Cut paste on wire bite

[pandacular]

While unwiring one of my trees, I found some spots with wire bite that down to fresh, green wood. Is it worthwhile to treat these with cut paste (i. e., Kiyonal or Callus Mate, the proper paste kind not the putty)? Is this part of your practice?

This tree is an Azara, a species of broadleaf evergreen. I understand that wire bite is generally treated differently on deciduous species, so interested to hear about that as well.

 

[Deleted member 47471]

I haven’t reached this stage in my junipers. What I’ve read and learned is wire bite will heal over time and no longer look unsightly. I suppose rewiring in the other direction (counter clockwise after previously clockwise) could age the bark appearance and create a desired rough look. A healthy tree should recover easily from wire bite, right?

 

[pandacular]

A healthy tree should recover easily from wire bite, right?

You've landed upon an "it depends!" trap. I think the biggest factors are species, age, and depth of bite. An old maple, shown in it's winter silhouette, might be marred by wire bite for many many years.

It's certainly true with conifers that it will heal to an acceptable level, but those things are never shown naked.

And just because it will recover doesn't necessarily mean we shouldn't help it along.

 

[Deleted member 47471]

You've landed upon an "it depends!" trap. I think the biggest factors are species, age, and depth of bite. An old maple, shown in it's winter silhouette, might be marred by wire bite for many many years.

It's certainly true with conifers that it will heal to an acceptable level, but those things are never shown naked.

And just because it will recover doesn't necessarily mean we shouldn't help it along.

Okay, good luck

 

[hemmy]

Is this part of your practice?

I wouldn’t bother on the pictured branch. There still appears to be a layer of cork cambium covering it. I have on elms and juniper when it was more severe than yours.

 

[pandacular]

I think you're right; it was actually greenest on the underside of the branch, but I didn't capture that (one of the challenges of color-blind bonsai!) This piece really isn't bad, and I only treated the parts where I rolled the cork due to bad technique.

I did go ahead and treat the really green parts on one branch and left the others, just to do a little experiment.

 

[leatherback]

There is no need, unless you actually damaged the bark when pulling it off. It is not an open wound, it is a depression because the branch could not expand.

 

[pandacular]

I think one thing I'm learning about this species is that when removing (or applying) the wire, it's very easy to pull a little piece of bark off. It's a genus that I'm not sure I've found examples of as bonsai, so it's been intersting learning this. Definitely my junipers and maples don't lose bark this easily!

Well, my technique is definitely wack too