can they be grown indoors by a bright window year round?
brugs as houseplants
I am NOT a expert on brugs, but I have south facing windows but alot of them and in a zone where we have lots of cloudy overcast days and my brugs do just fine. And some of them bloom. The biggest problems I have are mites and you can't spray indoors or at least I don't. So if you don't mind you probably won't have a problem growing them during the winter.
Nery, Joyce is right about mites loving Brugs indoors. With the exception of SnowBank, which needs to stay out of the sun in Texas, Brugs need sunlight to bloom — some more sun than others — then bright light the rest of the day. Would you be able to provide enough light to get your Brugs to bloom? Otherwise, you would end up with a foliage plant.
what about supplemental lighting??? i've heard it helps plumerias bloom indoors..
Plumerias have a very open growth so light from supplemental lighting can penetrate through the top branches to lower ones. Well fed Brugs have large wide leaves which keep light from getting down to leaves below the upper tier. You'd end up with only a few leaves at the end of the outer branches unless you put up several lights so the light approaches the Brug from different angles.
I know a few people who keep brugs in the basement in the winer time with supp. lighting. I do believe even a couple of them get blooms. Can't think of the name of the brug right now. Will send it later. But, even with a foliage plant it will have a better start in the spring than a dormant plant.
Well... yes..many light willhelp...I have two of my three metal halide lights on a track..with motorized cars...an 8' and10 ' track with the lights suspended below... the lights travel from one end of the track to the other and then reversing and the return...much less expencive to run than another light.. and they are fairly quiet..and aside from the movment of the light .. there have been few human complaints... but then again..brug growers are perhaps less likely to understand or hear complaints..
As far as the idea that a poor Brug ..forced to grow underlights.. inside.. away from a strong light from the real sun will do better come spring than one that was forced into dormancy then allowed to leaf out in some sunshine come spring.. is perhaps false.. an outside plant... that was frozen back or cut to the ground will be slowest to recover.. but from my coolroom.. Greenhouuse work this year... I'd have to say a dormant..well rested plant might be faster come spring / sun / outside conditions than one allowed to grow under lights..
you'll not get the ocasional flower from a dormant plant... although for flowering inside you'll need a HPS bulb.. and the peachey.yellow light associated with it.. not the best inside with humans look to things under it.. the the green canopy of leaves suffers in the persuit of flowers this way .. the recipe sprayings daily are I think even more important in insidegrowing than they are outside...
actual mileage will varry...
that was intensely helpful! it's really great when you heavy weights pitch in. thanks for slowing down enough for newbies now and then :)
Glad Gordon replied to you. I was only quoting what folks had posted.
I have mine bloom all winter but the front of my house (south) is all glass. Bugs are a problem and I can not spray except if I happen to get a nice day and drag things outside.
Good luck, anything is worth trying....what do you have to lose?
Mine go into a greenhouse for the winter. This past winter, I fertilized them lightly throughout. I noticed they were healthier and more bugfree than other winters when they didn't get any fertilizer. Because winter temperature vary so much, my Brugs don't go dormant, they just slow down. What all of us not lucky enough to live in zone 10 - 11, are doing is keeping the Brugs alive and as healthy as possible until we can get them back outside. The original question was whether Brugs can be grown indoors year round. My goal is to get flushes that rival the flushes obtained by those DGers living in the aforementioned zones. I don't believe that can be achieved in a normal home.
well, if you can do it, perhaps i can too....i, as well, have a south wall of glass... except, the plumeria is going to have prime spot! ...if i do spray anything, it's going to be organic tho.
i appreciate anyone who trys to inform me! you never know what will work for whose green thumb!
well.. if you do have a south wall of glass.. you stand a good chance of lots of flowers... although you'll want to keep the humidity high.. and provide a bunch of wind.. from a fan/// Plumerias will do bettter than brugs inside.. with alot of light.. heat.. and humidity.. I don't believe you can have too much heat for a plumeria.. it's their default sustainer.. you can remove about anything from their surroundings.. but get them cool.. and you're swimming up stream.. let your plumeria also...dry out quite compleatly between waterings they can enjoy a much too small pot.. better than anything..else..
do you run the A/C ? .. that's going to be removing a bunch of humidity they both will enjoy
thanks everybody. while I have enough window light, I've decided not enough humidity. I would have been willing to grow as indoor plant if less trouble, but adding lights, extra moisture is not what I had in mind. No problem, I will just root it and give to a neighbor.
we do run a/c so house can be awfully dry for a tropical.
OH.. well just spray the plant.. if you do it often it still should be fine .. it will take awhileforthe moisture to leave the area....
and if you have a strong southern window it should be OK...but you've likely got along overhang on your roof... if it's late enough construction to have a bunch of glass
And what's the worse that could happen.. And it will make a fine house companion....
Here are the blooms I got back in Feb 2008.
Nothing more than south facing windows.
It might not work for all brugs, but this is Moster White and Versi Peach has bloomed for me every year.
happ, very nice so, are those houseplents or were you overwintering? I bet the cultivar does have much to do with it, too.
I was overwintering them. I put them out in the summer, but have to bring them in during winter. I am sure different brugs would react differently. I can only speak of these two. I have started some others but winter in 2009 will be the first for them.