AusBonsai

I have a japanese maple that I already like the shape of but the branches don't seem to have a great deal of leaves on them.
Will defoliating the maple (in spring of course) force more growth along the branches? If not, how do I get it to push more leaves out of it?

Cheers - Craig.

Hi Craig , defoliating does improve ramafication on most deciduous trees. I have been pushing Japanese Maples to their limits with leaf removal and can safely say that multiple Defol's can be done .Back budding is very rare unless there is an old leaf node from which the new shoots can sprout from . If the growth is too rampant they tend to have a greater distance between the leaf nodes . I usually cut them back to the first pair of leaves or branchlets and only allow 1 pair of leaves to sprout and harden off before tip pruning the new shoot then repeating the process . Hope this helps . Cheers Alpine

Thanks for the info Alpine, much appreciated.