Japanese Maple Maintenance

The practice of pinching Japanese Maples (may apply to other maples or all deciduous), is to develop branch internodes of decreasing length—can be hard to achieve against fast growing nature.

It may be that I am fertilizing during the growth season, but as I tend each small tree every few days, I will often be surprised by an extremely long branch. Out of proportion and not worth consuming energy to it, I would prune back and let it start over.