Should I toss out these brugs?

Don't get me wrong, I love these beauties. But, I've two greenbank and 1st day brugs that don't seem to thrive. They begun the journey as cutting last year with chlorotic leaves, I thought there were nutrients deficiency issue. Then the hardship of keeping them "green" over the winter, now they look pittiful with crinkled leaves and yellow spotting uniformly all through the leaves, what's wrong? Are they tossers to the firepit?

Here are the chlorotic looking, and moltled leaves of one.

Then here is the other. The leaves appear big and pseudo-healthy....

Another close up. So do I've any vote, toss or not? Leave miners' victims? Or is that the dreaded word BROADMITES? Any input is appreciated.
Kim

It's not broadmites.. when you get broadmites, the new growth is deformed..

Have you checked the Ph?? Are they in old potting soil? They look like winter blahs.. the new growth looks good, so that's encouraging.

The spots would only concern me if it were on all the leaves including the new growth.

Some of mine look like that too. I thought it was because I am so lazy about fertilizing them. Could it be a lack of minerals? Our weather is getting warmer and I think that will help.
Linda

Hi ZZ, thanks for the feedback. Say if the soil composition breaks down, should I just soak the root ball and remove most of them and replace with fresh potting medium? pH check as I understood isn't practical when dealing with potting soil, most devices available on the market will not offer an accurate analysis. What concerns me is the molted leaves. As seen on the above photos. The young new growths (leaves) aren't affected. Just the older leaves, should I just trim off those leaves, while I repot the plant?
Some of my others are making buds (the unaffected ones), I didn't want to mess with them that which may slow down their growth rate.

Also, the pot isn't showing sign of root-bound. These were carefully watered while inside over the winter. Those are 9 months old cuttings, the roots are well formed, but hasn't crowded out its pot.

Lily love have these been under lights 24/7 ??

Some those new leaves look like they develop the mottling early. My first thought was winter blahs followed by suspecting that the mottling could be caused by tobacco mosaic virus.

I would have posted a link to the site, but it's one of the forbidden sites to mention. Too bad because both sites are loaded with great information. I googled viruses in Brugmansias. There two photos at this site of what the leaves look like.

I would isolate the affected plants and replace the soil. When the plant has had a chance to settle in, fertilize. If that doesn't take care of the problem, I would consider that it might be a virus and chuck the plants, pot and all.

Thanks Betty for the info. I'll follow up with the forbidden websites. lol. C4B; no no no, if I did leave the light on 24/7 all will be dead gone. I've had blooms all through the winter here.

These were some of the few winter blooms of my overwintered brugs.

I was too lazy to go downstairs and turn off my lights, then in the morning turn them on. I found that my seedlings didn't look too good. They started to look a little washed out. Now I make myself turn the lights on and off.
Blooms in the winter how nice. Good luck.

I think Betty has it. I see mottled but no signs of clorotic.

Now on the subject of forbidden org. I have been thinking it may be time to ask Dave if the rules may be relaxed a little. Much has changed since the old days and there has been a lot of water under since then. The two org. did not get along with Dave's or each other but now they are working together so maybe we are looking at happier times.

kenboy

ken, are you willing to be the standard bearer? It seems a shame that so much information is kept out because of what has happened in the past. I Joined after all the brew haha and have only an inkling of what happened. It is time to move on.

I guess I am going to try. We also joined after the fact but Maggi Googled and found lots of stuff and yes it way ugly. This has always been one of the reasons I like Dave's so much, he did not put up with it. As you say there is so much information out there and also you can get free Brug seeds for the asking. I see threads here where people are so excited about growing out others seeds from a NOID X NOID with next to no chance of producing a keeper. The seed and pollen bank at one Brug org. is growing every month and has such potential.


kenboy

I had a tropical hib that looked exactly like that. Can hibs get this tobacco mosaic virus as well? And if so, I prob. need to toss the pot as well don't you think?

Anne

That's what I do Lily.. Mine look worse than that sometimes.. I really think it's winter blahs and they just haven't kicked into gear yet. If your worried and you repot it.. and the symptoms continue after it's aggressively growing.. THEN I'd worry!
I do check ph.. I learned the hard way. Commercial potting mix will become too acidic in time. I know the ph testing instruments sold are not precise, but they do give you an idea if that is the problem.
I lost a huge Isabella to ph becoming too acid.. fertilizing accelerates the problem... the symptoms look like all kinds of creepy viruses or broadmites, when in fact, it was a ph level of 4.3 that killed it.
If the plant has been in the same soil for a couple of seasons, then yes, I would repot it with fresh soil.

Thanks Joyce, and everyone else that came to aid my ailing brugs. I'll give them my last ditch efforts, and report back as to how they will turn out. On the bright node, I've a couple other brugs that are putting out flower-buds. Here is my Dr. D. which was rooted the same time as those ? virus effected cuttings Last summer.

This message was edited Apr 25, 2008 10:46 AM

Seeing and watching buds grow is almost as much fun as when they finally bloom, hey?

I didn't read your original post good enough Lily, I assumed that they were coming out of winter, and now I see that they have been struggling all along.. Please forgive me for not paying attention!!!!! I know I know.. assume.. wow do I feel stupid! LOL
I would NOT keep them.. unless they were like impossible to replace. Brugs are too easy to replace to keep something that just won't "snap out of it."
Again.. I apologize for my poor "speed reading" and giving the wrong advice...

Ahhh, all is good. I have noticed the blooms aren't all that impressive any how. Should they turn out ok, they have a good home. Should they continue to give me trouble.....I can part with them and bid Sayonary. Thanks again everyone.
Thanks Joyce.
Kim