North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[David.Maxwell@dal.ca]

My own experience with both nylon rope and wire inside old hose is that Mr. 
Garthright is correct: in areas with a lot of wind (coastal Nova Scotia, in 
my case), 12 
gauge wire breaks after a year because of the constant flexing.  The nylon 
rope lasts 
much better.  But neither is totally kind to the bark, because the tie is 
constantly 
rubbing against the bark and abrading it.  If one uses 2 or 3 supports per 
tree, and 
fastens the tree with loose ties, just to restrain it from bending too far in 
any direction, 
there is no problem.  But if one is trying to pull it back up straight, when 
it has bent 
over from the wind, for example, (ie. there is a constant pressure on the 
loop around 
the trunk), the bark underneath does get indented.  The good aspect of this 
is that it 
doesn't seem to matter, (at least so far), on my trees.  I haven't developed 
any 
cankers or anything, which one might expect with damaged bark.