Starting a new Brug

Hi,

Over the weekend I received several nice cuttings from Janice (frogsrus) and this is my very first attempt at rooting a new brug from a standard. I followed the advice given by Kell's wonderful thread; http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/554205/. Here is a photo of my experiment. I don't have a shadier spot to put these in, but this will be shaded by about noon or so, and it's not really hot in this area at this time of year - I hope that works out ok. As you can see, I also had to make a dog-proof corral to keep Lola out of the pots since Brugs are poisonous. The tall one is Butterfly and the smaller three are Monster.

Wish me luck! :)

Christina

PS: Thanks again Janice! Oh, and I did mix in the bark like you suggested...

I had to post a photo of Lola too. I brought this bag of soil home and set it down for FIVE MINUTES in the side yard while I unloaded the rest of my truck. This is her masterpiece while she 'helped' me out!

Gotta love a lab puppy!

That is the cutest picture!!! She looks so funny...like what she did was totally expected of her. Just doing her job lol

Ornery!

What a doll Lola is. She looks so innocent too. What fun she had. LOL. Too funny!!

I would lightly spritz the leaves and stalks on those without wetting the soil if you can. You do not want them to use up all their stored moisture before they put down new roots to get more. That is why it is easier to root the older woodier pieces, they have more stored nutition to last longer till they root. So the trick is to reduce all stress on them like sun, till they can get their roots going.

Good luck!!

I love my Lola, she's the best little doggy. She certainly knows how to have a good time! If I knew how to focus her digging to a nice neat hole I'd have it made!

Thanks for the tip about spritzing with water. I'll try to do that daily. Do you think I should try to cover them so the sun doesn't get to them at all? The butterfly is pretty big and woody, and one of the monsters is pretty woody. The other two were part of the original monster but it seemed a shame to throw them away so I stuck them in some dirt too. I figured if it worked I could share a plant with a friend or two.

Lol at what your sweet dog did...I have the same problem with my potbellied pig Cleo. I turn my back for 2 seconds and her nose is into something...usually a plant! All the brug cuttings I started are away from the backyard for that reason.

:) Kim

My 13 yr old German Shepard is blind and deaf. She follows me around the yard by scent. She just walks over all my plants and tramples through everything. Can't yell at her - the poor baby - so I just accept it.

Your puppy is the cutest!

Wow, all these dog lovers! Thanks for the stories and the kind words.

Hi
I've just recently acquired a brug for the first time. I'm not even sure what kind it is as it was a gift and I have no idea what I'm doing. I potted it in miracle grow and after reading this am wondering if I should repot it. Please help this poor newby brug gardener out! :) I sure don't want to kill my baby before it has a chance. In the meantime I'll try to get more info for you.
~Elaine~

That sounds fine to me, why do you feel you'll kill it? I think they're pretty forgiving even if you make mistakes - I know I sure have and mine is still thriving after a year. Just keep the slugs and snails off it and you should be fine (they love them). Good luck and enjoy!

Christina, if you can keep them in total shade it is much better. Just be careful if you put something over them it doesn't make them too hot.

Oh Kim, can we see a picture of Cleo? I love pigs.

I find that too Christina, brugs are so forgiving!! Elaine do not worry, once rooted they take off esp this time of year. I have used Miracle Grow potting soil and mine did fine. Just keep them watered and even add extra fertilizer esp later one. Also keep it potted up to next size as it needs it so you do not stunt growth. GOOD LUCK!!

Thanks so much for the info. :) One other thing ... it has a couple of leaves that were singed along the edges from a plant light. Should I snip these off or just leave them alone? Only the edges seem to be affected so far. Thanks again for your help. :)

Brug leaves are a dime a dozen. They come and they go. The great thing about brugs are they can totally defoliate and then with in a short time be thick with new leaves. I do not think it matters. If it is well rooted and does not need those leaves for food making, you can clip them off. I leave leaves on even if damaged if the plant is young and I want it to grow faster or if think it is struggling. Leaves are little factories. The plant will shed the leaves it does not want.

