DH is saying that the reason mine are falling over and breaking is that they grow too fast. HUH? One of my Monster Whites was SO heavy with blooms that in the rains last night she just split down the trunk at the main Y. I still need to go out and cut it all out, and back and stick the 4 and 5 foot trunks in the ground.
What say y'all (we live in Southern Puna district)?
Carol
Can Brugs grow TOO fast
Do you think that keeping them cut back, using a couple of assorted areas would help?? Like every other branch or so, one cutting, and do the same thing with different branches the next time. The spring drought has caused some of my really fast growers, Rosamond and PB, and five unknowns to grow lots of leaves, then when it was dry, they shot up, with few leaves, now growing fast and since some are 10+ feet tall, it's rather odd to view, but if you know about the dry spring, it is very obvious what has happened...I don't know how such growing habits could be altered, but I hope someone will come along with the answer. Happy Friday!!!!
Multiple trunks on the Monster White are about 2" in diameter. Truncks on Pink Suaveolens and some others are the same...each plant with 3 or 4 truncks.... I have them tied up/together with old ace bandages and they STILL break out and flop.
Taking care of the shape of the Monster White will give me some experience in selective pruning of one of the wonderful Monster growers!!! Sometimes out evening/night rains can be weighty...and with all the blooms, they just fall. I think I am figuring out how to prune BACK to one leader and then keep that leader OK for the weight of water.
I tell you...with all of these extra cuttings, I am going to be a hero with the growers at the local market!!!
QUERY
In order to grow the standard form...when one has one really straight and true trunk....do you just keep the sides trimmed and the leaves off as it grows UP and then when it Ys you let it do it's thingy?
Inquiring minds want to know.... ;>)
Carol, what in the world are you feeding those things???? Don't you stake them up? Are they planted in the ground? Maybe you should pot them up instead. I don't think they will grow that large in pots.
I don't mean pot them now, but maybe next season whenever that is for you. I would love to have your problem. I am going to be lucky to get a few blooms before it turns cold and it is time to take them in for the winter.
Jeanette
News at 11. Photos tomorrow.
Heck...I don't know what I give them. Yellow margins = mag., funny leaves = calcium. I have heard/read fert 2 x per week...there I am 2x per week. Crazy...yes. BIG plants, YES.
tropical plants in a tropical setting with a magical gardener!
(nuther thought... they're not downwind of the bong house are they?)
Seems each of us have our own problems with raising Brugs, I would rather have yours *S* Can you possibly put a stake closer to the center of the plant then tie up the branches?
Doris
Yeah, right Blaine!!!
Doris...I have tried stakes...but there is not enough hard soil in the hole (mostly lava cinder with some organic matter...) and the plant pulls the stake down. Imzadi suggested tomato cages, which I am going to try!!! I am tying their stalks together and then tieing the whole thing to the closes tree!!! Taking a photo this morning.
The other epiphany I had is that I am letting too many stalks mature...instead of taking the strongest and straightest one and cutting the rest back. Gosh...I don't spend this much time and effort on me, DH AND the animals....but OH, the rewards!!!
my monster white will not get any leaves or start?/ feed it talk ect.. nothing.?? do they grow slowly or fast?? anybody know
I like just 1 stalk Carol. I cut off all the side growth and suckers.
My Rosamond does that too, suddenly she breaks. She gets huge, is all green and though fat stalks they can't hold the weight of the fowers. And when wet, oh my!! Disaster. I think it is because they are so green still. If I were you I would keep my branches cut back by some so that they can't get too heavy before the main trunk matures to hardwood.
We need pictures!!
OK...here is the broken Y. There are good green strong suckers coming UPUPUP, so will cut back...the broken stems are about 2" diam.
Don't you just hate yourself when that happens???
Here is DH (6'2) next to an unknown...tied back to a tree but I need to trim it!!!
And, here I am...all 6' of me...next to one that hasn't even Y'd yet!!! I think that is Rosamond in the BG...need to cut her too!!
sure healthy looking.. nice pictures of you and your husband.. i still do not know why my monster white and first day will not make a leaf even.. oh brugie might know hope shes around..thanks anyway.. Twyla
I love looking at pics from Hawaii. Lets me close my eyes and make believe I am there in my orange bikini doing the hoola.
So keeping in mind, I know nothing, I would take those ends of the Y in the pic of your Husband there, and cut it back to about 5 nodes. As each node branches out to far, I would cut them back too so you get a sturdy closely knit center of a flowering region around the main stem. this instead of having long, lanky branches loaded with blooms so far from the center.
hawaii is so beautiful there sunsets awesome.. flowers are beautiful...
Thanks Kell - that is going to be tomorrows project!! OK, maybe the whole weekend. Would you trim the other tall stalks back, leaving the straightest?...and then start keeping the sides clean?.... Each plant has at least 2 tall stalks...some have 4.
Carol
Ok Carol .... it's 10 Jul, the anniversary of my DS's death and my annual get hammered in a MuMu with the DS. But I have a new one this year courtesy of you. Thks and don't laugh. Haole meat here and I haven't went barefoot at all. Plus, 1 Jul I start the beard for winter. PLUS - today is my official garlic harvesting day then plant beans in their place. This was this years haul. That tall thing behind me is a seed I started from Brugie in Feb.
So... since it's your thread... thought I'd barge in.
Mahalo!
LOL! Too funny Blaine!
OH, Blaine...it is YOU!!! Perfect...but looks like it's a bit tight...should have made it for a Large Samoan kine' brah!
You look perfectly fetching! And the garlic looks good too.
Have a happy Hammering!
Carol
I'm afraid to ask
but are you wearing the same thing under there as you do with a kilt?
