the
purpose of the sacrifice branch. I was concerned that if I left the leaves
on the sacrifice branch the tree, might give up on the, fairly well
developed, top.

So far most list replies said it was the safest thing to do.

Doug.

..
----- Original Message -----
From: "MartyWeiser"
To:
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 10:19 PM
Subject: [IBC] Trident maple training question


I would like to add that growing long sacrifice branches and defoliation
are
generally done for very different reasons. The long branches increase the
size of branches and trunk below them, but have very little use in the
finished bonsai and are almost always removed two nodes or less (less
being
most common). Defoliation is designed to promote the development of more
fine branches on a tree that already has its basic structure and the
branches are approximately the correct size.

It is possible and reasonable to have a small number of sacrifice branches
on a tree that is being defoliated. These are generally not defoliated
since defoliation defeats the purpose of allowing the sacrifice branch to
grow wild. However, this is generally a very carefully defined strategy
on
a reasonably well developed tree - "this bit here needs to be a bit
thicker".

Marty


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