Bonsai leaf pruning on a hornbeam: defoliating to reduce the leaf size

Why do you make a leaf cut?

1. for denser branching.
2. so that the leaves can receive light evenly.
3. to prevent the inner branches from dying off.

When do you make a leaf cut?

You can start the first leaf pruning in mid-May when the leaves have grown large enough. If yellow leaves appear inside the crown, the crown is too densely overgrown with leaves, then you need to thin out. You always cut the leaves by feel. This depends on the time of year, the stage of growth, the variety and the health of the tree.

1. classic "two-leaf cut"

Cut back the new shoot after the 2nd leaf or pair of leaves. You can generally use this technique with all types of trees. The first leaves on the new shoots are usually small, the second ones are already larger and so on. Leave the first sheet untouched and cut the second in half.

When do you do that?

Usually at the end of May, until the end of June, when the leaves are big enough.

Hornbeam carpinus betulus
A shoot that is large enough before leaf pruning. (Hornbeam-Carpinus betulus)

This is what pruning looks like. If the first leaves are too small, you can leave them as they are.

Example of this leaf pruning method. Most deciduous trees are tip dominant, which means that new leaves grow back faster at the top than at the bottom, so we leave more green mass in the lower area. (you leave 2 leaves at the top, 3-4 at the bottom)