Making a tree brug from a 8 foot cutting

I thought some of you guys might be interested in seeing how easy this is to do. I have done this now for several years and never have lost any. I cut off suckers from the bottom of the mother brug. I leave them on the mother brug until they are the size I want for they grow very fast when still attached to the mother and they are always so straight.

I always use fast draining soil. I use a 5 gallon pot. I NEVER water unless the soil is just about dry. I keep the pot in shade but it is light.

I am blessed with pretty moderate temps here. Rarely do we go above 78 degrees and night time temps are usually in the 60s and 50s in the summer and fall. I have done this as early as April and as late as October when we get very cool but not cold. If done in late Spring, they root very fast. If it is cold where you are when you want to root it, I would root it in the house to get the warmth that promotes rooting.

The nice lady in the pictures is Sheila. She is a true doll who waters my brugs when I can't that I grow at this house that is not mine. The house has a breezeway that is perfect for rooting or for overwintering brugs.

This is the Buttefly piece I cut off to root.

Here is the 8 ft sucker still attached to the mother bush.

The date is 5/17/05.

I cut it way back leaving the first 2 Ys above the orignal Y. I left a few nodes so I could get some nice, fast lateral branching.

Date 5/17/05

Isn't Sheila a doll? What a smile. She thinks I am brug nuts too but still loves me. LOL

I placed the cutting immediately into a 5 gallon pot almost to the bottom. I used fast draining soil.

Here is the cutting more than a month later.


Date 6/28/05

It had shed most of the few leaves I had left on but has now started putting out new ones as well as buds. As soon as I see the new growth, I know the roots have developed and I can move it into more sun.

Date 6/28/05

I pulled it out of its pot just to show you what kind of roots it had been growing from the time it was severed from the mother plant on 5/17 to 6/28 when it has resumed leaf growth.


Date 6/28/05

This message was edited Oct 29, 2005 2:39 PM

I was shocked myself that the roots had grown from the very bottom of the cutting. I thought it would root all along the trunk that was under the dirt.

I had planted the sucker deep into the pot for good root growth but also for the stability of such a tall cutting.

Here it is less than a month later in full leaf and bloom and ready for its new home.

Date 7/20/05

A happy brug!!

7/20/05

Thanks for Brug Tree Propagation 101. After cutting off nearly all the leaves and placing in a modest pot to start, you show us a good way to grow the big ones. I am going to try putting four or five deep in my mulch pile to try to overwinter here - a very effortless way, for sure.

Excellent information Kell. This was just what I wanted to know and the pics were extra bonus. We will be getting a warm up again next week and my clean up will be done for fall so this will be my project for the end of next week. Thanks so much for all your useful information and help.

Dott

wow, it sure did grow fast,

I think I'll give that a try, but as my temps are lower now than yours were then, maybe I'll put it on my heat mat? It will be in the gh and will go to 40-50 at night. I'll start others in my bubbler tubs for comparison. I'm supposed to have my first frost tonight and everything is not in (in fact almost everything is still out waiting to bloom) maybe it won't get as cold as they predict.

interesting good to know.. thanks to..

Twyla

Excellent thread!! Definitely one to book mark!!! I plan to print out this information so I can refer to it often!!! Thanks so much!!!!!

Kell,

What type of fast draining soil do you use please. I have a huge sucker on my Golden Lady and want to cut it off too.

Thanks for the Brug lesson. :-)

Donna

WOZERS, there it is, exactly what to do, such a wonderful way to learn, step, by step!! Thanks, Kell!! I did that last year, but rooted mine in the summer, and stupidly kept it in the pot, I should have put it in the ground, and let her go. Linda, I'm going to bubbler some this winter, if I can find a warm place with ceilings high enough, I don't think my GH is tall enough but I will check tomorrow. Kell's step by step has given me an excellent idea, I think - I have lots of tall seedlings on a single trunk, I think I'll do that with them, I need backups anyway, then put them in the ground first thing after Easter...fun, informative thread!!

