I read its not beneficial if I cut the leaves and defoliation also doesn't seem to be the best method. Any idea?

Treebeard1 wrote:

I read its not beneficial if I cut the leaves and defoliation also doesn't seem to be the best method. Any idea?

You did not add a picture, but what you probably have is such an S-shaped young tree.
Cutting leaves/defoliating it is not a good idea. You'd need to get branching/ramification.
However, your tree is not going to be ready for leaf size reduction for a very long time. You need to develop the tree first.

Thank you very much! I attach a picture of my tree, I find the leaves huge compared to the size of the tree.

They are huge. The problem however is more the size of the tree. With a bigger tree the leaves look smaller.

I find that many people dont realize that bonsai are much bigger than they seem on a picture..

leatherback wrote:

I find that many people dont realize that bonsai are much bigger than they seem on a picture..

Podocarpus are always big bonsai, so the leaves get in proportion.
I particularly don't like them as bonsai, they are used as hedges here. But if you like it, let it grow a lot and train it as bonsai during this journey.

There was a nunnery in Hong Kong that had podocarpus everywhere. They called them Buddhist Pine.

The trees looked decent as bonsai, but they were all pretty large - a couple of feet at least. Actually, it was Hong Kong, so they were all close to a meter or larger. The size makes the needles look smaller. It will be a while before your tree is that large.