Rooting Brugmansia In Water Crystals?

Can this be done? Has anyone done it? Comments?

Yes it would work. They root easy. But why?

I usually root them in cups of water which is fine for a few cuttings but when you have over a hundred changing all those cups daily is quite a job! Im looking for something that will last a good bit longer between changing.

Bubbler? Then you would just top off the water.... ?

Whats a "bubbler"?

I have one that is rooting in water, and I only change it every few days? It is starting a nice little root, and doesn't seem to have any problems. I am a total newbie to Brugs, but oh am I ever in love! I have some others that I just stuck in dirt, and they all are getting new growth as well. If there is some way to make them root faster, and grow more quickly, I would LOVE to know! :)

A bubbler is like a fish tank that runs O2 thru the water. I've never tried it but it may be the way to go.
I only have one problem with it. I like to keep all my plants seprate to reduce the possibility of spreading disease. I would need one for each plant

Another option I am using on cuttings is 100% Vermiculite or Perlite with wick draining. Works great. Just keep the medium damp. Holds the cuttings where you want them. Add H202 and a root starter every once in a while to the water. Repot when you have roots. You can also use Coir along with the above. Ted

Please tell me what you mean by "wick". I asked on another forum what they meant by wicking and I never got a response.

Wick watering is where you use a wick to drain the potting medium into a water reservoir.
Gets rid of the perched water table in the soil so that the plant has more potting soil to root in. Or can be used to bottom water the plant.
Some CD containers I made one out of. Can use anything you can make up.

Lol, Ted - I bet you never throw anything away! That's ingenious!

Another shot. Cutting of Daydreams with a wick pot.

That is true and Opp's the Brug is sheer Bliss

I have a question re: rooting cuttings. I received some in trade and the trader had previous experience starting Brugs. She told me to lay the cuttin horizontally instead of sticking it in the soil vertically. Is that correct? I had been sticking them vertically before she told me that. Then I thought maybe she said that incase I couldnt tell which end was up. Guys, help me with this "Grey Moment"

Ok, I am not blonde (no offense meant to any blondes!) but I still don't quite get the wicking process? Could you possibly explain it to where I can understand it? Thanks!

For drainage, in order to understand why wicking works, you need to first understand the concept of the perched water table. Basically, in any container, there is a layer of soil at the bottom from which the water never really drains on its own, and in order for the best root health it's better if you can get that layer to drain, so you add the wick, then the water has somewhere down below your pot that it can travel to, so the perched water table in your pot disappears. There's a great post in the container gardening forum from tapla which explains this concept much better than I did, so I recommend you read his version and it'll probably make more sense to you.

Thanks again! I will see if I can find that! :)

It is the sticky thread at the top of the forum.

On the Brugs being vertical or horizontal it depends on the cutting.
For the large trunk cuttings you can cut them into small sections and root Horizontally. Putting about 3/4 of the cutting below soil level.

This message was edited Dec 15, 2007 2:48 PM

Thanks! :)