After one year of watering and fertilizing, the surface of the soil in these pods has become compressed. To make the surface penetrable again, the crust had to be removed.
Picture before removal:
What to do in the Spring
The soil is able to 'breath' again and to transport oxygen to the roots. It doesnt not harm the plant, when sucker roots close under the surface are also removed. It is growing season and the roots will be replaced soon.
Picture after removal
Gosh, I've still got to work on my big plants. It's just too darned cold out there today.
Monika i don't see your picture before removal I would really like to see it. this is so good of you to post this.
Oops, apparently, I have missed picture #1
Thanks Monika, great pictures!! I was wondering about this earlier this week .....
I was wondering too, Springsong....
Thank you Monika, now I know what I must do next: lug some heavy pots around.... :o)
Funny to see you with short branched brugs Monika, I always think of all your brugs as alley trees!
Thanks Monika! That is an excellent reminder for all of us to give our Brugs fresh soil in the Springtime and remove the compacted "crust" from the over-wintered ones. We should not only do this with Brugs, but with all our plants in the Spring.
Monika,how do you remove them?by cutting with a knife?or scrape them off?I am sure I have some that need this treatment,and I have never done it.
Monika, your brugs look to be 2 or more yrs old. Am I correct? I usually do not have this problem until the 3rd yr. What I do is when I move then up to a larger pot I take off the lower roots and break up the upper crust and put new soil top, bottom and sides. I would never have thought to tell anyone this. Glad you did. There are so many things that we do just by second nature that we forget about.
This message was edited Apr 23, 2004 8:24 AM
Would some of you Master Brug Gardners tell the Newbie Class - Spring 2004, what signs to look for with diseased brugs? Or give us a site where this might have been discussed previously. I easily find plants on search, but haven't had too much luck locating topics. Also would someone define an Alley Brug?? Or is it just what the name implies, for maybe a big or tall brug?? SLike
Root, the tool I use, is seen in picture #1. I dont know the english name of it. You are correct Larry, they are three years old. These are all the Ys of large seedlings.
I have this problem every year. The plants grow much better after the crust is removed.
if this helps the Brugs you have in pots, would it be good to areate the top of the ground around the plants outside year round in the spring?
It would help.
Thanks monika I will do this