How To Get A Brug To Grow Like This...

How do gardeners get their brugs to grow like this? it looks like a single trunk with a canopy.

If you grow a seedling they usually grow straight up and are single trunked. Or wait till your brug sends up a root sucker or sometimes at the base of your trunks your brug will send up a very tall and straight base sucker.

I have airlayered but that to me that is extra work so I just do a so easy way. Here is how I do suckers. I will add that before you cut that sucker off, make sure it is well hydrated for it will go days with out water because it has no roots. And keep some leaves on it to feed it while it roots. Also keep in the cool shade to reduce stress, even keep inside if too hot.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/554205/

You can also bag just the top after you sever the sucker and then you can keep more leaves and keep them hydrated longer.

thank you for that info! Question tho, how long does it usually take to grow a brug from seed?

That is known as a standard.

How long to grow a 6 ft tree? If you started a seed now, I would think by next summer at the end, it may flower for you and be tall enough. You live in zone 9A so it probably would have to be wintered over under a lathe or on a porch. Each year, the diameter of the trunk would get fatter and be able to support a bigger canopy.

If you plant it in the ground it would grow faster. If you put it in a pot, you need to keep potting it up to the next size as soon as the roots fill the pot. The bigger the pot, the faster it grows. You need to feed it frequently to get it to grow at a good rate. No food and they stall out.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info.

I currently have one brug in ground and one in a large container. If they have to be overwintered in my zone, does that mean Im gonna lose the one in ground? its planted up close to the house...

How often do you get freezing weather? And how long do these freezes last? Keep it growing and healthy. Larger more mature plants can withstand light freezes of short duration. If your temperatures don't dip down too far nor last more than a few hours, you might be able to protect most of it by throwing a blanket over it. Alternatively, take long cuttings that include at least 1 - 4 "Y"s so you get a head start next spring.

we had a couple freezes this past year over night.. temps to 30 -32 ...

My next door neighbor has a brug that grows to about 7-8ft tall every year when it comes back and he cuts the tree all the way to the ground 1st hard frost.

If you would like a long stem to root, I will be glad to cut one off for you in the fall. Just email me and remind me later. I don't know what it would cost to send something that long, but I have a box for it!

This message was edited Aug 10, 2009 1:24 PM

There is no 100% guarantee that it will survive, but those growers living in zones nine or higher have the best chance of overwintering their Brugs in the ground. Cover it before a freeze or erect some other sort of temporary shelter. Remember to drape the cover all the way to the ground. Soil retains heat and helps keep the temperature inside the cover higher. Don't cover it like a popsickle. You might lose some of the tips and outer branches, but the rest should be OK. Don't be tempted to cut down damaged parts as they will help provide some shelter for the branches below. Since not all Brugs have the same frost tolerance, I would take a few cuttings to overwinter indoors just to be safe.

he cue,
i didnt cover mine this last year and our freeze was about 4-6 hours, and it came back, i thought i lost it but it came back, not as pretty as you saw my picture, but it did
thought i would let you know this.
debi

But to keep a standard, you really do not want it to freeze back below the 1st Y.

I am in zone 9B and just a few hours of cold can cause mine to die back too much and ruin the standard form. Though I have more trouble with rot since winter is our rainy season. If I keep my pots 15 gallon or even smaller, the winter rot problem diminishes but then I have to water them everyday and fertilize more frequently in summer.

If you really want a great fat standard with a gorgeous canopy, plant it in a very protected area or plant it in a pot and cut the roots off outside the pot in fall and bring the pot to a very protected area even inside. Cut the canopy back to a few Ys all the way around to compensate for the root loss. NEVER cut below the first Y. The more Ys you leave, the faster you will get a big canopy going the next growing season. If you do not keep the brug cold enough to make it go dormant, it will start growing again and new growth is more susceptible to winter die back.

If I have a really good brug I want to make sure survives, I put it in a 15 gallon black plastic growers pot (5 gallon is OK too) and dig that half into the ground. That gives it support from blowing over and also gives it the benefits of being in the ground so it grows faster. It will put out huge roots from those small holes in the base of the pot. Then come fall, I put my shovel all around the base of the pot to cut off those roots and pull up the pot and the stick under and overhang so even if I get a few shot freezes.

In my yard I have huge brugs, taller than my house that are in gallon cans but they have huge roots out the holes of the gallon can into the ground. They look so funny. I didn't even dig them in, they root just sitting on top of the soil. Sadly they are plain Jane brugs that need to be tossed. For some reason I have left them there for several years. Only my ugly ones survive the winter so well, all my special ones rot if I leave them with no winter protection.

The ones that survive winter so well would be good breeding stock to develop fancier ones that also winter well.

I live in 7- B and most of mine came back after mulching . DH cut all of my brugs and placed some to compost and a lot sprouted. i use the compost for flower garden not veggie garden. I know that they are poisonous and I am afraid to use the mulch for the veggie garden. Belle

You can only play with genetics so far. We're the ones who insist on growing plants well out of their natural habitat.

zone pusher.

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I've lost a few. :-)

I took a pic of the 1 gallon can brug that will not die. LOL It looks so funny in a 1 gallon can. The tree is so tall to be in a little pot.

It looks grafted doesn't it?

