This is a Japanese Maple that I have had for a few years. It has gone through a few years were the growth has been weak and I have lost a branch or two. I have placed it into a training box to gain vigour and it has worked.

As part of the bonsai school with Peter on Saturday we defoliated the tree to examine the branch structure. I had shortened the overall branch length to encourage back budding. It was severely lacking in secondary ramification and I was hoping to find new growth on the interior.

Peter talking through the structure after defolation.

This is the tree now.

Here you can see strong new growth in the interior of the tree. These have been left long to encourage the branch to thicken. A branch like this on the lower limb should be one of the thicker branches and at least as thick as the one on the other side. Ideally we should have left the leaves on it to aid it’s strong growth. We got carried away with the defoliation 🙂