Pinching Hinoki

[Jzack605]

I have a few Hinoki Cypress that have been in my hands for two years. One I am trying to developer pads, while the other I don’t have much of a plan with. The latter one is developing into a windswept or potentially a semi cascade. I’m planning on pinching them soon. But I’ve been contemplating on how far back you can go and what the ramifications are for harder pinch-backs. Typically I would just pinch back the new growth to the shape I want the pads.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Yikes, Pinching is a controversial word. Generally, "Pinching" is bad. Loose that word and that activity from your bonsai vocabulary. Bad, bad. Partly teasing, but seriously, pinching is an old recommendation, likely from mistranslation from Japanese to English. Especially for younger trees. If your tree has been training for less than 5 years I can pretty much guarantee that pinching is usually inappropriate technique.

Use a scissors. cut out full segment of fans by tracing back along the vein, or stem, to where the fan starts. Hard to explain in words. Normally you don't remove the whole fan, just a segment unless the whole thing is growing the wrong way or out of place.

Watch the video series Bonsai Art of Japan, by Bjorn Bjornholm and Owen Reich and a few others I the episode 4 they briefly discuss Hinoki and you can see the arrangement of the fans of leaves. The ''Pinching'' described is for old, mature bonsai who's style is set. Pinching is done only once or twice a summer, it is not something done continuously. If you pinch continuously you will weaken and kill your tree.

The technique to use most heavily is "shoot selection and pruning", done with the scissors. This is the main technique to use for young trees. Meaning trees that are less than a decade old and trees that have not been to major shows yet. Young trees, more pruning, old trees more pinching. A little of both inbetween.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Yikes, Pinching is a controversial word. Generally, "Pinching" is bad. Loose that word and that activity from your bonsai vocabulary. Bad, bad. Partly teasing, but seriously, pinching is an old recommendation, likely from mistranslation from Japanese to English. Especially for younger trees. If your tree has been training for less than 5 years I can pretty much guarantee that pinching is usually inappropriate technique.

Use a scissors. cut out full segment of fans by tracing back along the vein, or stem, to where the fan starts. Hard to explain in words. Normally you don't remove the whole fan, just a segment unless the whole thing is growing the wrong way or out of place.

Watch the video series Bonsai Art of Japan, by Bjorn Bjornholm and Owen Reich and a few others I the episode 4 they briefly discuss Hinoki and you can see the arrangement of the fans of leaves. The ''Pinching'' described is for old, mature bonsai who's style is set. Pinching is done only once or twice a summer, it is not something done continuously. If you pinch continuously you will weaken and kill your tree.

The technique to use most heavily is "shoot selection and pruning", done with the scissors. This is the main technique to use for young trees. Meaning trees that are less than a decade old and trees that have not been to major shows yet. Young trees, more pruning, old trees more pinching. A little of both in-between.

While pinching is not appropriate in all cases, it is the best way to re-direct growth at the tips to back-budding closer to the trunk in many cases, especially on deciduous trees. Anybody who says that it is not a good practice in any case probably doesn't own a decent tree.

 

[cheap_walmart_art]

Watch the video series Bonsai Art of Japan

I hadn't come across this series yet. Its a good watch!

 

[Jzack605]

I’ve seen that video. Have been using his pinch method as well as pruning longer shoots. I should post an image of the tree I am mainly trying to build pads on. The pads shown in video is exactly the direction I am trying to take the tree.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Pinching is not a good practice.

 

[Vance Wood]

Pinching is a misnomer for a technique that is quite useful and is really not pinching at all, it is more like pulling the new growth out at the joints. I'll let you stew on that one until tomorrow, actually latter today, I'm going to bed. I've been chasing this site all day because of this stupid certificate crap.

 

[Jzack605]

Yeah I’m aware what it does. I’m just using the terms I’ve seen others use for the technique.

 

[Jzack605]

Pinching is not a good practice.

How so? What’s the alternative?

 

[Vance Wood]

How so? What’s the alternative?

Cutting back to a junction with scissors, which has two major draw-backs if you are nor careful: One; if you carelessly go back to bare wood the odds of getting back budding is minimal. Two, If you cut through the plates that make up the growth needles/plates, rather than cut through the area between them, or at a joint still green, you will get ugly brown ends as your reward for missing the point. The problem with "Pinching";--- many people do not pinch they tear, or use finger nails to act as very dull scissors. Both these techniques leave brown ends. True pinching is to grasp the ends of the pads firmly in the left hand and carefully grasp the individual ends and pull straight outward till the growth separates from the rest of the pad at a weak point between the scales. This does not leave a brown ends, the tree seems to accept the technique well and stimulates back budding. On a Hinoki this is important, understanding that they do not back bud well on lignified/bare wood.

 

[Jzack605]

Understood. The only time I got brown ends on my Hinoki’s was from clipping them. The “pinching” I have been doing has yet to cause brown tips, so hopefully that’s a good sign I had been doing proper technique as you say.

Is the purpose of cutting back to a junction to stimulate the growth to go more upward?

