When would be the best time to pull my brugs out of their pots & trim the roots? They are growing through the drainage holes & the pots that they are in are the largest I can get. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Advice on trimming roots
In early spring, I take all my big adult brugs out of their pots and trim off half the roots. I repot them in the same pots (biggest ones I can handle) and add fresh soil. At the same time I cut the canopy back by as much or more. I never cut below the first Y. I like to leave a good structure above the first Y so it fills in fast.
I boil my root saw and clippers in between brugs.
I would never do so now on outside brugs for it is cold and wet which equals brug rot!! In the early spring, they just take off after I do it. They love it!
You also can get by with even cutting more off your roots then you normally should for you are going with the plants normal rhythm.
Thanks Kell,
I was not going to do it now, I just wanted to be ready for it. Can I take from the bottom AND the sides of the rootball? And how often can I do this? Does it affect blooming?
I have a ?, what does this mean exactly
"I boil my root saw and clippers in between brugs"
Denise
I think Kell is probably at work. She means that you must boil your clippers and root saw between trimming different brugs so as to not transfer any possible disease. Put them in a pot of water and boil for ten minutes to sterilize.
oh dear can you tell how new I am, I was thinking I had to boil some water and pour it on the roots and then saw and clip them. I was trying to figure out if roots would really like boiling water.
LOL. No, do not boil your roots.
So Brugie are you sure 10 minutes?? I have been doing 5 minutes!!!! OH NO!!! SAY IT AIN"T SO!!! Thank God I have had no bad diseases so far.
Yes Pudgie, take it from all around. Just saw it off. It is like you are bonsaing the brug. The general rule is, always take the same amount from the top as you do from the roots. You want to make sure the roots can still sustain the canopy.
However, I think you would just have leaf drop if you did not take enough from the top. And if bad enough, wilt. I do it very early spring so I get the top growth going again fast to bloom.
Plus it is not that hot yet to stress the plant even more. And in the spring the plant has a huge urge to put out new roots and growth. So it recovers fast. I always get away with even doing more root pruning than I would do when not spring.
Though I have to tell you, I dug up a few of my potted brugs that were in 5 gallon cans and planted in the ground with big holes in the sides for the roots to come out and grow down into the ground freely.
I just cut around the pot and brought the pot with the brug in, home. I did not cut back the above the ground growth at all. I lost not one leaf and no wilting at all. It was November and I wouldhave thought I would have thought I would have had a bad reaction for surely I left behind lots of roots since the plant had been growing in that dirt since about April.
ok, I think I get it. I will do it when all danger of freeze is past.
Thanks for your help!
Donna
You live pretty close to me. Though you get so hot in the summer! I would love to see if your pinks are a lot darker than mine! Take pics this summer.
I just recently bought cuttings for 6 varieties of pinks and they are just now leafing out. I doubt I will get any blooms this year. :~( Of all my older ones that have bloomed, there was only one that was pink (v. pink) and one that was peach (v. peach). The others are yellows, Sunray, Twisted Sister, James & Carolyn, which I kept & numerous others that were whites & I pawned off on my mom.
My v. pink blooms were VERY light, hardly darkened at all. I am hoping to get some darker pinks with these 6 I have started.
But if I should luck out & get some blooms, I will for sure take pics of them for you to compare.
I think V.pink is light normally everywhere, though I have never had her. Butterfly, Rosamond, Pink Beauty, and L'A would be interesting to see. They could be dark for you!!
Hmm,
here is what I got,
Pink Beauty
Rosa Traum
Frosty Pink
Valley Peach
Ecuador Pink
Isabella
and I just realized that I have a double, so I only have 5 pink varieties. I will watch the Pink Beauty then and keep my fingers & toes crossed. LOL
Rosa traum, Frosty Pink and Isabella all tend to be very similar and light pink where ever they grow. . I have seen some darker pics of Rosa traum, but I think mosty it is light. Valley Peach is probably light.
EP and Pink Beauty are good brugs. EP can be dark, but here in my yard it is light!!! PB is genally light for me also, but I have seen darker pics of her growing elsewhere. I think you will love PB, I do!
I think I will love them all cuz they are pink, which is one of my favorite flower colors. Thanks for the info too!
If only they lasted in a vase! You would have quite a bouquet!! Frosty will bloom and bloom for you. They are all over here where I live. Big bushes of them!
Kell, I'm sorry. 5 min. is right, but so I don't have to watch the pot boil, I put them in the water and leave for ten minutes. I know they are done then and I don't waste time hanging out in the kitchen. I'm a creature of "bad" habits and wasn't thinking.
This message was edited Jan 13, 2005 3:36 PM
Pour boiling water on the roots? That was funny! I have tears in my eyes!
I am sooooooooo bad about sterilizing my tools inbetween each brug. Naughty me!
Could a pail of bleach water & then a rinse do the same trick?
Kell, do you mean that you start with completely new soil in your pots each Spring? That sounds like of expensive.
This message was edited Jan 13, 2005 2:23 PM
Pink Beauty is sassy, hardy, pretty, easy to grow and seems to 'love the one she's with', a beautiful brug that makes this grower look like I know something, which we all know is questionable...
I never had potting soil in any of the 14 Brugs I am currently overwintering in my GH; they all had compost right out of my compost pile. Mid summer I added more after the soil sank in the pots. All the pots of my cuttings - I have potted fifty now that were well rooted - have been potted in compost.
I have buckets of compost waiting for 50 more to pot.
I love using compost from the previous season, and will use it after trimming my Brugs this spring.
I have read to use "sterile" potting soil, but I haven't, and there is nothing like the tilth of fresh compost!
It doesn't seem my Brug bugs and diseases are better or worse than others, and using the peroxide in my watering has kept rot away.
When does a seedling become an adult?? I have 4 seedlings that were frost bitten, but alive - they are not 'big adult brugs', I don't think, so what I want to know is - should I take them outta their posts, trim their roots and add fresh soil?? Also, I have several rootings from last year that were not doing good in the ground, probably because it was low - I have the same question about them, should I trim the roots and repot them??? I think all of them need it, but I don't know if they are old enough to tolerate such a drastic step - that was a question. If it is okay to do this, how early can I start?? I have room in the GH for them, if that helps. Thanks!!!!!
Edited to ask what determines adulthood in brugs, size or age, or both???
This message was edited Jan 27, 2005 4:54 PM
I wouldn't trim them until they can stay outside all the time. If they are in small pots, I probably wouldn't trim them, just loosen the roots a little and put in a bigger pot. Could be wrong, but I am good at taking the easy way out. My thoughts on seedlings becoming adults....here at my house, they are called a seedling until they get a name. I'm anxious to hear what the answer to that one is, myself.
This message was edited Jan 27, 2005 4:58 PM
I use the word or term 'seedling' to identify brugs grown from seed on my property...I think. If I ever grow a seed pod, and produce a seedling, I think I will say 'my seedling', I dunno...
Rats, if only I had read this thread last week.
I just repotted my 6' tall one year old. Ah, well, the pot wasn't draining well enough. I needed to aerate the roots.
I will wait until "spring", whatever that means, to prune. Many brugs still flowering here...
Karrie, boiling is better, if you are worried about fungus.
Bleach kills most bacteria and virii. That's why you use it around the kitchen.
You need heat, though, to destroy fungus spores.
Same reason you have to pressure can to kill botulism spores.
Shirley, lets not forget to ask those that might know, when a seedling becomes an adult. I think there is lots of winter action that isn't including plants, but maybe someone will see this and we will learn the answer...hey, I'm going to type BUMP and see what happens...