Trees grow from the tips, gaining mass behind them. In bonsai the goal is to control how the tips grow (shape and balance) and manage how they gain the mass along the way. We use that growth in many ways; building mass to make branches bigger, to make entire parts of the tree bigger, or to put the finishing touches in the form of ramification.
The “clip and grow” term is used to describe letting a branch grow until it has 5 or more leaves, then trimming it back to one or two. This is performed during the growing season. Each node has a dormant bud where the leaf stem attaches to the branch, which can be signaled to grow when the branch is trimmed back. A dormant bud is circled in red below:
Grow the branch to 5 or more nodes (leaves):
Trim it back to 2:
Dormant buds are signaled to grow:
The process is repeated for the new growth to develop ramification (leaves removed to show detail):
Over time dense ramified twigs can be built. Here is an example of a deconstructed Japanese Maple, which starts like this:
I have been studying bonsai since 1994, in an ever-increasing obsessive fashion. In our last 5 years prior to moving from Iowa to Alabama pursuing a career in the foodservice industry, my bonsai collection was limited to a few varieties that could survive brutal winters outside, or winters under dim light in the dank basement of our humble duplex...my wife puts up with a lot. Including the trailer hitch I put on our brown 1983 Chrysler New Yorker to pull a U-Haul full of trees to Nashville for a 3-month stop along the career path that led us to Alabama. 12 years later, we no longer have the New Yorker; and not a single one of those trees remain on my bench, having given the last holdout to a new club member this summer. I prefer collecting native trees and buying the classical species used in Japan, feeding organic, and reading everything I can get my hands on.
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Super good article. A great basic. Grow to 5 or more cut back to 2 or 1 reminds us pickers if we let it grow then cut, it is developmental, and picking is pretty much just stopping growth..
Very cool how you were able to grow those branches on a piece of paper to show the whole procedure… 😉 JK! This is one of the best representations I’ve seen of the whole process! Keep it up. 🙂
Keep up the good work, Buddy!
Quite a nice, ramified branch you sacrificed for the cause. So that is what they call a sacrifice branch 🙂
What a cool series of photos. Nice post Brian.
Super good article. A great basic. Grow to 5 or more cut back to 2 or 1 reminds us pickers if we let it grow then cut, it is developmental, and picking is pretty much just stopping growth..
Very cool how you were able to grow those branches on a piece of paper to show the whole procedure… 😉 JK! This is one of the best representations I’ve seen of the whole process! Keep it up. 🙂
Reblogged this on Bonsai Eejit.
Reblogged this on twinsrat bonsai and commented:
very simple showed
That was the best example I have seen, Very Helpful ! Thanks Brian
Really good way of explaining the ramifications great to see it with the pictures 🙂
Reblogged this on Kaya's Bonsai Corner.
Reblogged this on Bindi Bonsai.
Best explaination on ramification yet. Simple and to the point. Thank you.