Plant ties that cut the stem
I have girdled a cordon apple with last year's plastic tape and only noticed when I went to prune in March. The tape had been slack in June. By autumn the stem had swollen into it. I cut the tape off and found a waist in the bark, pale and hard, and a split on the windward side. The tree was tied in. It was being sawn.
A plant tie holds a stem to a support so wind and weight do not kink the growth. That is the job. It has to give as the stem thickens. Soft string, a strip of cloth, or a padded tie does that if you leave a gap. Wire, a cable tie, thin plastic tape, and the leftover twist from a bread bag do not. They hold. Then they cut.
I used wire once because it was in my pocket and the runner beans were already flopping. I twisted it tight against the cane and the stem, one loop, no figure of eight. After a wet week the stem had a groove. After a blow it snapped at the groove. The cane was still upright. That is the other half of One thin cane will not hold a plant in autumn wind. The cane can be right and the tie still wrong.
You cinch one loop around stem and support together, so the stem cannot move and cannot grow. A figure of eight keeps the stem off the cane. One loop around the support, one around the stem, a twist in the middle so they do not rub. If you cannot slide a finger under the stem loop, it is already too tight.
I check ties after a wet week and again after a blow. Wet string shrinks. Wet tape bites. I look for a waist, a pale ring, or bark rolling over the tie. I look for a tie that has slipped into a split cane and is now a saw. That tie is worse than no tie, because it works on the stem every time the top moves.
I also look for last year's ties left on. I have left them. They disappear under new growth and then you find them with the pair. Secateurs that stop cutting are usually blunt is a blade note, but a hidden wire will nick a good edge in one bite. Stop. Cut the old tie first. If you cannot see the join, feel for it.
Hook-and-loop tape is fine if you leave slack and you check it. Thin green tape from a reel stretches, then goes hard, then shreds and leaves a thread that still cuts. Soft string rots, which is a kindness. It fails before it girdles. One tight tie halfway up a tall stem is a hinge. Two looser ties, one low and one under the head of growth, spread the load. A late tie on a leaning stem often sits where the kink already is. Then you have locked in the bend.
Skip cable ties. They only tighten. Skip wire against bark, even soft wire with a thin paper wrap. The paper goes in a week. Skip the idea that one tight loop in June will last until September cut-back is a tool choice. The stem will have put on girth you cannot see from the path. Skip leaving old ties on a support you mean to reuse. They tangle fleece. Horticultural fleece fails when it blows off, and a leftover tie is a tear point the same way a cane tip is.
This is a spring job first, because that is when you tie new growth in. A spring prune kit is smaller than the catalogues say already assumes you will need something to hold a stem after you cut. Summer is when the stems swell and the ties you forgot start to bite. Autumn is when the wind finds a waist. I walk the ties when I walk the stakes, and I cut off anything I cannot slide a finger under. Winter is when you find the ones you missed. Winter tools need a wipe and a film of oil. The ties do not get oiled. They get cut off and thrown in the crate that is not the compost.
I keep a short ball of soft string on the same hook as the pair. The reel of thin tape can leave the shed.
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