drewhart

i just choped an eight foot maple with a two inch stem down to a small low branch about eighteen inches up. i left the tree in its nursery container with the roots uncut. i also make the cut before the buds opened to keep maximum energy in the roots. i did this to rapidly grow the twig as the new leader to heal over the cut as quick as possible. the drawback is that the future branches which are just starting break out along the stem will also grow quickly. their internodes will be long, and given the nature of japanese maple to backbud strongly only at a node, the ramification along these branches will be spaced to far to be of any good for bonsai. my question is once the wound heals to sufficiently and i am ready to move the plant into a bonsai container (hopefully next spring), should i complety remove these new branches and start a freash? is there any way to get the branches to bud before the first node, if i cut into that area instead of completely removing these branches? i can post a picture if it would help.

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