Hi all,
I have a question and I would love some help.
I had a lot of brugs last year and all did great. Unfortunatly I very much neglected them this past fall. I came home one day and hubby had placed all my brugs along with lots of other container plants on our concreted back porch and had stapled plastic enclosing the porch as a temporary greenhouse. It is a west and south facing exposure. I watered once a week and the brugs were doing great, even at christmas I still had blooms I could see through the window to the porch. Unfortunately we had windchills one night that made it feel down to -4 degrees and hubby forgot to staple the plastic where I go through after I had watered, The next morning I knew that the cold had gotten to them because the leaves looked really bad and the tips turned to mush. I thought well maybe the roots had made it since they containers were large and were put right against the house and had smaller containers enclosing them along with containers sitting on top of the brug containers. I keep checking to see if they are shooting up from the roots but nothing yet. I finally bought a thermomater so I can see from inside what temps is going on out there while I am inside. Daytime temps can get anywhere from 60 upwards and usually when I go to bed and get up in the morning the temp usually reads 45- 50. I figured at these temps they should be coming up if they are alive. I did start fertilizing a couple of weeks ago to see if theat may give them a boost. The branches are brown but I do see green on a couple at the very base of the trunk.
I put a creamsickle out there a couple of weeks ago that I had rooted in the fall and it is doing well and now has a bud on it. What do you think the chances of survival for these are and am I just rushing it. Is there anything I should look for other than shoots, should I try repotting? All are replacable but I have a Dr. suesse that has some sentimental value to me that rose over 7 feet that I really want to come back. Any help or sugestions is very much wanted.
Thank you
Dott
help on brug survivial?
Boy Dott, that is pretty cold with no heater. Here we get no where near that cold and I have had winters where my brugs do not come back up from the cold. I had one that did not come back up till June. So do not give up yet.
I would not repot them and I would water very sparingly until you see green. Once the top goes to mush you have to worry about root rot. Maybe you should turn over a few pots and just see if you have any live roots.
Lots of warmth and sun should help stimulate them if any are alive. Some are more cold tolerate than others, but -4 is pretty cold.
GOOD LUCK!!
Hello Dott:
I'll start by saying that I still have not begun my Brug addiction and have only grown Datura to this point but....would you happen to remember the "Actual" temperature that night the wind chill got to -4? The reason I ask is that with the wind chills, the actual temp can be MUCH higher than the wind chill. If that particular night was extremely windy it may have only come close to below 32. It really doesn't take much cold to get very cold wind chill. And windchills are ONLY how it feels when human flesh is exposed to that wind.
The fact that the "tips" turned to mush tells me that the main parts of your plants did not freeze, only the tips. If you've grown Impatiants you know that because of the abundance of water in those stems it make them extremely susceptible to frost, just like the new growth tips on most any plant.
As I say, I'm NOT an expert on Brugs but my guess is that your plants will come back very well once the weather warms and the day lenghts get better. You in the northeast have been having alot of snow storms lately which isn't helping, but I truly believe that the plants themselves, unless frozen again, will survive.
I agree with Kell that watering should be done spareingly, but once new growth begins, fertilize and give them as much sun as possible. And checking the roots will go a long way on telling you if they are still alive and I bet they are. The freeze just put them into dormancy that only warmth and sunshine will bring them out of it.
I say this as a former greenhouse grower of many crops of foliage and flowering crops. Unfortunely though, never Brugs, which I hope to change this year. Most Wisconsinites still have never even heard of Brugs let alone be willing to try something new like them. But I can't wait to have my own and I'm jealous of those who do have them already like scooterbug, lol.
Let us know how things work out.
Richard T
The only thing I can add to the good advice above it to cut off any mushy or brown branches down to the beginning of the healthy growth so any rot will not continue down the branch.
If your roots are still white and healthy they will come back with warmer temps and more daylight hours.
Thanks everyone for the wonderful help. After reading this post this morning I went out and did some investigating. I took each and every brug from their container and checked the roots. Most were orange brown and would just pull from the plant. I did however find 4 that were possibly alive with some white roots but still had mostly brown ones. The white roots were the larger thick roots so I am assuming they may make it. I should have waited to water. I will hold off on the water.
Richard, The temps that night were in the low 20's. I am going to try to get hubby out there with an extension cord and a heater. I would do it myself but I can't find where he hid the cord and most likley it will take him a while to remember himself.
Thanks again and I will keep my fingers crossed for the best. I do have more room now to place more plants out there as soon as the heat is in.
Dott