There are many threads about wiring trees. Very few about removing wire.
Removing wire is just as important as putting it on. The question of when to do is often asked, and, of course, the answer is: “it depends!” Remove it when it just starts to cut in a but. Most conifers will easily repair mine wire scars. While I try to minimize wire scars, they are inevitable, so I don’t stress out over small scars.
I find tree thicken in the fall, and wire that didn’t appear to be cutting in all summer will suddenly appear to be cutting in in fall! So be extra watchful in fall.
Trees that are growing rapidly will expand their stems more than the refined trees that aren’t growing as fast. But you never know... Here’s a tree that snuck up on me:
It was wired late last fall just before the Kannapolis Winter Silohette show last December. Less than a year ago. Yet, it has started cutting in! So, it’s time!
I start in the apex, and I UNSPIN the wire. I DON’T cut it off in chunks. Here’s my box of removed wire:
My process is to grab the little “fishhooks” of wire at the end of the branch with my Jin pliers:
I spin the pliers around in my hand the opposite way the wire was placed on. The wire will lift straight up off the branch. If if has cut in, it lefts straight up doing minimal damage.
I can’t show it because my “other” hand is holding the camera, but I use my other hand to hold the branch one turn back so the the twist is only to the wire and not to the branch as a whole. I continue this process unspinning back towards the trunk until I reach the “anchor point” where the other end if the wire extends out on the other branch. One wire is used to wire two branches.
Start with the last wire that was placed on. That is, when wiring, we start by placing the heavy wires on the primary branches, them moving to medium size wire on secondaries, then small wire on the teritiaries, then really small wire in fine twigs. Start with the small stuff when removing, gradually working back to the larger stuff.
I work one section at a time, and I will stop unwiring when I get to major anchor points while I get other wire in the section I’m working. So sometimes I’ll have lots of half-removed wires sticking out:
While it’s somewhat tedious, doing this carefully gives me another opportunity to study my tree’s branch structure and think about ways to improve it.
Sometimes, a really long wire will get awkward to unspin, and I’ll cut it shorter after I’ve unspun it from the tree. But I can usually remove them intact.
Really heavy wire, gauge 10 and thicker can be really difficult to unspin. So those you can cut off in “chunks”. I find I can usually unspin gauge 10, but 8 and 6 need to be cut.
The reasons not to cut the wire off in chunks for all sizes are: once you learn how to do it this way, it’s faster; if the wire is cut in, embedded, you can’t cut the wire without cutting branch tissue on either side for the wire; if you don’t hold the wire cutters perfectly perpendicular to the wire when you cut it, the short end if the wire will twist as you cut, causing damage to the branch; it’s more likely that you might accidentally cut entirely thru a branch when trying to cut the wire; you might accidentally leave a chunk of wire on the tree; you might accidentally leave chunks of wire on the soil.
Now, go out, and unwire some trees!
Removing wire is just as important as putting it on. The question of when to do is often asked, and, of course, the answer is: “it depends!” Remove it when it just starts to cut in a but. Most conifers will easily repair mine wire scars. While I try to minimize wire scars, they are inevitable, so I don’t stress out over small scars.
I find tree thicken in the fall, and wire that didn’t appear to be cutting in all summer will suddenly appear to be cutting in in fall! So be extra watchful in fall.
Trees that are growing rapidly will expand their stems more than the refined trees that aren’t growing as fast. But you never know... Here’s a tree that snuck up on me:
It was wired late last fall just before the Kannapolis Winter Silohette show last December. Less than a year ago. Yet, it has started cutting in! So, it’s time!
I start in the apex, and I UNSPIN the wire. I DON’T cut it off in chunks. Here’s my box of removed wire:
My process is to grab the little “fishhooks” of wire at the end of the branch with my Jin pliers:
I spin the pliers around in my hand the opposite way the wire was placed on. The wire will lift straight up off the branch. If if has cut in, it lefts straight up doing minimal damage.
I can’t show it because my “other” hand is holding the camera, but I use my other hand to hold the branch one turn back so the the twist is only to the wire and not to the branch as a whole. I continue this process unspinning back towards the trunk until I reach the “anchor point” where the other end if the wire extends out on the other branch. One wire is used to wire two branches.
Start with the last wire that was placed on. That is, when wiring, we start by placing the heavy wires on the primary branches, them moving to medium size wire on secondaries, then small wire on the teritiaries, then really small wire in fine twigs. Start with the small stuff when removing, gradually working back to the larger stuff.
I work one section at a time, and I will stop unwiring when I get to major anchor points while I get other wire in the section I’m working. So sometimes I’ll have lots of half-removed wires sticking out:
While it’s somewhat tedious, doing this carefully gives me another opportunity to study my tree’s branch structure and think about ways to improve it.
Sometimes, a really long wire will get awkward to unspin, and I’ll cut it shorter after I’ve unspun it from the tree. But I can usually remove them intact.
Really heavy wire, gauge 10 and thicker can be really difficult to unspin. So those you can cut off in “chunks”. I find I can usually unspin gauge 10, but 8 and 6 need to be cut.
The reasons not to cut the wire off in chunks for all sizes are: once you learn how to do it this way, it’s faster; if the wire is cut in, embedded, you can’t cut the wire without cutting branch tissue on either side for the wire; if you don’t hold the wire cutters perfectly perpendicular to the wire when you cut it, the short end if the wire will twist as you cut, causing damage to the branch; it’s more likely that you might accidentally cut entirely thru a branch when trying to cut the wire; you might accidentally leave a chunk of wire on the tree; you might accidentally leave chunks of wire on the soil.
Now, go out, and unwire some trees!
