Slipping the bark on Junipers

[Shibui]

I got away with wiring any time of year for many years so started to think this idea was another myth then in the past couple of years I have had several trees suffer loss of branches or more.
Wiring and bending in October/November down here is when I have experienced losses. I can't give accurate measure of start and end of danger times because I haven't tried systematic trials and records.
My experience is it's only a problem when making major bends and twists.

 

[bwaynef]

I got away with wiring any time of year for many years so started to think this idea was another myth then in the past couple of years I have had several trees suffer loss of branches or more.
Wiring and bending in October/November down here is when I have experienced losses. I can't give accurate measure of start and end of danger times because I haven't tried systematic trials and records.
My experience is it's only a problem when making major bends and twists.

What season is that for you? Mid-late spring?

 

[Paradox]

1. When did you do the work?
2. How extreme were the bends?
3. Twists?
4. Was your wiring adequate?
5. What exactly is the timeframe when you've experienced the bark slipping?
   1. Earliest time of year
   2. Latest time of the year
6. How long after the work did it take to see the damage start to show up?

1. mid to late May (spring in NY)
2. Pretty extreme
3. Partial
4. May - haven't tried wiring any more juniper before September since
5. IIRC about a month or so

 

[Paradox]

1. mid to late May (spring in NY)
2. Pretty extreme
3. Partial
4. May - haven't tried wiring any more juniper before September since
5. IIRC about a month or so

I should have added the branch in question died. Have had other juniper wired in spring lose branches because of it. I will not wire a juniper May-August again

 

[bwaynef]

I also come here asking for others to join me in sacrificing some junipers to the altar of ...science. I've got a few ProNanas in gallon pots that I'm planning on styling. This will involve significant bends and twists. If there's any other participants, I can post pictures of the trees I intend to work on. To clarify, I'm not trying to kill them. I don't want to find the limit of how much work I can sneak by with. But I would like to find out if work that I'd regularly do can be done over a wider range of time. I've got three, so I think working one in each of the upcoming warm months (June, July, and August) would give me a pretty good indication of whether the danger of "slipping the bark" is as imminent as is often claimed.

This was later in June than I’d planned and it almost didn’t happen, but here’s a late June mangled ProNana juniper that was significantly bent and twisted.

 

[bwaynef]

July’s installment. I cracked the trunk in two places. I probably should’ve waited to do this one during dormancy and let it spend the balance of the time staked up. Instead I applied three pieces of thick aluminum and cranked on it. I don’t THINK the crack had anything to do with the bark’s tendency to “slip” as much as I was applying a lot of pressure. Anyway…

(June’s has one branch in the apex dead, not too dissimilar to other trees styled during dormancy. Still, it’s dead. I’ll try to get a picture of it for documentation.)