Bending a large wisteria

[MattA]

Hey all,

I am hoping someone can help me with methods to achieve some major bends in my large japanese wisteria viewtopic.php?f=132&t=5475 It already has some movement in the lower trunk but I would like alot more to compliment the rest of the tree.

trunk.jpg

The tree has claw roots that I would like to make a feature, in order to do so I need to change the planting angle by about 45degrees. I hope to be able to spread that between the roots & first branch with most going into the lowest bend. The natural twist can be used to bring the trunk back across the top of the root then turn upright into the rest of the tree.

I recently untied the last work & the section that sustained damage is holding better than the rest of the work done. I have found this on other wisteria as well and think it could also be used to help set these bends once they are made. I don't like my chances of making the bends I want to without some cracking, the trunk is approx 8cm diameter at 10cm above the first root.

Any binding will have to be flexible enough to allow the tree to grow with it in place for atleast 2 yrs or longer and japanese wisteria are strong growers.

Thanks in advance
Matt

[dragon]

gday matt
the only way i can think to get a decent bend is to use a turn buckle and some shade cloth as the rope as it wont hurt the tree and do slow bending over a matter of time
cheers dean

[kcpoole]

for the size of the material, they are actually quite flexible.

You will need Mechanical help, either big bending jig and or turnbuckles. Quite doable I think

Ken

[MattA]

Cheers Dean.

Ken, normally i would agree with you regarding flexibility but due to the early years of slow growth the wood is not as flexible as I would of expected. Mechanical aids will definitely be needed to achieve my aims but I too think it is very 'doable'.

[Gareth]

drill out?
Problem with that is the possibility of getting rot in the trunk form the open wound

Ken