If you have a newly sprouted seedling or a really tender branch that you want to train, bend, or lower, and you're worried about doing harm you might consider my version of air-wiring.
Materials needed - appropriate length of fine aluminum wire & wire cutter
a pencil or chopstick
1 used wine cork or any of the following - an apple, orange, hard-boiled egg (still in shell) Strange recipe you say?
thin plastic tubing - aquarium tube, medical type will do
OK - Anchor one end of your wire into the cork, fruit, hard egg (whatever) which is held firmly - leaving that end straight for 3-6 in., then wind your wire around the pencil at a 45 degree angle until you have a length 2 or 3 times the length of your sprout or branch. Cut off. (the wire not the tree)
Take the straight end and slide it down into the soil (for sprout) and turn it through a drainage hole in the pot for anchoring. Gently thread the young shoot through the coil of wire and bend the 'coiled cage' to the shape you want. Or for use on a branch just use the straight end to anchor onto the trunk.
If desired you can slide the plastic tubing over this wire - in advance - for additional padding.
Option #2 - If you lack the proper wire - take a pre-coiled wire from an old wire bound notebook or calendar and straighten one end and cut to the length you need. This kind of wire is springy and will not hold the shape you want unless you use a skewer to pierce it and pin it back into the pot.
CAUTION - do not TOAST your tree or electrocute it !! Don't let your coiled wire get near any overhead lighting fixture.
Notice that I wasn't worried about you - just the little tree?
Could we see a picture? I would think that if it is too tender to wire, it might be better to wait until it grows a bit. By the time its strong enough to handle being wired it should still have some springiness to it. Another option is to use strips of cloth as guy wires, similar to what you might use to tie up tomato plants.
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TomM
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Over on the forum for indoor bonsai - see manIK's post on "New cutting - future direction".
His excellent photo of a newly rooted cutting of fukien tea shows great detail. He asks about wiring of the very straight new 'trunk'.
The spacing between buds is so small that cloth strips might just be too wide and cover everything up. But air-wiring, loosely bound, hardly touching the plant at all, yet bent to a new shape, could guide the future growth into the shape desired.
If manIK tried to wire his new cutting in the traditional way he might easily rip tender new roots that are just beginning to anchor and feed the plant. The 'air-wire' is all twisted in advance and puts no new pressure or movement on those tiny young roots.
You are right though - it still might be too soon.
His excellent photo of a newly rooted cutting of fukien tea shows great detail. He asks about wiring of the very straight new 'trunk'.
The spacing between buds is so small that cloth strips might just be too wide and cover everything up. But air-wiring, loosely bound, hardly touching the plant at all, yet bent to a new shape, could guide the future growth into the shape desired.
If manIK tried to wire his new cutting in the traditional way he might easily rip tender new roots that are just beginning to anchor and feed the plant. The 'air-wire' is all twisted in advance and puts no new pressure or movement on those tiny young roots.
You are right though - it still might be too soon.
Last edited by TomM on Wed Mar 31, 2010 6:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Victrinia Ridgeway
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Not to be contrary or anything... but why?
We are talking about things the size of toothpicks. Wiring of any sort isn't useful or needed.
Unless of course you are going for micro bonsai. In which case have at it... otherwise... let it grow, let the tissue lignify so that there is no damage to the shoot.
If you have some examples of bonsai which have been done in this style for a several years I would enjoy to see it... as I am puzzled at best.
Kindest regards,
Victrinia
We are talking about things the size of toothpicks. Wiring of any sort isn't useful or needed.
Unless of course you are going for micro bonsai. In which case have at it... otherwise... let it grow, let the tissue lignify so that there is no damage to the shoot.
If you have some examples of bonsai which have been done in this style for a several years I would enjoy to see it... as I am puzzled at best.
Kindest regards,
Victrinia
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TomM
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- Location: Cedarville (SE of Utica) NY, USA
Victrinia, I appreciate your comments, and wise advice. I may have gotten carried away with my suggestion to manIK, and I shouldn't have switched between the 2 forums.
But he asked about wiring his very straight new cutting of fukien tea. Yes, he could just let it grow out for (?) years. That might be fine. But from my experience fukien tea gets very brittle very quickly and can not safely be wired unless done early on. Normal wrapping of wire around 'brittle' branches or trunks usually snap them off. Crack !!! Oooops. Dammm1#@^
We've all done this.
My air-wiring suggestion was simply meant to be an idea for giving the young shoot a little shape or bend before it lignifies and sets permanently into this arrow-straight structure. It is not a long term technique.
And it might not be the best answer. Right now manIK probably has other worries. He is in Rhode Island, the Ocean State, and we've been hearing how bad the flooding is there. Let's all pray he is OK, as well as all those along the coastline in the Northeast.
Hey man - you OK?
But he asked about wiring his very straight new cutting of fukien tea. Yes, he could just let it grow out for (?) years. That might be fine. But from my experience fukien tea gets very brittle very quickly and can not safely be wired unless done early on. Normal wrapping of wire around 'brittle' branches or trunks usually snap them off. Crack !!! Oooops. Dammm1#@^
We've all done this.
My air-wiring suggestion was simply meant to be an idea for giving the young shoot a little shape or bend before it lignifies and sets permanently into this arrow-straight structure. It is not a long term technique.
And it might not be the best answer. Right now manIK probably has other worries. He is in Rhode Island, the Ocean State, and we've been hearing how bad the flooding is there. Let's all pray he is OK, as well as all those along the coastline in the Northeast.
Hey man - you OK?