Thanks Kell! :) I'll just leave them alone and try to stop my worrying! LOL
~Elaine~

It was good to meet you! They look puny now but that will not last long. You should have taken a pic of the back of your car when you left here. How did the tree hold up?

The tree is a little droopy so far, but all the new unopened blooms are standing straight up which seems like a good sign. I was actually wondering if I should cut it back to focus the energy at the roots? The Mexican Sage is looking well too. You're right, that would have been a funny picture to see my truck full to the brim with plants.

Thanks again!

PS: The butterfly had so many blooms that I hated to throw them away. I put them in a big vase with water and they all opened up and smell WONDERFUL everytime I pass by. They are on a ledge outside my kitchen window and if I open the window a crack the smell wafts into the house. I love it!

Thanks everyone for your help with my new brug. I can't believe she's already put on new growth since I received her last week. It was just last Thursday ... but honestly, she has new growth and new leaves!
Thanks again
~Elaine~

Hi all,
Last night we had a rainstorm with heavy downpour and wind. This morning doing the "once over" in the garden I found a brug (either Dr. Z or Chas. Grimaldi) with one of the stalks broken clean off. After I said a couple of "choice words", I said "OK, now's the opportunity for a standard". See, mine freeze to the ground so there were 4 stalks/stems growing great and lush about 3' tall. So the broken limb is about 3'. I clipped it more cleanly at the bottom (which is about 1" - 1 1/2" thick) and clipped off many of the lower leaves then put Rootone on the main cut at the bottom and where I snipped off the leaves. Is this OK so far? Then I moved it to a bucket of water on the back porch to keep it out of sun. Since I want to try a standard (Kell got me hooked on wanting one) I figure this is the time. I know it will have to stay potted here and take it in for the winter to keep it as a standard. Should I leave it in the bucket of water or go ahead and pot it up. I do have H2O2 available, but I don't really know what to do with it. I've read all the wonderful threads and it looks like this time of the year, the brug should start to root any way you try it, but suggestions would be most welcome. Since I'm such a "fraidy cat", I just want to be sure about what to do.
Thanks so-o-o much!
Barbara

Kell...Here's a pic of Cleo for you:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/96283850/1517827656044472573EDsdIB

She gets into anything and everything. Just a pig's nature I suppose. Even seen her eat a dyckia, and that couldn't have been tasty!

Kim

The tree sould like our cool weather right now. Just take off the leaves that are still really droopy and leave the rest. It should take off. A dose of miracle grow would not hurt either.

Here's a pic of my little baby. I just received her last week as a gift. I've named her Brugie. LOL She just loves it when I talk to her! Does anyone know anything about her?
~Elaine~

What a cute piggly!

Hi,

I have a couple more Brug questions. On my existing Brug, there are little shoots coming up from the roots. Should I let them grow, or is better to clip them off?

The second question is that I also have some seeds. What do I do with them? Do I need to dry them out more? Should I open up the hulls? Can I just plant them as is? All but one are brown and dry (I think) and one is green and a little shrivelled. Thanks, C

Rip them apart. You will be shocked at how many seeds you have. What is in your picture is called pods and they are full....full of seeds. As for clipping the shoots off, that would be a personal choice. You can leave them and maybe one would be straight and tall and would make a great single trunk tree. Sometimes they just make a plant bushy, but it will have more blooms because of more Y's. It's all in what you want. Have fun with those seeds.

Cool! How fun! :)

Hello Again,

Well I am not so encouraged with my experiment using cuttings to root a new brug. It has been nearly six weeks, and they still look about the same as when I started. The largest stem, the butterfly, is doing the best with tiny bits of growth at each node but not as developed as I was hoping. The other three, from monster, are a little shrively and have only marginal growth at each node. Some of the growth on the smaller ones have died or turned brown at the ends. I wonder if they were too short to sustain the plant while it tried to root? It seems the smaller the plant the worse it fared. They certainly don't look like the photos that Kell posted after 6 weeks!

Should I do something else to help them along? At what point should I give up? I also moved them indoors in front of a bright but shaded window so that they wouldn't get direct sunlight. I've kept the window open so that it stays cool.

