Dwarf Schefflera - Wire or guy wire?

[Floridays]

I picked up this pre-bonsai schefflera (I did some light pruning and repotted) and want to train it to a more banyan style. Unfortunately the nursery had cut off some nice horizontal branches so I have to retrain the outside branches.

Should I wire the branches or use guy wires to bring the branches down?

Thanks for any input,

Scott
View media item 3949

 

[Vin]

Both. It looks like some pretty good material.

 

[just.wing.it]

That's a nice scheff!
If it were mine I would probably use both guy wires and regular wiring to set some of the branches...as Vin said.
I would also let it grow to beef up, and cause some more fusing.

 

[Floridays]

Awesome, thanks for the suggestions. I wasn't sure about the wiring because they are less "woody" than other trees. I'll do a combination of both, thanks!

It will stay in this pot for a while to beef up, it's a deeper pot so it should be ok.

Thanks again!

 

[just.wing.it]

If those trunks thicken to a point that all the gaps are closed, it will look like a nice beast, good bones for banyan style tree.
Have you ever seen Nigel's???

And he's in Canada!
He has several videos of the progress, you should watch them if you haven't...
Being in south Florida, that thing will do great and you should get aerial roots too!

 

[Floridays]

Whoah, just started watching these, that is an excellent tree! His aerial roots are absolutely perfect for a banyan style, and Canada?!!?

Yeah, the weather down here is perfect for these. I've been focusing on things that do well down here...still new to all of this!

 

[sorce]

Yaintnoonomore!

Sorce

 

[Floridays]

Yaintnoonomore!

I'm learning and am getting better!

 

[just.wing.it]

Whoah, just started watching these, that is an excellent tree! His aerial roots are absolutely perfect for a banyan style, and Canada?!!?

Yeah, the weather down here is perfect for these. I've been focusing on things that do well down here...still new to all of this!

Yeah man!
Nigel has many good and very educational videos.
He also does full bare rooting every repot, on every tree, which is interesting...
I appreciate his obsession with creating good nebari on all his trees.

 

[AZbonsai]

Yeah man!
Nigel has many good and very educational videos.
He also does full bare rooting every repot, on every tree, which is interesting...
I appreciate his obsession with creating good nebari on all his trees.

Nigel really goes after the roots! I look at some of his repot videos and I never think the tree is going to survive but it does! His trees always look healthy to me.

 

[just.wing.it]

Nigel really goes after the roots! I look at some of his repot videos and I never think the tree is going to survive but it does! His trees always look healthy to me.

Yep, likewise!

 

[Floridays]

So I got home from work and wired a few branches and used a small bungee cord to bring a branch down a bit. I'll get some rubber tubing to do a proper guy wire but for now this should be ok.

I'm liking the shape more!
View media item 3950

 

[Vin]

So I got home from work and wired a few branches and used a small bungee cord to bring a branch down a bit. I'll get some rubber tubing to do a proper guy wire but for now this should be ok.

I'm liking the shape more!

Just an observation. That wire is no where beefy enough for those size branches. You need to get some bigger wire and then loop some smaller gauge wire under one of the twists to use as a guy wire. Kind of like this one that belongs to @Walter Pall



Just kidding!

 

[Haoleboy]

Nice tree. Keep us updated on its progress.

 

[Floridays]

Just an observation. That wire is no where beefy enough for those size branches. You need to get some bigger wire and then loop some smaller gauge wire under one of the twists to use as a guy wire

Hmmm, yeah I was wondering that. Now it's kind of misleading, the wire you see is really only anchored on that large branch and is being used for a smaller shoot from that one. I may step it up anyway in order to use guy wires with that method you mentioned, thanks.

That guy wiring job looks like some kind of crazy ship rigging gone wrong.

Nice tree. Keep us updated on its progress.

Thanks, will do!

 

[just.wing.it]

Just an observation. That wire is no where beefy enough for those size branches. You need to get some bigger wire and then loop some smaller gauge wire under one of the twists to use as a guy wire. Kind of like this one that belongs to @Walter Pall

View attachment 164971

Just kidding!

It's almost like the wires are bending the pot!

 

[Vin]

Okay, here's an example of what I'm really talking about on my Korean Hornbeam that I got from Ben Griffin:

 

[Floridays]

Looks like a great method, thank you for posting this picture Vin!

 

[JoeH]

nice, I got a bunch of those sitting around that I fished out of the dumpster here at work. Root bound like crazy. Still need to decide what to do with them.

 

[GSCarlson]

If it were mine, I would chop back to about 1/3, and regrow. Since you are in Florida, your schef will explode with new growth and have a nice crown in no time.