I don't know what they wear under a kilt but as hot and humid as it is today, I was tempted to go commando... then thought better of it and put on some shorts. The neighbors directly across the street have a security camera looking right up my driveway... and my skirt if I'm not careful. ;)
Carol - got plenty of room. I think it's just from trying to hold onto the garlic. (ggg)
I hate it when men have better looking legs than I do. LOL You're a trend setter.
Mary
ggggggg
My little DS wants 2 things: garlic for her and for me to explain to her son why her brother is wearing a dress!
Looking at the way I'm standing in that pic reminds me of the DW whenever she was preggo. Arnold's got nuthin on me!
They've said it all Blaine. Kin was so funny. ROTFL
Carol, did you ever look at the pictures in Monika's book? She has her brugs held up with what looks like peeler logs. They look like 6 inchers.
If you do a search of her on Dave's I think she has those pictures posted.
Jeanette
I think I gonna go for Rebar!!! Am trimming them all and going with a single trunk...more energy, perhaps, to make a stronger truck!!!
Blaine...you are TOO much!
Blaine you are a toot. With your mumu, thongs, and your tan line on your legs, thats right I was checking out the legs. Yes you were standing like a preg. women, heavens I almost remember those days.
Carol, I wish I had half of your blooms and I do feel so sorry for you about your brug splitting. Your brugs are so full and the leaves are large. I can't beleive you are really 6 ft tall. You feed twice a week. No wonder you have such big healthy brugs. Then of course your weather helps. I love it love it love it. Do you sense a little envy. There is.
Linda
Blaine, I am sorry to hear you lost your sister. It sounds like you both had a great time together.
You sure know how to dress up for Sunday church. LOL I sure wish I could have some of that garlic!! Is it stronger or more mellow fresh??
Linda...I forget, sometimes, sitting at the computer, that I am really really fortunate...plants grow inspite of me and my efforts! Of course, I can now do a better job with all of the advice I have gotten from all of you...and your help. I forget how different our conditions are...how our struggles are different and how, in spite of myself, the plants will grow (or not, and then I don't fool with them!!). I really admire all of you in those places like Kansas, Ohio, MN...etc...where the weather is so extreme and yet you produce such beautiful plants and gardens!!! What I have learned from all of you has only enhanced my efforts... I feel very blessed to be where I AM and to have you all as friends...and that is how I think of you.
Well, maybe I have shrunk a bit...maybe 5'11" now... taller than the average bear, tho'.
With aloha...
Edited to say that normally we get about 1/3" of rain every night...so with the amount of water running thru the soil, it is important to fertilize often... Someone, Brugie?, said she fertilized twice a week so I thought, why not? Normally we fertilize our orchards every 10" of rain (we get, on an average not during drought years, 160" a year). The chocolate side is moldy furniture to keep waxed, closets to keep fresh, mosquito bites, and weeds that would choke an elephant. I spend more time pruning than planting!!! I think I will cut back!!! ;>)
This message was edited Jul 10, 2005 7:37 PM
Carol I could and do live without that much rain. Our humidity here lately has been really bad. You don't want to take a shower before you are really ready to call it a day, because if you just step outside with our humidity you will have to take another when you come back in the house. Not all people are like me, I sweat real easy, I always have, when I was a teenager I used to had it cause other girls could put on makeup and wear it, I never could cause I would sweat it all off. But maybe that was a good thing cause I always had real good skin condition. Only had an occasional pimple every now and then. My skin today is still good, except for the winkles, age spots that kinda of stuff that goes with age. Better get out of here I haven't had my cup of coffee yet.
Linda
This message was edited Jul 11, 2005 8:15 AM
kell, it's not the strongest flavor out there. This is some Italian looseneck I ordered 4 years ago then save the biggest, split and replant in November. I'll be braiding it up this evening and hanging to cure. send me an addy.
sheesh, I remember the first time I was stationed in the Philippines. Coming from NM, of course I had some cowboy boots and leather belts. Got a wild hair and decided to suit up for a night of yee-haw! This was about 6 months after I got there. Opened the trunk in the closet and the inside of the boots and the belt were covered in green mold/moss/something and happily rotting away. Then later I happened to open a case for my telephoto lens I hadn't used since being there. What an absolute mess. The foam had all disintegrated and the green stuff was attacking the inside of the leather case and trying the lens itself out.
Linda...I hear you!!! The sweat just rolls off me and my hair is soaked when I work outside. When I was a gym rat I would see girls in full battle dress working out and NOT a drop of sweat damaged their makeup!!! I even had eyeliner tatooed... (DH has not even noticed it...3 years later!!!) and even amongst the wrinkles and agespots it is so subtle I love it.
Blaine...polyester is a sailor's best friend...right after plastic and throw away cameras!!!
TTFN
Carol isn't that sooooo funny I also have eyeliner tatooed on my upper lids. It has been about 8 years now, and still have it. Like you said it is so subtle. I forget about mine being there. I love it to. I also have a red rose on my right ankle by they ankle bone. I love it to. But that is all I want. I am done with the tatoo's.
Linda
I thought it looked good on Captain Jack Sparrow!!
Anything looks good on Captain Jack Sparrow, whew!!
Blaine you have to get together with Root. You are both a hoot.
And you are such a manly man even in your muumuu. LOL
Thats right!! and for the record, I don't knit. That's a girly sport. I just crochet and only in the winter and only to stock pile blankets for when the DW finally kicks me to the curb. I'll need something to keep the tropicals warm in the grocery cart while living in the street.
I bet it will be awhile before you get kicked to the curb. You would be a most entertaining husband. LOL