Taking off plumeria clothes

I had to get all my tropicals in the greenhouse really quick because of an abnormally early frost. Needless to say, my plumeria's leaves are getting in the way and aren't naturally falling off fast enough. Would it hurt the plants to go on and strip off the bright green fully attached leaves or perhaps cut them down a bit? I really need to get my greenhouse in order and they are holding me up!

You can see some of them on the left in the picture.

X

I would cut everything off, use clippers and leave about a 1-2 inch nub on the plant, this will fall off in about a week. Leaving the leaves on will just create a mess in your greenhouse later.

So you're saying dutchlady, instead of just pulling the leaves off, I should cut mine? I have alot that are turning brown now and you're right, if they drop, they do make a mess.

Better to cut than pull, yes; unless they are already wilted in which case they will come right off in your hands anyway.

Oh ok, I'll get busy on that. Thank you.

I cut mine off yesterday and left 2 inches .. I was kind of worried about them "bleeding to death" .. all that milky white sap. Was able to finally get the gh in order for the winter.

X

What is the reasoning behind leaving the 2 inches when you cut the leaves?

It may be different for what we are doing, but I always leave a inch or so of leaves on when I take cuttings to root so the plant can continue to make food (photosynthesis). I also left the top leaves that are pointing up on the plumes since they weren't in my way.

X

With plumeria it simply minimizes damage to the stem, and reduces loss of latex.

Oh that makes sensel That's how I'll be doing it then.

In my opinion breaking the leaves off also opens wounds on the stalk which leaves the plant open to bacteria or fungus.
Davie

X, this cold weather is not fun and it is supposed to freeze down here tonight! Our high today was 47 and that is our normal nighttime temp this time of year. I had to quickly take some cuttings off some large plummies today. They are too large to dig up; they made it through last winter outdoors but this weather is too freaky to take a chance and the plants are not hardened off as it was in the high 80's this past weekend.

One of the cuttings, Bali Hai Gold, has a good sized inflo; it was so sad to have to cut that plant. I expect the inflo will probably dry up as the cut end callouses.

Bummer. It's only 9:15p and it's 45 degrees in the greenhouse and 30 degrees outside. The humidity in the gh is pretty high, 75% so that will help. The gh heater will kick on at 40. I covered all my new crinum in the ground with burlap but that probably won't save them. We're expecting about 10 hours of below freezing temperatures.

I've had good luck surrounding my cereus cactus with bamboo fencing (you can get it at home depot .. maybe lowes) and then putting a sheet around that. That might work on some of your plumes in the ground. I think it was keonikale and deb that have strung christmas lights around plants .. combined with the fencing and the lights, that just might work. I know it's too late for now but something to consider in the future.

I'm doing my best to accept, what is, is.

X

Cold weather started early this year. I'm doing ythe green house blues too. we never get really cold weather till after Christmas. But this year its early ordered frost cloth but it hasn't arrived yet. This is the first year that I dug up the plants and stored them away.

Whew, it only got down to 36 here but like Dana mentioned, it is way too early this yer.

I just went outside a removed the burlap from the crinum and other plants. I was astonished to see that those covered by burlap came thru with no problems. On one plant I was only able to cover part of it with burlap. The part uncovered perished but the part covered was fine!

I'm so glad I'm a packrat! I bought burlap sacks 5 years ago to use on a lasagna bed which never got done. They were packed in a box and forgotten about til last night when I heard the weather guy suggest you cover plants with burlap and I remembered I have burlap!

Amazing!

X

I'm going to start cutting leaves tomorrow, do I just cut up to the new leaves or should I leave a few on?

I would take them all off except for the very smallest. Once the plant goes dormant they will all fall off anyway.

Thank you.

All of my 49 plumies are declothed now. Thanks for the advice all.
I removed my cactus area to make room for the 7 new plumies I got from good friends in AZ, it now looks like a nursery!

OMG - weegy you have 49 plumeria now...

I do! I tend to obcess (spelling??) a bit! I have that many thanks to my DG friends!

I didn't know plumeria went dormant in zone 10

weegy, you obsess? never! :-)

You know me too well!