Maple pruning

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Shohin
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In Peter Adams book "Bonsai with Japanese Maples" in chapter two development methods he mentions several times that pruning the main leader and first branch" if the new trunk line is thick enough to look believable as a tapered step in the truck" then it should be pruned in August. What he seems to be refuring to as pruning a lot of ppl would call a truck chop. Anyways this seem contradictory to the usual advise of doing this work in spring.
I certainly want to follow the advise given in the book but it just doesn't corelate to what I typically read on this forum. What gives?
 

Shibui

Imperial Masterpiece
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You'll find that different people have success with different times and methods. Once some have had initial success they then stick to that and promote it as THE way to go. The range of different experience indicates that there's far more latitude in most techniques than many allow.
The discrepancy you've noted just means you can trunk chop at different times of year and still likely to be successful.
In some cases there can be a slight difference in how the trees respond to chop at different times of year. Winter/spring chops often result in lots of vigorous vertical shoots, often with longer internodes. Similar chops in summer/autumn often gives less vigorous shoots with shorter internodes so maybe that's what Peter Adams was getting at but forgot to mention in that section?
 

dbonsaiw

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You'll find that different people have success with different times and methods. Once some have had initial success they then stick to that and promote it as THE way to go. The range of different experience indicates that there's far more latitude in most techniques than many allow.
Such an important point.
The discrepancy you've noted just means you can trunk chop at different times of year and still likely to be successful.
In some cases there can be a slight difference in how the trees respond to chop at different times of year. Winter/spring chops often result in lots of vigorous vertical shoots, often with longer internodes. Similar chops in summer/autumn often gives less vigorous shoots with shorter internodes so maybe that's what Peter Adams was getting at but forgot to mention in that section?
Just to add a wrinkle - trees don't always do what we want when we want them to. It's possible to be growing out the next section of leader and it's just not ready to be pruned in early spring and needs to grow some more. You get to prune in summer if it's ready. Just another window.
 
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