I just removed the wires on one of my bonsai. I was wondering if I could reuse them to train new trees? If not, can I still use them to anchor a tree to a pot or to hold down the mesh? I would hate to see used wires go to waste.

Aluminium? Yes. Cooper or steal, no.

Tips how to straiten you wire @ 23:23

Tropfrog wrote: Aluminium? Yes. Cooper or steal, no.

I have aluminum. They actually seem to be reusable.

Wes V. wrote:

Tropfrog wrote: Aluminium? Yes. Cooper or steal, no.

I have aluminum. They actually seem to be reusable.

Yes, to a certain extend. Aluminium gets eeaker and weaker every time you bend but keeps its ability to hold the branch.. So reuse until it breaks.

To reuse the wire you have to take it off in one long piece. This can be hard to do without tearing the bark.

You put the wire on (usually) before leaves come out, then when unwinding a couple of months later you have to unwind between new twigs, and again avoiding damage is pretty hard.

Usually it is better to cut it off. Recycling little pieces is possible, but the price makes it hardly worth the gas.

I do both. Yesterday I spent a few hours unwiring and I find myself uncoiling thin wire, cutting thick wire and cutting in awkward places. Longer pieces usually get re-used once, after which I find it too brittle to use AND with too many little curves.

Yes you can re use. put one end in a vice & grab the other end with a pair of pliers & give it a quick yank. It will

Copper Wire: you can reuse pieces that are long enough, but as mentioned, it is usually more effective to cut it off the branches, and the result is too short to reuse. If you do get longer pieces, you must anneal it to re-soften it or it becomes too brittle. You do this by heating it with a torch or in a fire until it changes color, but stop before it melts. You can either let it cool naturally or quench it with water - this makes no difference in the process. It will then be 'dead soft' (which happens to be what they meant when they said 'dead as a doornail' - it was useful to use soft nails in doors so they could be bent over once pounded thru). Wipe off any loose oxidation with a rag once it's cool.

Make sure you use all proper precautions to keep from burning yourself and others, or your house or buildings.

This takes some time, so you have to balance time verses money to decide if you'd rather just buy new wire.

Usually you should cut the wires into pieces, which means lots of short pieces to anchor screens over drainage holes.