Bonsai Wiring – Tips and Guide to Wire a Bonsai Tree

When you wrap wiring around your tree or branches, you can more effectively shape your bonsai tree. There are aluminum and copper wiring options. Training your bonsai into the shape you want is never easy, but these wiring techniques can make your artistry a little more successful.

Why Wire a Bonsai Tree?
Pruning a bonsai is a selective and careful process that you will need to accurately perform in order to determine the number and position of branches and leaves. Wiring is needed for the overall shape of the tree, however. You will need to achieve the balance and form of your tree in order to make the bonsai a completed piece of art.

Wrap the trees and the branches will the right length and thickness of your wire in the right way to have the basic bonsai shape. You will not want to use any wiring in a formal upright (chokkan) while a cascade or kengai style requires a lot of wiring over months and years to achieve the specific and detailed look.

Wiring puts stress on the tree or branch of the tree. You will need to be very careful and patient during the process. You can easily damage your tree if you aren’t careful and a cracked trunk spells out a dead tree. You can wrap the wire too tightly during the wrong season, too, for a poor wiring experience. You don’t want to see scarring during the wiring process that can create damage or outright kill the tree.

How to Wire Your Bonsai Tree?
Start with a sketch of your tree and from there, you can operate your wiring to get the right final result. You will want to have a concrete image in your head, although it doesn’t have to be specifically rigid. You will want to start at the trunk of the tree unless you only need to alter a few branches.

You will want to practice before you put the wiring into practice on your live tree. Start with a simple wooden pole or similar species with the same branch or trunk thickness to experiment and get the feel of the wire and its dexterity. Once you are comfortable here, you can try the process on your live tree.

When should you wire?
Selecting the right month to wire your tree can be complicated. It depends on your species and when it is beginning or ending its growing or dormant phase, since all species operate on different dates. You will also know that the growth amount during a certain month varies from tree to tree.

Some deciduous trees are more delicate in the springtime when their sap flows. You will want to wait until later when the sap flow is lower, like in the summertime.

If you wait too long, however, the effects of wiring will be lost as the tree will be set in its current look. Sometimes, it can take years for the scars of wiring to be reversed, so be especially careful and cautious when wiring your tree to prevent injury to the tree.

         

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