bonsaiTALK Community - View Single Post - Correctly Wiring a Tree into the Pot

The next series of pics shows how this is accomplished. The wires are connected at the corners and loosely twisted together, just snug it up a bit. Plan your work ahead, so that the final tie will be above the portion of the nebari that will hold the most force, i.e., away from the slant of a slant style tree, etc. Make your wires with a longer end (to go across the wide side) and a shorter end (for the narrow side). Once you have gotten three sides twisted, you will have one tail left.

Instead of trying to tie that one into the middle of a wire, make a small tail with an extra piece of wire and loop it around the first wire, twisting it several times to keep it attached. Now you have two ends to twist together. This is the one that will take the force. Snug this one as tightly as you can, alternating between pulling with your pliers and twisting up the slack. If you pull and twist at the same time, you will tend to break your wires.

Then go back and snip the extra bits. If the wire wants to ride up the nebari too much, you can use a bit of bamboo chopstick driven into the rootball as a peg to space it out.

It's impossible to teach good technique except in person, however it is good to try to illustrate new techniques. I hope this has raised questions and perhaps clarified a few things about wiring trees in pots.