wire gauges for trunks that keep them in them forever?

Ces · Post by **Ces** » November 13th, 2012, 1:24 am

Hey guys,

On friday I'm picking up 20 casuarina's in 100 mm pots to grow on for future stock.

some of them i plan to wire, put some good bends into them and then leave on the wire forever to see what happens with this species. I'm trying to copy the techniques that some members and japanese bonsai nurseries use to fatten JBP trunks at an accelerated rate. I've sourced C. Torulosa in the hope that the fissured bark will be more forgiving in terms of wire scars compared to other, comparitively smooth barked varieties.

My question is... do I want to use the thinnest wire possible in order to make the bends so that the wire cuts in relatively quickly? or do i want to use a larger than needed gauge so that the resulting bulging scars are as large as possible?

Appreciate any advice on this people.

Bretts · Post by **Bretts** » November 13th, 2012, 6:52 am

Small trees small wire, large trees large wire. Also try some with the wire removed after it has cut in.

Scott Roxburgh · Post by **Scott Roxburgh** » November 13th, 2012, 7:45 am

I'd like to know the benefit of leaving the wire in instead of letting it scar and removing it?

IMO, If you only have 20 take the time to remove the wire.

anttal63 · Post by **anttal63** » November 13th, 2012, 8:01 am

Scott Roxburgh wrote:I'd like to know the benefit of leaving the wire in instead of letting it scar and removing it?

IMO, If you only have 20 take the time to remove the wire.

Because you may get a more lumpy effect or twisted effect or just more texture and character... however it still remains to be seen... Im doing it with JBP's (and not because i dont have the time to remove it) and reccomend it !

ps you use whatever guage it takes to bend them. I personally like to double wrap the wire spaced out so as to cover and support more surface area. This will enable you to get tighter bends...

Scott Roxburgh · Post by **Scott Roxburgh** » November 13th, 2012, 8:17 am

It'd be interesting to compare results on the lumpy/twisted texture etc...wouldn't the rough bark just cover this up?

I thought that the Japanese growers that you may have seen, leave the wire in because they had a field of trees so didn't have the time to remove it...

anttal63 · Post by **anttal63** » November 13th, 2012, 10:12 am

Scott Roxburgh wrote:It'd be interesting to compare results on the lumpy/twisted texture etc...wouldn't the rough bark just cover this up?

I thought that the Japanese growers that you may have seen, leave the wire in because they had a field of trees so didn't have the time to remove it...

Maybe to all of that Scott ??? Dunno, time will tell, i am just speculating. When the trees are older if the muscle spirals rather than swells vertically then mission accomplished !!!

Ces · Post by **Ces** » November 13th, 2012, 10:58 am

Hey guys,

thanks for the replies. This may be another case of me misinterpreting techniques/uses for techniques that are learnt through subtitles

but I had thought that the main reason for intentionally leaving the wire on the trunk intentionally were to created a lumpy texture but to also increase the trunk thickening speed.

Scott,
Not sure how this is going to work in terms the fissured bark maintaining the lumpy texture but I figured of the two Casuarina species I could source (Cunninghamiana and Torulosa), Torulosa's bark was closer to a JBP and may in time allow the scars to look less obvious. I do imagine though that if the fissured bark manages to cover up the lumps and bumps, the flow of the bark should have good movement up the trunk from early bending and hopefully a bit of extra thickness from the exercise....

or the things could just choke and die... Its all a lilttle experiment. 10 of the 20 plants will ne grown in pots to various states of vigour with a plan to put together a 5-9 tree group planting in the future. 5 are going in the ground to be grown on in the traditionally way (maybe some early wire for trunk movement). The last 5 are going to get the wire in treatment.

We'll see what happens guys. I'll post some pictures of the process.

Anttal63,

Whats the usual trunk diameter of the stock you start this process on? I've learnt this morning that the nursery may only be able to source tube stock, so its possbible i may have to grow them on for a bit.

Cheers,

Matt

MattA · Post by **MattA** » November 13th, 2012, 12:32 pm

Ces wrote:Hey guys,
thanks for the replies. This may be another case of me misinterpreting techniques/uses for techniques that are learnt through subtitles but I had thought that the main reason for intentionally leaving the wire on the trunk intentionally were to created a lumpy texture but to also increase the trunk thickening speed.

No misinterpretation, that is precisely why they do it. I think torulosa is a great choice for the treatment & look forward to seeing your results, one tip when working with this species is to be very gentle handling the bark, it damages easily.
Matt

Bretts · Post by **Bretts** » November 13th, 2012, 1:27 pm

Scott where did you get the information it was just because they didn't have time to take the wire off?

Scott Roxburgh · Post by **Scott Roxburgh** » November 13th, 2012, 3:59 pm

I just thought that was why they didn't take it off...

never really looked into it...

anttal63 · Post by **anttal63** » November 13th, 2012, 6:02 pm

Tubes are good Ces !!! Start !!!

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