Bonsai: Why you bend the wire and not the branch

Описание: Bonsai is a time consuming and sometimes very involved hobby. You can spend years working on a tree. That is time spent styling, growing, pruning and wiring.

All of that work can be handicapped or even undone with one broken branch.

Branches are most likely to break while wiring or styling. This is because you are trying to move a piece of living wood against its shape. That means you need to use some force and that can lead to breaking pats of the bonsai.

When it happens you will know in many cases. There is a very unpleasant sound. It is a challenge to get as close to that point as possible without breaking the branch.

There are several means to reduce the risk but the least time consuming, technical and resource intensive is to use wire.

The copper or aluminium wire used for bonsai is able to provide structure. That is the whole purpose. Using the wire to keep a branch bent is not new.

Bending the branch or even trunk with the wire may be new to you.

The wire is wrapped around the branch. This creates a shape like a snake that constricts its prey. This means force is extended along the length of the limb or trunk.

When you push, pull or twist on the branch with this wire it does this both where you want to bend and extends away from there. This reduces how much force is applied to just one spot and therefore lowers the risk of a break.