Binding with Jute Webbing for Bending?

[Mitchell]

Personally will not use vet wrap again it does stick to pine bark, and it has only just disappeared in the last 2 months after 3 years being taken off.

JMHO Pup

Ps I can get it for nothing from my cousin who is the distributor in WA.

Perhaps a layer of non binding medium first, then the wrap on top?

[Leigh Taafe]

Why not just raffia? Works for me.

[Mitchell]

Decided to give it a crack (pardon the pun), after the last conversation.

Bound the trunk with jute webbing, then over-bound that with jute twin.
I wanted everything jute, just to test it. Did not use my branch bender but compressed the bends using jute twin and truckies hitches to jack down the curves a the right curvature.
The trunk is 25mm for the majority of it. In case you are wondering why I bent it, after recent discussions on trunk ratio, I felt this plant either needed to go this route / be chopped to 100mm or there abouts. I chose this option, may not have been the best one, but that's the price I will have to pay.

I can account most of the flex to the supple pine, yet the jute must get some cred.
No matter how hard I compressed the bends, I heard no sound what-so-ever. I am confident I could compress it much more, which I may well do.
I applied the jute wet (was kinda loose, as I had to continue through the branch structure and didn't want to damage it), but as it dried it was remarkable watching it shrink. You could actually see, over a matter of 10min, it bind tightly to the trunk. So tight infact, I could not lift the edges of the jute up.

I do not intend on keeping all 1.8m, yet wanted the foliage to help encourage girth in the plant atm.

This plant was 1.8m tall, it now stands 25cm tall.

Any thoughts?
Good and especially bad.

Thanks.

[blkrota]

Well that says it all it may be sticky but you didnt hear any cracking while bending the trunk and you say you could have pushed it some more,, Works for me .
that will look sweet

LOL just noticed the bunnings basket

[Mitchell]

Well that says it all it may be sticky but you didnt hear any cracking while bending the trunk and you say you could have pushed it some more,, Works for me .
that will look sweet

LOL just noticed the bunnings basket

Vet wrap is sticky, this is Jute (not sticky natural fibre).

Stealing things is bad, so get your kids to do it.
In some states they may have older, smaller baskets like this. They are for sale, just you wouldn't know that unless you worked there....

[Mitchell]

Finally got my camera working... Here's a couple of closer shots of the binding.

[Mitchell]

Just a little update, the jute webbing is still holding up fine after 2 months, no sign of decay. The jute twine binding is also fine. The jute guildlines under constant strain I believe will fail in the near future. The radiata shows no sign of damage after it bend and it going great guns.

In all it seems so far jute for binding and bending seems to me personally, to be a valid form of protecting a trunk whilst bending.
I would encourage others to give jute a go.

[Grant Bowie]

About two months ago I wrapped a juniper (about 45mm diameter) with rubber, then 8mm aluminium wire, then vet wrap and started bending severely.

I really went for it! Right up till I heard a loud snap!.

I stopped there and two months later the tree looks fine; so the multiple wrapping allowed me to really bend this trunk and the multiple wrapping turned a catastrophic break into a probable mild crack.

I will continue bending in about 6 months on other areas of the trunk if it is still OK.

Grant

[FlyBri]

Gday Mitchell & Co!

I purchased a roll of jute webbing a couple of years ago for exactly the purposes you have mentioned. Seems to work fine, especially when applied to straight, taperless sections of trunk - it appears too stiff to be evenly applied to bends or on tapered trunks/branches. Like you, I am attracted to the fact that it is on a roll, and it much less fiddly to apply than raffia (well, I have never used raffia, so I don't really know). I find that cutting it lengthwise aids in application to smaller material.

In the following photos, I have used jute webbing to protect the branch of a Flowering Apricot before bending (with an added layer of self-adhesive silicone tape for good measure):









I also have a little Callitris bound up at the moment, and I'll try to get photos tomorrow.

Thanks and good luck!

Fly.

[Dario]

Hi Mitchell, how long did the jute last before decaying? Oh, and how is the radiata going mate?
Cheers, Dario.