Creating short internodes....

[fredman]

Thanks Paul. Good to see you here again

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Whenever you cut back in spring or summer or fall (early winter) to a bud there will be a vigorous explosion of that bud with long internodes, because it takes over the apical dominance. Yes it is somehow less vigorous than the original one (but still...). It is more effective to prune back to the small growth more inward (the result of leaf thinning and thinning of shoots in spring / summer the year before). You don't want to shorten them since the buds you prune back to will be more vigorous than if you don't and you will create an imbalance. Let them grow in spring so they take away some energy, the secondary buds will swell and open (you select leaves so...), when they stop extending (with small internodes) cut back to those secondary shoots. Also leave some zones/ branches grow long at the same time, energy will be channeled to these branches and will keep the rest shorter. This is how i understand the process in developping the basic structure for japanese maples. It's a different story when they become more refined. We don't have extremely long growing seasons so that might be the reason that pinching even in development works well. Here most of the time it slows the plant down to much.