When to wire new material?

maa00034

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Birmingham, Al
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8b
I’ve got two olive and three myrtus pre bonsai that I’m just taking care of right now. As I plan for the future- I’m wondering about wiring these. The olive already have pretty hard trunks and stems. Myrtus still so small (maybe a forest in the future?). Any recommendations on first steps for these? What is the ideal time to think about wiring such small specimens?
 

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I do like to allow mine to acclimate. Though ...the semi cascade olive I have. I did toss wire on the apex and dropped it lower for the direction of my vision. It was thicker. For fear it would lignify and be unable to later. Waited the following year to repot as it was the tail end of repotting season when it arrived. I do like to allow things to acclimate... Then wired everything and repotted the following year from initial arrival... at the appropriate time.

You won't get tight bends in what is there, I imagine. Something to consider when you make purchases...the vision you wish to see them. I absolutely love Olive. I have three.
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Thanks for sharing! Really inspiring photos. How long have you been training your semi cascade?
 
Wire when you can. Much depend on what you want to achieve. Gentle bends can be done on older wood but good, tight bends must be done when the wood is still flexible. Also depends on species. Some have a rep for being brittle so best time to bend is when the trunk/branch is very young and flexible.
Avoid wiring and bending most species while they are actively growing. Bending in full growth more can separate bark from wood and kill the branch/trunk. Especially noticed in Junipers so I usually stick to bending Summer through winter and avoid Spring.

Also note that much bonsai shaping is dome by pruning. Much of what you have on pre bonsai will be chopped off at some stage. Pruning back to a side branch gives a much more natural bend than wire ever will. Pruning also gives taper where wiring rarely does.
I'm mostly use wire to make slight adjustments and pruning to actually form the basic structure but different growers use different techniques successfully.
 
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