Plant Ties: How Definitely NOT to do it!

Today we're looking at plant ties again: something which comes up over and over, with Trainees and Students, so it's clearly worth revisiting, from time to time.

Which, actually, is one of the key points of Plant Ties: you do indeed have to revisit them, regularly!

So what's the problem?

If you apply a plant tie wrongly or badly, it can seriously damage the plant. And that is bad. Eventually, a bad plant tie will kill the plant. 

Firstly, let's run over some of those "key points" about using plant ties. These are my rules:

1) Always tie the tie to the fixing point first.

2) Then tie in the plant, allowing space for it to expand.

3) Go back and check it at least a couple of times a year, and adjust if necessary.

I might even add a fourth one: Use a "nice" tie, something soft that won't damage the bark of the plant, not harsh wire.

Here's an example of a Good Tie:

This is a wall-trained Fig, so it's a plant which is vigorous, fast-growing, and which has rather soft bark. 

As you can see, there is a sturdy staple in the wall:  the plant tie itself is one of those ones that looks like something a hairdresser would use, ie soft foam, with an internal wire core/

They are great for holding their position, and you don't have to knot them, you just twist the ends together.

This means they are easy to un-twist and adjust.

The example to the left is clearly one which I did myself. It's easy to recognise my style! 

Firstly, look at the staple: the wire tie has been put through the staple then twisted a couple of times. This is key point number 1) - tie the tie to the fixing point first. As this is a "bendy" tie, you don't actually knot it, you just put a couple of twists in it. This holds the tie in position, prevents it from swivelling round, and prevents it from wearing itself out by friction against the staple, nail, vine eye, trellis, or other fixing point.

Key Point 2) is to leave room for the plant to expand. You can see in that photo that there is a nice triangle of open air between the stem and the staple - the plant has expanded, but has not yet met the limit of expansion.

If you don't do this:  if you push your string, rope, velcro, baler twine, metal-core foam tie or whatever through the staple and then tie the plant to the support, you are forcing the plant to rub up against the support, which will lead to damage. 

There is a balance to be found when doing this: if you tie the plant in too tightly, it won't have room to expand, but if you tie it in too loosely, then it will jiggle about, rub itself against the tie and against the support, and will damage itself. 

And in this case, I know it's one of mine because the two loose ends of the wire are bent back towards the wall, to avoid them stabbing the gardener in the hand, or in the eye. I think this is super-important, and I always insist that anyone who works alongside me, does it like this. I hate that callous phrase "better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick" because I've had to endure eye surgery, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone!

So, ends of wire ties are always, always, bent back safely so that they point in towards the wall. 

Now, you might be wondering why I insist on Rule 3: check and adjust.

Here's why:

Ugh, how horrible is that?

This is a tie on another part of the same Fig which clearly has not been checked regularly.

The stem has outgrown the space within the tie, as you can see by the muffin-top bulge.

And the tie itself is starting to degrade: you can see the wire, shiny silver, showing through on the part which is facing us.

So this tie is going to need replacing, at some point.

The bark, as you can see, is badly damaged under where the tie was, which is going to create a permanent scar.

Luckily, it won't kill the plant:  this one has been caught in time,  the pressure has been released, and the tie has been re-tied with a bit of slack in it, and the ends tucked inwards, in my approved style, but it's now going to be checked frequently to see a) whether it's outgrown the tie, and b) whether the tie has degraded any further, in which case it will need to be replaced.

I have to say, I am finding that these spongy plastic-coated wire ties are not all they are cracked up to be, because they don't seem to last much longer than a season or two.

And finally, for today: we have this:

This limb was tied to the wire on the wall with more of the same wire, which has cut right into the plant, and then - to add insult to injury - it has broken off, so the branch is not only being strangled, but is also unsupported! 

In case you can't immediately see what the problem is, I've added a couple of arrows:

Here,  left, the downward-pointing arrow is indicating the broken curl of wire, at the back of the branch.

And the upward-pointing one indicates the line where the wire is now embedded in the stem.

You can see by the odd bits of green plastic that this tie used to be one of the plastic-covered wire ones, possibly similar to the ones used above.

But it has been in place for so long that the plastic has mostly disintegrated, which is a bit of a problem with those ties, as mentioned above.

In this case, there is not a lot we can do: to cut the wire tie would probably cause more damage to the bark, which has grown right over the wire, than would occur if we just left it.

Luckily, Fig is a very fast-growing plant, so there will be plenty of other branches to take the place of this one, and in fact in this particular case, I selected a likely candidate from amongst a crop of shoots lower down, and tied it lightly alongside this stem, with the intention of allowing it to grow up in the same position: then next year, I'll chop out this damaged shoot, and let the new one take its place.

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