Jim's right. Pinching and dis-budding are two different operations and have
two different purposes.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Lewis"
To:
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2004 3:58 PM
Subject: [IBC] Maples pruning


On 25 Oct 2004 at 11:21, Steve wachs wrote:

Hi I hear it called pinching back, but I do the same thing as
you describe, except i do not do it before I put the trees
away for the winter. This is done in the spring. i feel it's
better to let the trees go dormant. for at least 3 months. --


Pinching back is what you do to long shoots in the spring.

The fall pruning, removes the terminal bud, forcing the tree to
put its energy into the (smaller) buds farther back on the
branches. This tends both to promote more side branches AND
smaller leaves.

Rather than _cutting_ off the end of the branch, I prefer to
carefully break off the terminal bud with my fingers, leaving
the vestigial buds that exist immediately under the terminals.
This, too, promotes smaller leaves, shorter internodes, and
better branching.

I do this with all deciduous trees.

Thanks to Brent W. for suggesting this for my sweetgum bonsai a
few years ago, It has helped. (But sweetgum still may be
marginal for "good" bonsai.)

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - When we see
land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it
with love and respect - Aldo Leopold - A Sand County Almanac

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+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++