So because of the lockdowns, I’ve finally had a chance to pick up this hobby that I’ve been interested in since watching Karate Kid 2. lol. Anyways, I had a question about raffia that I can’t find a answer to. I’ve started working on a dwarf Alberta spruce. Not a huge fan of formal upright unless it’s used in a forest, so I decided to wrap the trunk with raffia and make some extreme bends. I understand the function of the raffia during the bending process to help protect from breakage. But does it serve any purpose after? If I were to very carefully remove it after setting the trunk, would that cause any problems? Like is it holding in some pressure from the bend that will be released and crack the trunk, or does it help in healing in any way?
Supposedly the compression of the raffia after it dries help keep everything in place while the bend is setting.
Beyond that, it’s probably more work to take off the raffia now that the wire is on and the bend has been performed.
If you don’t like the contrast of the raffia you could always tint it the same way we tint sphagnum when making top dressing.
Removing raffia from underneath the wire that is holding the bend would be a huge pain and would likely risk scarring the tree. Also if the tree did split or break during the bend the raffia is holding that together while the tree heals around this damage and the bend sets.
Also, I’m not sure raffia would actually be helpful when bending a spruce. Generally raffia is used for bending junipers due to the way juniper branches bend and break. I don’t believe raffia (and the compression it provides) would necessarily help when bending a spruce. I’d watch through this video to see Ryan’s techniques when performing big bends on spruces: https://live.bonsaimirai.com/library/video/cascading-spruce-structure