newbie brugmansia questions

first year very novice gardener. have several brugs. in pots that were in the sun but now have been moved under trees to stop the drooping. i also put them in kiddie pools with a bit of water in the bottom cause they look so devastated from the 95+ temps here the last few days. will this hurt them? never tried to grow them before but just love the flowers i have seen here in this forum. want to do what is best for them. also was told they need a lot of fertilizer, like once a week, is that ok? any advice will be greatly appreciated. thank you

Risingcreek,

You didn't mention what size pot, how large the Brugs were and how long they had been in those pots. All these have a baring on how a Brug reacts to heat. If I recall, Banning can have very low humidity in addition to heat which doesn't help.

In your area, your Brugs probably need shelter from direct sunlight from noon to late afternoon. Small pots (in relation to the rootsystem) will dry out very quickly specially if the plants have large leaves. In summer, they may need to be watered several times a day. Potting up to a larger pot helps reduce watering to maybe once a day.

Even though Brugs use up a lot of water, their roots will suffer root rot easily if the roots aren't also exposed to oxygen. Letting potted Brugs sit in water is a no no. It's one of the best ways to get them to rot.

If the potting mix is very dry. plunge the pots in a container of water until you no longer see air bubble come out the top. Then remove the pot, set it aside forthe extra water to drain out. Don't let the potting mix get that dry again.

Brugs can be fertilized once to twice week. Do use any bloom booster as Brugs don't like that much phosphate and will reward you with yellow leaves. Use a fertilizer with a higher nitrogen number and one that contains all the micronutrients. A pinch of epsom every once in a while helps.

thank you. i am not sure of the size of the pots, maybe 15 or 20 gallons. i got several cuttings about 12 inches long from a friend this year, so that is all they have been in the pots, and only in the water a few days since i freaked out about the drooping leaves. went and took them out immediately after reading your reply. we have pretty much no humidity here you are right about that . i will leave them in the shade of a large tree and make sure they dont dry out, but i think probably the best thing for the plants is maybe to find out what color they bloom, if they bloom, and trade them for something more suited to this area. this isnt even the hottest time of the year yet so i hope they make it.

Are all the rooted cuttings in the same pot or is each in a 15 - 20 gallon pot? If they were unrooted cuttings this spring, they should have been rooted in a 4" - 6" pot unless the cutting was very thick. In which case, using a 1-gallon container would have been the better choice. My Brugs don't go into 15 - 20 gallon containers until they have been potted up through a series of slightly larger pots bigger than the ones they were rooted in. If the pots is very larger compared to the size of the root ball. Soil that doesn't have any roots in it hold onto water for a long time and don't allow the precious oxygen the roots need into the ball.

You might actually have the opposite problem than the one described above — too much water rather than dry soil. If the leaves continue to droop or you start seeing die back in the branches, consider carefully removing a plant from the pot and check the root system, White feeder roots and young rootlets indicate a healthy root system. If the roots have turned yellow, they have started to rot or may have some other damage. Brown roots especially if you can't find any feeder roots means the root ball is dead.

All is not lost, however, if the roots are dead, cut the bottom off until you see healthy tissue, and try rooting what's left of the cutting in a small pot. Don't move up to a larger pot until you see roots coming out the bottom of the pot and then only to a pot maybe 2" larger on all sides.

there are 2 cuttings in each pot. they were not rooted cuttings, just stick like things that i just stuck in the dirt and kept the dirt moist.. my reasoning(or lack thereof) was that it would be that same as putting them in the ground, which i didnt want to do because of our gopher problem here.. they are now about 3-4 feet tall. since i took them out of the pools they seem to be ok, i am making sure they dont droop and they are staying in the shade of a large elm tree. i have a ton of daturas in different colors that seem to doing quite well in the direct sun, so maybe i should just stick to them. it will be a miracle if the brugs flower after all they have been though.

Risingcreek, I live in Livermore which doesn't stay quite as hot as you but we do have long hot spells and very low humidity. I have found that my brugs. do best if planted in the ground with morning sun and afternoon shade or very shade. I do have some brugs. in 10 gallon pots and I have to water them a couple times a day if just sitting around the yard . Because I travel quite a bit during the summer I have sunk the pots into the ground to keep the roots cool.