What temp do you bring Plumies indoors at night?

It is starting to get cooler at night and was wondering at what temp do you start moving the plumies indoors? I have two outside now that are just starting to put out leaves and both have inflos too. It is getting into the upper 40's to the low 50's at night now.

I do high 40s,
Low 50s for reds
I dont let mine go dormant is why.

Malestrom-
How do you keep this inside if they don't go dormant? Do you use lights?

i do 38 - 40 when the plants bottom leaves start to yellow and fall... each plumeria is different on this. so they all come in slowly and are stored in a dormant state... no leaves and just a small root ball.

I don't bring mine in for the winter. They stay outside all year. They don't even start to drop their leaves until temps drop into the high 30's, and last year, only one lost all its leaves entirely. That was Duke, and it didn't happen until February. I do get a yellow leaf here and there when temps are in the 40's at night.

I would bring yours in before temps drop below 40 for sure, but some feel more comfortable bringing them in before temps drop below 50. The larger, more mature plants can tolerate cold a lot more than smaller ones. The well-rooted ones are also more tolerant of cold than the just-rooted ones. So there is some discretion regarding when to move them inside.

I erected a portable greenhouse for my tropicals and plumeria seedlings last winter, and I kept just-rooted and still-rooting cuttings in it, but I'm not sure that I'm going to do that this year. I may just let all the plumerias fend for themselves with the exception of some seedlings that I just started this summer. I may bring those in the house when temps drop into the 40's. It doesn't get much below 35 here in the winter.

I use lights and a heater. ;)
If I let them go dormant I lose bloom time on the end of the next season.
This way I have A BIG JUMP ON IT. ;)

Thanks for all the advice. I have a red and pink cutting outside that have just put on inflos and have started leaf production. Looks like I will have to bring them inside and put them on my heat mat. I am going to try and not let them go dormant but sparingly water them.

I had two. I let one stay out too long and the size was greatly reduced, almost like when I first planted the cutting. The other is fine. Is this normal? Obviously I should not have left it outside too late into the season. Is it dead?

Andidandi, can you post a picture of it? When you say greatly reduced, do you mean that it rotted from some of the tips downward? Or did frost kill some branches? What zone are you in and how cold does it get at night? If your plumeria is firm, then it is dormant. If your plumeria is soft and mushy, then it is rotten.

Great question. Thanks for the info.
Patti

What I mean by reduced is that after being out on the cold it looks on slightly taller than it did when it was a cutting. It lost height. The one that I brought inside earlier in the season to go dormant did not lose height. The growth is still there, but it dropped its leaves. I will try to figure out how to post a photo.

Andidandi, plumies don't shrink, but they do rot. You might use your fingers to check below the soil to see if you feel a firm stem or a mushy/rotting stem. If it is firm, then it is fine and dormant.

Clare my plumies are 4 ft. tall with good Y in them but to are very pail. they are all most white and they were that way before I put them in the greenhouse. They still have there leaves. Do you know what is wrong? Joan

Joan, can you post a picture? Do they feel firm? It's a good sign that they still have their leaves. I have some which have light-colored bark, and that is normal. It is hard to tell if there is a problem without seeing them. Are the tips green at least?

This is the one that is so light. it is all most white.

Next

next this is the right color the camera the other tips are all most white.

one more

I gust saw a white fly but they have just got started. Joan

Joan, those leaves are probably trying to drop off so that the plumeria can go dormant for the winter. I definitely see mite damage in a few of the leaves, and I suspect you've got a mite infestation on all the leaves. I would remove all the leaves now and spray the tip and the stem with a miticide such as Neem Oil, Horticultural Oil, Murphy's Oil Soap, or Fungicide3. Don't worry about the leaves because they will grow back by spring. What kind of heat and light do you have in your greenhouse? It is probably best to let it go dormant in there which means very little water until spring. I wouldn't worry about the color of the tip of the stem. I think it will recover in the spring. As long as it is firm, it should be all right. It didn't get exposed to any frost or anything; right? Here's a picture of my seedlings last year in my portable greenhouse. The leaves got a bad case of aphids, rust, and mites so I pulled them all off and sprayed with a fungicide.

Two months later, they were all grown back:

I just pulled all the leaves off of mine again this year because of a bad red spider mite infestation:

Even the ones outside got treated:

They were never expose to the cold those two plants just have never been green on the ends. If the plumerias have white fly then should I pull all the leaves off my brugs,too? The GH is my gazebo that I turn into a GH in the winter. It is more for heat 40 or 45 then light. If I take the leaves off of both do I need good light for them? I can put fluorescence lights in if you think I need to.

You will get a laugh out of this. Someone was having a bad time with white fly on there brugs and so I looked all over to find where you had said it but of course I could not find it any where so I just said someone said to pull all the leaves off and clean and spray and then hope you would come on and tell them all about it. OH IT IS BRUGS YOU DO THAT TO?
Answer soon this may be my last letter on Dave's. Joan

Joan, it is probably from lack of light then, but they should be fine. I think people remove the leaves of brugs too before they go dormant. It also helps to keep insects to a minimum that way. You don't need light for them when they are dormant. The only time supplemental light and heat is needed is when you keep them growing and keep them from going dormant. Joan, why is it your last post on Dave's? Are you leaving?

Clare because it was plumerias not brugs that you said take the leaves off of and I told someone to take them off the brug when they got white fly real bad and wash them down and spray them good. I gave my first help on one of the forums and I was wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But may be Dave will forgive and not kick me off.

I realy feel bad

Joan, ah! I don't think you gave bad advice. I think that was good advice. I remove the leaves from my brugs all the time, especially when they have whiteflies and mites. It is much easier to treat the smaller leaves and branches with a miticide when the bigger leaves are gone. I also remove the big leaves from my brugs all the time even when they don't have an infestation of some sort because water is lost through the leaves so you can slow the water loss down by removing the bigger leaves. I also remove leaves so that they don't hide the blooms. In my opinion, brugs have way too many leaves so I like to remove a lot of them if I can. They grow back fast enough.

I left my plumies out. We had some very cold weather. Two of them are completely trashed, I'm afraid, as they are mushy. The others are going to lose at least the tops of the stems. Should I put them under cover in case we have more cold weather? It gets down into low 40s at night and could possibly freeze again. I can put them under roof it would help. We haven't been getting frost as it has been so dry.

Yes, I would cover them or put them under an overhang or roof -- anything to keep frost from settling on the tree. Is it too big to bring in, Judy?

We put them under a roof. Should I cut off the bad parts?

Yes, that is probably a good idea and then spray the cut ends with a fungicide. It may take a while for all the damage to show up though so don't be surprised if it continues to die back. Hopefully, it will stop before it reaches the trunk.

Clare, that brug is a real show stopper!! Fantastic!

Thanks, Barbara. I still love brugs, but I hardly ever get to the Brug Forum any more. Shame on me. There are such nice people over there. Here's my Pink Beauty when it had so many blooms that a branch just clean snapped off:

Here it was in June of last year during the day time:

Clare, excuse me for a minute as I have to go get some napkins to clean up the drool on my keyboards! Just awesome. I so want a standard. How long did it take you to get her to that point as shown in the pics?

LOL, Barbara! That tree is two years old in that picture and grown from a cutting that was about six inches long that I got from Logee's in a four-inch container. I think it grew about six feet the first year that I had it. I trim most of my brugs into standards by pruning away all but the most straight shoot.