Bonsai Wiring Paranoia

Today is my day off, so I was happy to spend some time on my backyard hobbies. I spent most of the day working on my bonsai trees.

The first thing I looked for was my wired trees to see if they were ready to be cut free.

ID: 0017
Nickname: Elsa
Type: Douglas Fir
Age: 3 years
Grown: yamadori (collected from my own yard)
Last repotting: spring 2016?
Wired: early summer

Here is one of my two Douglas Fir trees. It was wired heavily to change it from an upright tree into more of a cascading style with curved branches.

Up close I noticed some of the coils up above that top branch look slightly constricted. That might leave a mark.

This branch responded very well to the direction made by the wires. You can see the thick frame wire controlling the angles coiled inside the green wire. Copper wire is very bendable, but at this thickness it is very sturdy, strong too.

Some of the wiring on the smallest delicate branches was too aggressive. I used a very thin bonsai wire someone had given me at the bonsai club early this summer. There is a possibility the sunlight heated the wire very hot and fried the whole branch. The needles died off completely, and the branch looks dead.

Again, another branch that responded very poorly to the wiring. I think the cheapo green wire is better than the exposed metal types.

Time to start clipping the wires open. On the tightest coils it is best to just cut the wire at each coil, rather than try to unwind the wire around the tree. It is a bit like doing surgery. Any action with a sharp metal object (cutters or sharp wire end) might hurt the tree either way, the goal is to cause the least amount of lasting damage.

Wire cutters are pictured on the top. I like this kind because the cutting edge at the very tip is sharp enough to cut the wire, and it has a curved edge on the outside to prevent damage to the surroundings.

Trying to cut my bonsai tree out of the wires reminded me of the Lethal Weapon movies. In one movie there is a scene when they are trying to diffuse a bomb, and the two lead cops are arguing over which color wire to cut. The red wire or the blue wire? Well my wires are mostly green. If I was color blind and attempting to diffuse a bomb, I might be in big trouble.

Here is the final tree after all the wire has been removed. I am glad it maintained the shape of the frame wire.

Oh no! Look at those grill marks. Talk about making a lasting impression.

This branch has some similar markings. There are some soft impressions on the right side, and near the branch junctions.

Considering how young this tree is, I think it will continue to perform well. When it starts to develop a bark, I think many of those impressions will disappear.

I'm nicknaming it Elsa, because of the braid lines on the branches, and because this is a winter tree that keeps its color all year long.

Bonus photo:

A family of mushrooms.

And their neighbors.