This tree is becoming dense, and to avoid inner branch weakening, this is the time of year to trim long shoots and one of every pair of leaves. Here is the starting point., can’t even see the trunk now!
After shortening long shoots and removing one of each pair of leaves.
The upper portion was pruned a bit heavier to allow sunlight to reach the interior areas.
Below, against a better background.
And a couple close ups of the nicely-developing bark…
This Itoigawa came from Chikugo-en, via Bjorn in 2014. I started styling it shortly after, and here are a few shots through the years.
This tree was wired after the leaves fell, late November 2020
By the second pruning in late spring 2021, it was time to remove wires.
And in mid-summer, it was time to get a look at what was going on under all that foliage.
During explosive growth, whorls and strong shoots can develop, which aren’t useful to the design of the tree. I left the long shoots in case one was necessary as a sacrifice branch, but most of the leaves were removed so I could prune back the growth to evenly-sized transitions and pairs of shoots at each terminal.
Exactly 3 weeks later, here is how the tree has responded. The leaves are slightly larger, and the internodes on some shoots are longer.
So the tree was lightly pruned, removing long shoots back to the first internode, and some of the larger leaves were removed.
And then it was returned to the bench to continue growing out.
Nebari Bonsai 