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

The purpose of cutting back is to remove growth growing in the wrong direction. Period. I know, not a helpful answer, but if you look at your tree, growth that is going up, where you want out, that is growth to remove. If growth is going out, or down, or wherever where you want up, that is the growth to remove.

As long as there is green left at the point you cut, there can be back budding at that location and the tree can eventually send out new growth. Hopefully the growth will head in the right direction. You can to some degree see which buds will take over, this is how you direct growth. It takes practice.

Developing fans, in part is done by wiring not just pruning. This is the ''fiddly bits'' of Hinoki, difficult for people with fat fingers like myself. In late summer, you wire the thin branches, bring together branches to make a horizontal plane, Upward wandering branches can be laid out to horizontal, similar downward branches can be brought up. Wire all the barked up stems right up to, or into the green if you have to to get the shapes right.

It is tedious detail work but well worth it in the end.

 

[Jzack605]

Got ya. That was my understanding from the get go in what fans/foliage to remove.

I wired it last year and removed early spring. The branches actually set pretty well and will keep an eye if I need to wire again later this year

 

[WNC Bonsai]

I wish there was a good resource on hinokis like there is on pines and junipers and maples. The hinoki stuff comes in dribs and drabs like this and often not in complete context. These are such beautiful trees that can make great pads if done correctly, but finding the magic combinations can be difficult. Some of the old guys who have put it all together need to write it all down before they enter the big sleep and take all that hard earned knowledge with them. I think that is one reason Peter Chan is turning out videos on his YouTube channel as fast as he can—I have learned a lot from watching him.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

One question I have on the cutting and pinching thing is if I have a tree with large amounts of foliage, and I am talking pads that are several inches long, do I only pinch the tips or do I cut these back to a inch or so long and force backbudding to make even denser pads? I guess this really is a matter of creating the pads and the silhouette during develoment but there always is the question if just how far back do you cut. Here is a photo of one tree I plan to start working on next spring once the roots have regrown.

 

[Shun]

Nice to see more tips on developing Hinoki's! I agree with Cofga about hoarding all the knowledge there is to them and put it all together in one concise and objective thread/session.

I know its a lot of work and that is why there isn`t one.. But one can dream, right? In the mean time I keep on absorbing all the bits of knowledge I can on them!!

thanks

 

[Vance Wood]

Understood. The only time I got brown ends on my Hinoki’s was from clipping them. The “pinching” I have been doing has yet to cause brown tips, so hopefully that’s a good sign I had been doing proper technique as you say.

Is the purpose of cutting back to a junction to stimulate the growth to go more upward?

NO; the idea is to enduce back budding that goes laterally. You want to remove all growth that extends from the top or from the underside of any individual branch. You try to keep things going to the sides. You have to settle it in your mind that Hinokis create pads through accumulating layers of successive side branches. You do not mound up the growth on one branch like a pom pom, you bring growth over from a neighboring branch if you need a rounded pad. Mostly the pads are flat like you see on a Spruce in the forest. It is in the abundance of these elements together that give the illusion of pads. In case you have not figured it out this tree is not easy, culturally or artistically.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I have yet to turn out a show bench worthy Hinoki. I bought a nice overgrown shohin size hinoki, it had been owned and shown by the previous owner, really a fine tree, but the foliage has all extended out to the point where it could not be kept shohin size without removing most of the branches.

Right now I am in the process of removing long branches with no foliage except at the tips, and replacing them with younger branches, but I don't have enough young branches, so at the moment I'm ''betwixt and between'', trying to figure out future moves.

I do not consider myself expert enough to write such a guide to Hinoki, it would be nice to have a guide.

2015


2017

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Nice to see more tips on developing Hinoki's! I agree with Cofga about hoarding all the knowledge there is to them and put it all together in one concise and objective thread/session.

I know its a lot of work and that is why there isn`t one.. But one can dream, right? In the mean time I keep on absorbing all the bits of knowledge I can on them!!

thanks

I am not suggesting they are hoarding their knowledge, just can’t make the time to get it together or possibly don’t realize what a limited resource they are sitting on.

 

[Shun]

I am not suggesting they are hoarding their knowledge, just can’t make the time to get it together or possibly don’t realize what a limited resource they are sitting on.

Maybe I expressed myself wrong! I meant to say that we could all benefit from getting all the information about the species and make a dedicated thread about it! Did not mean to say someone is hiding something from us..! Its just that its a lot of work and most, if not all, of us dont have much time available to share more!

I have yet to turn out a show bench worthy Hinoki. I bought a nice overgrown shohin size hinoki, it had been owned and shown by the previous owner, really a fine tree, but the foliage has all extended out to the point where it could not be kept shohin size without removing most of the branches.

Right now I am in the process of removing long branches with no foliage except at the tips, and replacing them with younger branches, but I don't have enough young branches, so at the moment I'm ''betwixt and between'', trying to figure out future moves.

I do not consider myself expert enough to write such a guide to Hinoki, it would be nice to have a guide.

2015
View attachment 246866

2017
View attachment 246867

Nice tree! I hope you create a thread for this tree..! I would follow it with much interest! Best of luck on rebuilding it!