Time To Wire?

GraemeK

Hello,

I have a few maples, birch, scotts pine and yews which i want to wire up. Is anytime of the year ok as long as i keep an eye on the wire? or would you all recomend a particular time which is best?

thanks...

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spoonman

im not sure, but i think i read autumn and winter is the best time.

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BonsaiBen

I was wondering the same thing. I recently bought a 1 gallon juniper old gold and am considering wiring it. It is my first Juniper so I am not sure what is a good time to wire them. Some places I read that any time is good, others I read that the wire would be bad in the winter to freeze, and yet others I read that this is too early in the season to wire them. Any thoughts?

Bart Thomas(deceased)

I think you can wire junipers and other evergreens just about any time. Spring is best for repotting.

TreeBay

You'll read a lot about working on and wiring Juniper in the autumn, but there are rarely any reasons given.

It might be that the tree's metabolism has slowed and there is less demand on the roots for moisture? There is a little bit of rationale on the BCI page.


http://www.bonsai-bci.com/species/blue-juniper.html

One reason I can see is that many confers take a long time for the branches to take a set - so if you want to maximize the time before you might need to remove the wire to accomodate summer growth, you'd wire in the autumn.

If you are careful, you should be able to wire your conifers whenever you have the inclination - but if it is during a period of active growth, do be especially careful about the possibility of developing wiring scars - so you might have to wire them again to get the affect you want.

Regards,

Matt

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BonsaiBen

Thanks Matt! Whenever I hear conflicting reports like I have heard about wiring junipers I figure that it is all personal experience and there is no perfect time to do it or not to do it.

It is a very raw tree and will probably wire it a bit loosely so not to break the growing bark but enough to give it some shape. I know that I will have to wire it again down the road, but why not start the process now? It is still in a training pot so I might as well give it some shape before the branches get thicker and take forever to set. Right?

washout03

I heard you shouldnt let wire stay on a tree during fall because the bark grows during that season. any truth to this?

BonsaiBen

OK, well I took my chances and wired my juniper today. When you say to to check often for the wire cutting the bark, how quickly does the trunk of a juniper grow? If it has about 3/4" calipher now and is in a bulb pot, how much thicker will it get this season? I put some all purpose 4-6-6 organic fertilizer called garden-tone in the soil and am watering with fish emulsion.