I have just spent the best part of the last 3 hours removing wire from some pines I acquired last year. I guess I shouldn't really be shocked at what I found, but it’s probably worth me writing a few things down for posterity, and because the memory aint what it used to be, and because it might be of use to someone else!  

Normally I wire my pines in the Autumn and remove the wire in the early summer, rewiring in the Autumn if and where required if the branches haven’t fully set. Some of these were wired last October, and some in March when they were re-potted. Whilst doing some routine cleaning and weeding, I noticed one tree had really swollen and all but swallowed the wire in places – (luckily just on a sacrifice branch) - this is one of the trees wired in March and repotted. It had responded well to the repotting and complete bare-rooting and has grown well. I decided I couldn't wait any longer and went to check the other wired pines. All of them , despite none being youngsters, and all having been bare rooted in spring, had swollen considerably in places. All of these I checked last month and all seemed ok,

so – lessons learned thus far.

1)      bare rooting pines doesn’t seem to upset scots pine that much – I repotted in Kiryu/Akadama 50:50 and included Rootgrow, Rootfood(humates) and some of the original mychorhizza

2)      I missed the rapid swelling on some of the branches and this has marked some of the trees – Don’t leave wire on after June to be safe, and if you do you should check wire weekly to avoid scarring.

3)      Pinus Contorta bark is much softer, less resilient and damages more easily than Pinus Sylvestris(please DON’T ASK ! how I found that out).

So – what was the next thing I reminded myself of. Well , it takes almost as long to remove the wire as to put it on. It takes longer to remove where I didn’t wire very well or cheated when I put it on. It takes considerably longer again to regrow new branches and shoots you happen knock off or damage, because you wired incorrectly, or removed it badly, or left it on too long hoping you wouldn’t then have to re-wire in the autumn !

Having not listened to what I had just reminded myself of, and having knocked off a couple of precious back buds I had generated, trying to uncoil some very thin wire(I thought I could cheat and save time) , I “remembered” that its much safer to cut the wire the off. Although I wasn’t uncoiling it in order to save the wire, I was doing it to try and save time. I was just as quick cutting the wire off. If, you are like me and use glasses to read, don’t try and save even more time by not bothering to go back inside and find your glasses.

So – additional lessons leant

4)      Use decent wire cutters to cut the wire off – its not quicker, or cheaper or safer or better to uncoil the wire

5)      Don’t get vain, if you use glasses then USE THEM – better that than damaging the bark of , for example, a Pinus Contorta(eeek)

6)      A little more time spent wiring correctly in the first place, will make wire removal much easier and less time consuming.

So – moral of this story – wire removal is mind numbingly boring, tedious, slow, unimportant and simple.  WRONG. Done incorrectly and badly it might be. Done correctly, we minimise damage, get up close and see what’s growing well, buds, potential buds, new emerging lines and where new wiring is required and how well our energy balancing techniques are working (or not). Trying to do this with haste I suggest is a recipe for disaster.