Careful of wire bite, don’t leave it on too long! Ooh that’s going to leave a scar!

Im sure there’s not a person out there that hasn’t had someone tell them this at some stage in their bonsai journey. But what if this has been misinterpreted to having no wire bite at all, versus, yes that’s okay under these circumstances?

For this post I’m going to ignore all the perceptions out there for certain species, rough bark vs smooth etc and just discuss the following:

Is my tree in development or refinement and how this correlates to wire bite on my tree if any before removal.

For example, let’s say I have a tree in development. If I were to wire a young primary branch of a conifer or a broadleaf that is half a pencil width in diameter now and I am expecting to grow it at least 5 times its current size. Am I concerned with some wire bite?

The answer is probably no. My main goal is to achieve the bends and have my branch set. The degree of ‘bite’ is then determined by the species. Japanese black Pine – it’s eating the wire vs Camelia slight indent. Some comical relief, but you get the point.

If for the same example above, except the tree was now in refinement, and I was wiring a secondary branch that needed slight tweaking. I would definitely be aware of the possibility of wire bite and be monitoring closely. The assumption being that the branch won’t be getting that much thicker (slower growth rate, confined in a smaller container) and any scarring now will remain visible for a long period of time. For example a Camelia I would remove the wire before any wire bite took place.

There is always some grey space where judgement is needed, for example a tree might be in partial development/ refinement and therefore you will have to approach on a branch by branch basis.

This ultimately isn’t a green light to be reckless, but it’s meant to highlight that like many things in bonsai, you need to adjust your approach in accordance with where the tree is in its journey.

Removing the wire too soon will in most cases mean a reworking is needed and if not done soon after, you might miss the opportunity to achieve the bends you originally aimed for because the branch has got thicker.

Also a side note, you don’t have to remove all the wire along the entire branch when you see some of it biting in, just where it’s ‘ready’, ie generally the wire bites in on the bend a lot faster and at the base of branches). Remove in stages.

Every action/ approach/ application of technique in most cases comes down to, what stage is my tree in.