Lastly, I tried the seeds in some peat pots. It's only been a week so I'll let you know if I see any sprouts. I did have a lot of seeds! :)

Thanks for helping!

I start my cuttings in small 4 inch pots. Taller larger cuttings are started in a 1 gallon pot.
Without roots the cuttings have no way to absorb the water in a large amount of soil and will rot easily.
I would pull the smaller ones out and check to see if they have roots and if the roots are white and healthy.
If they have rotted you can cut them off above the rot and plant in a small pot. Water very lightly just to moisten the soil but not wet it.

That picture of your dog is so cute! I had a lab years ago and he was a master digger extraordinaire. He had a real nose for water too, so he dug up the sewer pipe between the house and the septic tank. Three times. LOL

Oh Kim.....I lost track of this thread and I missed your pic of Cleo. What a cutie. And such a skinny pig! How old is she? Gosh if she ever met Daiseymae, Dasieymae could sit on her and that would be that.

Oh Christina, it doesn't sound good. Can you post pics so we can see what they look like? Did you move them into shade? They should be off and running by now. I bet you are so frustrated.

I'll photograph them later tonight when I'm home. I didn't have my camera when I posted. I did move them into the shade. Does it look like I used too large of a pot? I'm scared to dig them up for fear that if there are any feeble sad roots that I'll break them off. Are you sure I should pull them out?

Thanks for the help, clearly I need it badly! It's a little frustrating, but I've never done it before so it was iffy for me anyway. I think the largest one will probably make it - although it certainly isn't "off and running" by a longshot.

Hart, glad you liked my dog. She's such a cutie, but yes quite the digger. She's still a puppy though, and I've noticed that she's already becoming a lot more trustworthy as time goes on. I'm hoping in another year she'll be over the urge to dig up my garden! :)

If they are still in the clay pots, you might find that they will dry out very rapidly. Mine are all in plastic pots up to 20 gallon. I hope they take off for you and bloom soon. There are a few blooms in my yard now, so I guess the long winter and spring were worth struggling through. Have fun!!

poor babies. I start them in 5 gal plastic pots. I have lots if you need them. I did not think to ask you at the time.

Yes, they're still in clay pots but I've been keeping them slightly moist and spritzing the stems. I had no idea it would make a difference if they were in clay vs. plastic?

Here's a photo that I just took a minute ago of two of them. These tiny nubs are all that has sprouted in the 6 weeks. So what do you guys think?

They look better than I thought they would from what you said. LOL.

Hard to tell from a picture, but I see no dead or rotted places. I think you need to check the roots Christina. Put your hand on the top of the soil, Christina. Then so gently turn the pot over to get it to slide out of the pot with your hand still over the soil on the top of the pot. Look at the root system. Do you have any white heathly roots?

I wonder if they are busy making a root system to grow leaves yet.

If there are good roots, I would start spraying with a foliar fertilizer, maybe half weaker than stated on the box to get it going.

If no roots, does the dirt seem to get wet in the center? Is it holding water OK? Or is it too wet?

I'll try this tomorrow and see what it looks like. The soil is definitely more on the dry side, so perhaps it's thirsty. I've been checking it pretty regularly, and it always reads moist on my moisture meter. I'll try a little more water, especially now that it's getting hot out.

cnswift, Don't be afraid to look at the roots.. Sheesh.. When I first got Rosamund, she was out of the pot so much I am amazed that she even survived! The cutting part actually shriveled up down to the ground and I was so stressed!! But she put out new growth andgrew big.. I but her back and brought her inside for the winter and she has about 5 buds already!
THis long story is just basically to say.. be gentle and go ahead and look but I would say that if it is making growth then it is fine

I took out the smallest one this morning to check on the roots. This one had no roots whatsoever! The stem was still thick and green and healthy looking, just like it did when I stuck it in initially. Should I throw it away or stick it back in and water it more? I didn't check the others since this one didn't come out easily. If there had been roots they probably would have suffered from the removal of their pot.

Geez, 6 weeks and no roots and it is not shriveled? I wonder if you put them on a heating mat if that would get them going. I would say bag them in clear plastic for the GH effect but I do not want you to steam cook them in your heat.

You have nodes on your smallest one?