Today, I was asked for the name of a book that would explain pruning in depth for bonsai. I couldn't think of one. One of the best places I know of for this kind of information is from my website, but even there, the information is scattered among several different articles. This got me thinking again about my approach to bonsai development. I detest cookbook approaches and prefer to take a systems approach based on how the tree grows. It's the old give a man a fish parable. If you learn how trees grow, you can answer most of your own questions about when to prune, how to prune, and the effects of such pruning.
I discovered a most influential article on this subject about ten years ago. It set me on a path of analyzing everything I did when I had a pair of shears in my hand. For beginners, I can think of no better way of learning about trees, and I encourage you not only to read this article, but bookmark it and study it. It is a little dense and you may have to look up a few things and think about it a lot, but it is probably the single best source of a concise system approach to tree growth. Other than reading Naka's books, it is the best thing you can do to guide your development to right thinking about trees.
Kim Coder's Crown Pruning Effects on Roots
(This post was first published as a thread on BonsaiSite)
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