Hi! I'm trying to grow a brug with 3 twisted stems- will 2 of the stems strangle or squeeze out the 3rd? Should I have not twisted them around each other? This is just the first year, so I know the stems will thicken and I'm worried!
please help braided brug
My experience is let the plant get dry and sort of wilted, and then you can easily bend the stems around each other to get the braided affect.
I never thoguht of that....that's how they do that, huh?
Silver, they should grow into each other, you won't have the pretty effect of it long on a brug I would think. Even on ficus, it get's very unattractive as the tree gets older and gets a bigger trunk, that is if it's in a situation where it will get a bigger trunk, like outside.
Are they different colors? I tried this on small cuttings one year but 1 died and ruined the look. It is hard to kill a big brug like that, so I think it should be fine.
It's much easier to do if you start out with long green suckers, let it wilt as others have said. The cellular structure of brown wood which is what you appear to have is much stronger and of a different type than greenwood and requires really drastic water reduction to wilt and is less forgiving of deliberate deformation.
X
I tried that last year too, didn't have much success. I'll have to look around and see if it's still out there in the forest.
Thank you so much for all of your help! There are 3 stems of unknown peach that I started to braid together on the brug in the pic- but as you can see it seperated halfway up, and one grows slower than the other 2. I guess I should leave it alone to grow how it wants, I'll be happy if it just stays healthy and blooms (no Ys yet). thanks again for sharing your knowledge- this is my first year growing brugs so it is much appreciated.
silverkitty