Bonsai Art

How long exactly should you leave wire on your trees? I must admit that I have scarred one or two myself from leaving wire on there too long. Although if you take it off too early the branch will not stay in place. We need to find somewhere between the two extremes to gain the perfect result.

I have tried to to a bit of experimenting with this to find out what is the best sort of time range to leave it on. I think it varies from tree to tree and also with different species. What I tend to do is to leave it wired for about 2 weeks which is not long enough for any scarring. After the two weeks you should take the wire off and rewire it in a different position. If is still doesn’t want to stay in that position you can repeat this as many times as you like to make sure it stays put. I know that other people have different methods of doing it but this is what I find works best for me to stop scars on the bark.

Junipers and other conifers seem to be able to stand the wire for the longest time and it does not seem to cut into them easily. Deciduous trees are the ones to watch out for as new growth can easily be scarred by wire so you should try to only apply wiring to branches which are at least a centimeter thick.