I think your inclination is right...
Let em photosynthesize !
But I've been thinking about it recently.
If we're going to wire in fall......
It had better be significantly early enough to "take" some before winter sets in.
Or you may as well just wait till the heavy freezes are over.
Lessin you want your tree in a compromised state all winter for nothing !
What is your "regular" pruning for these anyway?
Maybe doing it in mid summer could allow enough time for next year's buds to set and be ready for spring???
Or even provide a full flush of growth!?
Here's what I noticed this year, which is fully changing my "timing".
Almost Everything began its summer dormancy, which was roughly 2 weeks long, directly at the solstice. 6/21
I think you can prune yourself into missing this dormancy period...
For example, pruning right before the rest, can trigger growth thru it.
But IMO...this short dormancy period is exactly what the tree needs to store energy for a second push of new growth, roots too!
This could be the reason some people have success repotting in fall or not.
Trees pruned and forced to grow thru that dormancy may not have enough energy to make enough fall roots.
So MY pruning will be completed as needed thru winter to before sapflow in spring, depending on the species..etc.
And as close as observation will get me to...
Directly before summer dormancy ends.
Prune/grow/rest.....prune/grow/rest.
It is at that time directly before summer dormancy ends that I would wire that tree.
Allow it's spring flush to gather resources, rest, then go to work.
Prune,wire....
Oh but I wouldn't remove needles till they got in the way of the wire. Except for on the inside of bends, junctions, anywhere too dense, or too thick...
But in all my wiring this year, I haven't thinned and skinned em...
Trying to leave AS much foliage as possible.
It's a big equation but I figure depending on a needle/leafs size, age, position and condition....you can figure a near exact amount of time you are adding to each "wired branch setting" by removing each one.
Call it one minute.
So for every leaf you remove, you have to leave wire on for one minute longer in order for the branch to set.
I don't know about you....
But if I see a branch spring back up out of the design, it bugs the hell out of me. Even if just by a teeny little...ATD!
And that teeny little could have been because you needed to leave that wire on one more minute....
Or...
Not have removed that one damn needle!
Which could have you in a position to spend another entire day wiring the whole tree because of that one damn needle! (Per branch)
So no way in hell I'm gonna figure the equation....
But I'll never mindlessly remove foliage without good reason either....
Besides...
Wiring around the needles will greatly improve your skills anyway!
Sorce
