It's well-known that pruning using scissors, cutters, or shears is the important way to train your tree. There are two different techniques: Maintenance, which involves maintaining and refinishing an existing shape; It’s a great way to keep your trees healthy, but it should only be performed in the spring or fall, while Structural is more rigorous, where you cut away large parts of the tree so it can be shaped into basic styles or shapes. For example, if you don't prune the higher stems, your tree will spend more resources on dead branches and leaves at their ends. You certainly do not want this in bonsai.