After I downloaded the pics I was looking at it and I realized I didn't see the roots squeezing out of the drainage holes on the bottom of the pot. So I went back out and looked at the rear of the pot. 1 huge root burst thru the pot. LOL

ROTFL.. i thnk the whole 'pot' thing is kinda pointless now...LOL.. might as well go out and take it off the poor Brug.

oh my goodness! I have a couple friends who keep their "trees" each a different way in a zone 5 and 6, one brings in the tree tub and all ( a huge blue tub) and keeps hers in her basement like I do, hers bloom all winter. the other friend just throws them in the garage to go dormant during freezing time, then plants them into the ground in spring.. and both have very nice tall tree forms. I am going to grow my seedlings I started from seed as trees.. and all the cuttings are being kept smaller and more spread out in smaller containers. All mine will come inside for the winter.

This message was edited Aug 22, 2009 12:27 AM

cue_chik, LOL, so true. I was also wondering why that trunk did not totally fill that 1 gallon pot but I see it is because it is wide open at the back, giving it so much more room. LOL. As soon as I get a week with an empty greens can, it is going to brug heaven along with 2 by its side.

Joeswife, sounds like a plan to me!

I can't believe I am getting dragged back into growing brugs again. My backyard is once again a brug nursery. LOL. Just now I spied something very pink back there so I will have to go look.

The most amazing thing is that even though most all the brugs back there were stunted in gallon cans for 3 to 5 years, now potted up they are forming buds fast. So maybe I will know which to toss before October comes.

brug heaven??/ your not going to chop down the poor brug are you??? oh please, say it aint so!!!!

Brugs are like weeds unless the flowers are special. We have them growing all over here. This was from one of my first crosses. Way back then we called them ADW (Another Darn White) for we all got so many whites out of all our crossings. Now there are so many colored brugs with colored parents going back several generations, getting a brug with color is no longer special.

You can see it on the far left on this pic. This was a month or so ago. It is much taller now.

That is just about the size of the tree I stood under in canada in a town near Niagra called Niagra on the lake, and that is when I fell in love with them. I would love to grow one that big, but there is not enough warm season to keep them alive in winter. Meanwhile, I can always look at them at eye level, and admire them... Your property is gorgeous, Kell.. wish I was back in California again.. *sigh*

Debra, I still call the San Francisco Bay Area "home" even though I have been gone from it for over 8 years. I don't know which is worse, being able to grow just about any plant one's heart desires, but not having room for or having all the space needed, but not being able to grow it without special precautions.

someday I am going back, I went back in 2000 when my Mom died, to scatter her ashes in the ocean, but the property we lived on by the beach was all under cement and condos, I rememered the gate, the rail road, the hill and the beach. that was my back yard growing up.. orange trees, flowers everywhere.. how the heck did I end up in Kansas?
Bettydee, hope you get to go back sometime soon..
Oceanside was my town growing up. Never knew Brugs were around tho..

Debra,

Was it a Tornado? LOL Just click your heels together 3 x's and say...

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME...

LOL

Debra, I hope clicking your heels 3 times works for you. I get to see my boys who still live and work in the SFBA at least twice a year. For birthdays or a holiday, but this year, I'm stuck taking care of this ranch while my DH is working out of the state. Although he comes home every other week-end, I've got the other 5 days to worry about. In fact, I have to go put some hay out for them in a few minutes.

Carol, I've tried it, but it doesn't work for me.

I just thought it would work for her since she is in Kansas, LOL...

Heh.. thanks! I tried it.. it got me a ride in a boat at my sons' place, and I squinted my eyes as I was sitting there and it almost looked like the ocean.. NOT..
but I had a good time.

back to kell and the pic with the big trunk brug. You mean something with that thick of a trunk needs to be overwintered? really? How many years to have that big a trunk? 5?

I didn't realize you made standards out of the tall suckers. I was just trimming my orig. plant. No wonder it wasn't making a neat (pretty) tree. I will experiment w/ one of the tall suckers next spring.

voss, I've a brug with large trunk like Kell's. It's a year old. Yes, one year old -- one that sprouted back from the ground from last year.

The standards that I recieved from someone came off a very big trunk on a brug. Mine had a trunk almost three inches in diameter from the little bitty stick I planted last year.

lily and joeswife, you still have to overwinter something that thick?

when you see the stem, you'll know what I'm talking about. It's not really hardwood, so when the temp drops below 32, the whole stem will freeze and turns to mush. That's why we cut it off and covers the rest (in the ground) with pine straws.

voss, I haven't actually overwintered one that big. I may have to cut it back down in sections and root them endividually.

I didn't realize it turned to mush. My oldest one is not nearly as thick as y'alls, but the trunk doesn't suffer at all. I forget the diff. that even one zone can make.

I have about 10 diff. brugs and I've only lost 1 to winter. however, this year I will cover them all so that next spring they start from a stronger point.

Hi Nery!
It took that trunk a few years to get like a tree so fat. If you have them in the ground and they live year to year with little die back, it goes much faster. But if they die back to the ground, none of mine have looked like that after 1 year, in the ground or not. They restart with green wood.

If you dig them every year to protect them from cold, it is slower going then if able to leave them in the ground with all their roots, but you can certainly get a big trunk over time. Though I have never had that big a trunk on a potted brug even one I have had for years. In ground brugs get the real big tree like trunks. I find planting them in the ground in the pot to dig for winter is best for growth. Then when you put them back in the ground in spring, they develop new white feeder roots.

I find brugs will stall if not fed and eventually if not given bigger pots if potted. They just stop. And once resumed, they start growing again.

Do yours die back a bit Nery over winter?

I don't dig mine but cut them down to about an inch or two left.