Great information, Kell. It must love California too. LOL

Great info, Kell. I was wondering the best way to separate the suckers. What other plants would survive that?? Brugs are so cool.

Thanks Kell, Clear information and good pictures.

Betty

Hi Kell, each year mine have melted to the ground. I'm wondering if yours do and do they come back from the ground up? I'm tempted to wrap blankets around mine this year. My oldest one just bloomed this week. Been waiting all season and now it's time for them to melt again. (rats!)

I know we are in zone 9, but I'm sure we get much colder here. What city are you in? (you can dmail me privately if needed)
Thanks for any info.
Lali

wow, kell. i return and i see this to boot! this is most excellent. sure made my day even brighter =). i printed out the primer you posted a few weeks ago when you and sue were on a nursery hop in berkeley, i think. this one is super, with photos and all. will definitely try it in spring.

WooHoo! Very timely as I am about to do sugery on my larger ones. Thanks Kell.

Great "show and tell" Kell! Last fall, I cut down all my MIL's Brugs and threw a stalk of each in a bucket on her poarch. She added water whenever the plants were dry and planted them this spring. Even though I had doubts all would live, she told me all the stalks rooted and bloomed all summer for her.

Great Show & Tell and Photo Of The Day for the 29th!
http://davesgarden.com/nl.php?date=2005-10-29

Oh Wow Sue, Sheila is famous. LOL. I forgot to show her the thread. I will tomorrow.

Mel and Angela, I think the big ones are so easy to root esp if you trim off the soft green growth. Brugs are really easy plants. I think the problem is when you grow too many of them and then you can get into problems.

I much prefer standards to bushes, so this method really helps me get what I want easily. I used to do air layering, but what a lot of work for naught.

One small question more please? Do I seal the mama plant or just let it dry? I am taking limbs and suckers that are between 1 and 2 inches and diameter. Thanks

Great thread, Kell. Very good information

Thanks Carter!

So sorry Lali, I missed your post and questions. No, my brugs are fine outside all winter. I had one die down last winter and I have no clue why. In fact I was just out taking pics of it and thinking I should have taken cuttings for I would be so sad if I lost this one. It was my favorite brug last summer.

Last Nov. we had the only frost we got all winter. I lost some leaves on my tall brugs in the ground. I had thrown towels and sheets over all my shorter ones. The tall ones in pots I tipped over so they are low to the ground. They all do fine.

I can get dieback due to the cold and wet. Brugs hate cold and wet. I never cut it off in the winter for I will get progressive rot then. I wait for spring to shape them and groom them.

However, we we get a bad winter, I could be in trouble.

I am surprised you get yours completely leveled. You must hit freeze for more than a couple of hours. Are yours in pots? You might want to drag them under an overhang of your house or under a big tree. And if frost is advised, go toss a sheet over them.

I also put up a hoophouse every winter for my best brugs. Though this year I am putting more of my tropicals in it.

Janice, I usually try to seal all my wounds esp later in the season for I get rot problems here due to the wet and cold nights. It doesn' hurt to do it and it could help you to avoid a problem if something bad is around that could get into the wound. Though for years I never did, and I rarely had a problem. I am now more into the habit of doing it, it is good technique.

All of mine are in pots. (larger than 28" clay for one) they'll spend this winter in the hoop house for which I have purchased 200' of heating cables to warm it up. I have one 3 year old brug - the one that just bloomed for the 1st time this year, and half a dozen smaller ones. (peaches and cream, Dr. Seuss , one 'pink', one 'yellow' and one 'white', from a mail order. They came as finger sized cuttings - barely rooted- and are now pretty large, but no sign of any blooms. For the 3 yr old. It froze to the soil level and I was going to toss it, but then I see these little bits of new green leaves sprouting and I say "Self, coult it be coming back?" and I answer 'YES! It is!' - So I babied it and got one bloom by October. Then the next year, same story, only this time, I knew it would come back so I just had patience. Again, one or two blooms. Then last fall, DH built a hoophouse (see photo, arrow shows my brugs, but they are at least a foot taller now) and she got to winter over in there. Again, frozen to the soil level ,but this year I have two blooms and several buds (I'll get some more photos today). My question to you is this, I have the ability to cut it at the the 'Y' (first time I've known about this) and put it in a pot of water in my house for the winter. I can do the same with the others, but they don't have blooms. What would you recommend, if my goal it to propagate? Should I wait until the blooming one is finished and then do what you show in this thread?
I did cut two suckers off of Dr. Suess

Here's the 3 yr old -'Y' with blooms.

