How to know when to take wire off?

[Azz]

I was looking at the wiring on my juniper and notice that the bark was worn away in some places and showed green underneath the wire.

In one spot I can see it looks like it dug in a tad (I think) Is this bad ?

Did I take it off at a good time? Too early? Too late? What are the normal signs of when to take off wire?

 

[jszg]

It depends on the species: I can only speak from my very limited experience, but when the wire just starts to bite in, or at the threshold of biting, the branch is definitely set. This is not true with spruces, and I assume firs, who have "reactive wood" as well as more elastic wood (an adaptation to heavy snow-loads), and thus tend to revert after removing wire. There are also some species with smooth or delicate bark- like maples or beech, where the wire biting in marrs the branch or trunk for a long time.

If the branch will thicken, like when it is actively growing, even deep wire bits might fill in after a year or three of growth. I think you here are fine.

 

[Schmikah]

I was looking at the wiring on my juniper and notice that the bark was worn away in some places and showed green underneath the wire.

In one spot I can see it looks like it dug in a tad (I think) Is this bad ?

Did I take it off at a good time? Too early? Too late? What are the normal signs of when to take off wire?

Generally conifers require wire to remain on for quite awhile. Like @jszg said, this is generally due to snow load. This means that wire has to stay on basically until it bites in and creates scar tissue that will hold the branch in place.

Deciduous trees require much less time as most species (if not all) set as the tree grows, so many times that can be as little as a week.

Also, Deciduous trees are shown with no leaves many times, so having wire bite into the bark is very undesirable.

So, for your juniper specifically, you probably took it off a little early.

 

[Shibui]

I don't like wire marks on any species. Natural scars can look good but spiral marks never look good IMHO.
I take wire off at the very first sign of marking anywhere along the branch/trunk. Often wire will put more pressure at the bends so check all along for the first signs.
That wire mark on the juniper above is quite deep so definitely time to get it off.
If any branch starts to straighten after removing wire just wire it again. It is usually recommended to put the next wire on winding the opposite direction so there's less chance of laying it into any marks and making them worse.

 

[StarJasmine]

I take wire off at the very first sign of marking anywhere along the branch/trunk. Often wire will put more pressure at the bends so check all along for the first signs.

It's often quite hard (for me) to see whether the wire is cutting in or not, do you have any tips for that?

Today when checking one of my trees I carefully unwound some of the wire starting at the trunk, so that I could see if there were any marks underneath. (Obviously if there was I'd cut the rest of the wire off, not unwind it). That seemed to work okay but if anyone has a better technique I'm all ears!

 

[Shibui]

Someone here told us if the wire looks flat underneath that means the bark has grown up round the bottom side of the wire. If the wire still appears round there's no problem.

 

[WeeTree58]

I'm with Shibui the moment the wire looks like it's cutting in I'm taking it off. You can always re-wire but sometimes can't fix the damage that leaving wire on too long can create.
It's not visibly that hard to tell if wire is cutting in, err on the side of caution

 

[Schmikah]

I don't like wire marks on any species. Natural scars can look good but spiral marks never look good IMHO.
I take wire off at the very first sign of marking anywhere along the branch/trunk. Often wire will put more pressure at the bends so check all along for the first signs.
That wire mark on the juniper above is quite deep so definitely time to get it off.
If any branch starts to straighten after removing wire just wire it again. It is usually recommended to put the next wire on winding the opposite direction so there's less chance of laying it into any marks and making them worse.

That calls into question the use of copper wire for conifers.

Not to invoke the call to authority fallacy, but I've heard multiple professionals (Ryan Neal for sure) talk about leaving wire on for long periods of time. I could be mistaken, but I think multiple years was floated as a common time frame for conifers.

That might be a function of how many trees they're dealing with, but why specifically use copper?

Our club old timers use it specifically for trees where the wire is going to sit for long enough for the wire to oxidize, thus blending in and having the work hardening to hold a stubborn tree in the long haul.

 

[Shibui]

I've found that copper is more likely to mark bark. That has nothing to do with it being copper but rather that I can bend the same branch with a thinner copper wire. Al needs to be thicker for the same strength. Thinner wires definitely seem to bite in more than thicker wires. The only reason for using copper as far as I can see is that we can use thinner wires to achieve the same bend.

If you plan to have wires on for long time they either need to be applied loosely to allow for expanding branches OR the tree needs to be hardly growing. I can see that older specimens in smaller pots that are constantly trimmed will not grow much, therefore not thicken to the same extent as a faster growing tree in development stages.

 

[Schmikah]

I've found that copper is more likely to mark bark. That has nothing to do with it being copper but rather that I can bend the same branch with a thinner copper wire. Al needs to be thicker for the same strength. Thinner wires definitely seem to bite in more than thicker wires. The only reason for using copper as far as I can see is that we can use thinner wires to achieve the same bend.

If you plan to have wires on for long time they either need to be applied loosely to allow for expanding branches OR the tree needs to be hardly growing. I can see that older specimens in smaller pots that are constantly trimmed will not grow much, therefore not thicken to the same extent as a faster growing tree in development stages.

I could see that. Less growth = more time on tree. Since aluminum coatings fade in the sun, copper would be preferable for esthetics.

 

[HENDO]

Bjorn Bomb! One of my favorite Eisei-en videos, after his one on tree herpes:

I like to leave wire on my conifers until there is some bite, especially ones in pure development mode. The scar tissue seems to help the branches set more solidly.

 

[Shibui]

I like to leave wire on my conifers until there is some bite, especially ones in pure development mode. The scar tissue seems to help the branches set more solidly.

We all have different ways of doing things. Scar tissue certainly does set branches more solidly but is it worth it given how bad wire marks can look? Deep marks can also weaken a branch. I've had broken branches right at the point of deepest marks.

 

[pandacular]

One of the things I've looked for when it comes to removing wire over the growing season is weakened or even dying tips. On the first tree I wired, quite a few of the branch tips were not looking happy (and a few small ones definitely died) and I noticed some wire bite so took it all off the affected branches. In the next few days, they bounced back.

So at the risk of stating the obvious, you should remove wire if it looks like it's hurting the branch. This was happening to my tree as it was young and growing very fast, so it was quite noticeable.