Straighten up trees

[Merkurius]

Lots of my trees, cypresses in particular, are bent. Does anyone have some metod to straighten them? Could boiling them be an idea? 

Also the feet are often bent so they cant stand by themselves. 

[Mylenium]

You could try to put them in hot water and/ or heat them with a dry blower, but certainly don't boil them. Industrial processes e.g. for extruding plastic tubes and rods use around 50 deg C to 60 deg C to "relax" the plastic and to straighten the product, but I wouldn't go much higher.

Mylenium

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Mylenium said:

You could try to put them in hot water and/ or heat them with a dry blower, but certainly don't boil them. Industrial processes e.g. for extruding plastic tubes and rods use around 50 deg C to 60 deg C to "relax" the plastic and to straighten the product, but I wouldn't go much higher.

Mylenium

I've done it on the vintage fruit trees with a hair drier on hot and it just about worked. Don't use a DIY heat gun, even on cool, or at least test it on broken trees first. 

You also have to be careful not to hit the base too much, as you can lose clutch if the base spreads even a tiny bit.

[Merkurius]

On 7/14/2023 at 9:46 AM, MAB said:

I've done it on the vintage fruit trees with a hair drier on hot and it just about worked. Don't use a DIY heat gun, even on cool, or at least test it on broken trees first. 

You also have to be careful not to hit the base too much, as you can lose clutch if the base spreads even a tiny bit.

Just wanted to confirm this. I tried with my wifes hair drier and it worked fine. After the first one, I discovered the advantages of doing this in the kitchen. (Just have to ignore the looks from the missus), After heating it up and modelling the tree straight in all directions, I put it in the freezer for 10 minutes, just to cool it so it stays in the new shape!