A shot of the full plant. About 6' tall in the pot.

Here are the others, pink, yellow, white, b. candida and Peaches & Cream -only about 14-16" tall :-(

Here's the sucker on the 3 yr old, should I root it?

And finally, here's peaches and cream, Is this one of the bush types and that's why it is only 16" tall?

YES, root that sucker. LOL. You may want to wait till spring at this point unless you are afraid you will lose it altogether.

So tell me when you got these this year, the ones that are only 16 inches tall. I suspect you are not fertilizing enough and your pots not big enough. At a certain point, I find that my brugs will just sit there doing nothing if they are not in new dirt and a big pot or if I am not fertilizing them enough. The smaller the pot, the more you have to push fertilizer to make up for the lack of good soil. Also brugs will fill a pot with roots fast. IN THE SPRING I go from a 16 ounce cup to a gallon can to a 5 gallon to a 15 gallon. If I have a particularly aggressive seedling, I go right from 1 gallon to a 15 gallon BUT ONLY IN SPRING AND FIRST HALF OF SUMMER. And I am careful of the watering till I know it has put down a good root system so I do not rot it.

They just go nuts in a big pot IN THE SPRING OR SUMMER. In the wet fall they would rot because they are not growing aggressively. In very late summer/fall, I use the smallest pot and the most quick draining soil I can.

That yellow one should be blooming like crazy after 3 years. I add steer manure to all my pots, and my brugs are huge in them.

Is your hoophouse made from PVC pipe? PLEASE tell me about these heating cables. I want heat this year in my hoophouse. THANKS

PS I suspect your P & C may be Maya, well at least according to Dave's lore. Though I am confused on this point. I have a huge standard of it so it can be a standard if you keep the suckers trimmed off. It loves to sucker. But they get very big. FERTILIZE FERTILIZE FERTILIZE but wait for spring to do so.

Kell, you have dmail

Yes, hoop house is PVD, we made the whole thing for less than $500. The benches were probably the most expensive part. This year I invested in a 7.5 ml custom cover (with zippered roll up doors). That way I can use it year after year. The 6ml visqueen we used in the past usually ripped with a good strong wind and was a PAIN in the buns to put on.

I suspect you are VERY right about pot size. I repotted these guys up in Sept. ( I think it was you who told me to do it, but the butter is slipping off the ol' noodle and I can't remember). It was after that that they put on the new growth. (I see now Grasshopper!)

Say, why don't you put your rented brug space on a drip system so you can save time watering? Easy enough to set up. I can show you if you like.
Laurie

Sure show me. LOL. I need help. But if it is decent it will get stolen.

I have no room to keep a hoophouse up all year, we take ours down every year and out it back up in November. I use the the plastic from HD. I get a huge box for about $30 and there is enough for 2 seasons I think. It takes all winter has to give it.

Yours sound so great. I am so jealous.

I buy a $20 battery timer and get all the 5/8" drip supplies from Yard Birds, but I think that HD sells all the supplies too. My timer can do two cycles a day if needed.

My hoophouse is 16 x 24 and I run the drip system along the roof (up one side and then down the other) - I have 360º spray heads on 12" risers, all hung upside down. It was a cheap and easy fix. I can adjust the amount of water, length of watering time, and turn on/off sections as I need. It's not too bad for el-cheapo.

Not sure how you could disguise your system so that it wouldn't get stolen.

I'll take some photos and upload them in a bit.
L

THANKS, I need pictures. LOL