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        Mangogirl Apr 12, 2012 6:32 PM CST |
| I live in Jacksonville, Florida, so my brugs are planted in the ground and they freeze back to the ground each winter. They have awakened for 2012 and are already about 2-3 feet tall. I have some new spots in the garden where I would like to plant some brugs. How soon can I take cuttings from the existing brugs? Can I go ahead and take them now? Any reason to wait? Carol |
Name: Veronica Dykes central Texas Brug lover       BettyDee Apr 13, 2012 9:11 AM CST |
| I would wait until the branches you plan to cut are mature — a woody brownish green or dark green. Branches that are not woody (immature) tend to rot more easily. If you have non-woody branches that you really must cut now, I would root them in a sterile rooting medium that is barely damp. Stick the pot into a large baggie, seal and place it under grow lights or in strong but indirect lighting. Don't open the bag until you see good strong growth or you can see that the growing medium is dry and need to moisten it again. If you have rooting hormone, use it on immature cuttings. It's not needed on mature cuttings, but it does seem to help protect immature ones from rot and helps rooting go faster. Another way to root cuttings would be to air layer them. Air layering is usually done on woody plants, but can be done on non-woody ones as well. Just be careful that direct sunlight doesn't hit the pot or the heat will kill that part of the branch buried in the potting mix. Use a light colored pot if you have one or you can use aluminum foil instead of a pot. Anything to help insulate the potting mix from the heat. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... VLD |
| Mangogirl Apr 14, 2012 8:30 AM CST |
| Thank you for all of the great info and advice! It was probably the wrong thing to do, but after I read your post, I took the cuttings anyway. My reasoning was that I have plenty of green stems - more than enough - so why not go ahead and try. I took one cutting from each of two brugs. I stripped off all of the leaves except for a couple small ones at the top and potted them in very small pots with only a half-inch of soil around to try to prevent rot. As of this morning, they look good - not even any leaf wilt yet. I wonder if they will root? How many days does it normally take to root a green cutting in warm April weather? Carol |
Name: Veronica Dykes central Texas Brug lover BettyDee Apr 14, 2012 10:47 AM CST |
| Carol, There is no "normally" in rooting cuttings because there are quite a number of variables that determine the rate of rooting. Then some Brugs are easier to root than others. The maturity of the branches, what part of the plant they came from, growing conditions, how sterile conditions are, and size of cutting also has a baring on how fast they root. These are just a few things that influence rooting rate. In water, some will develop little white nubs from which the roots will emerge within a few days while others take several weeks to do so. A few years ago, I was given a bunch of cuttings. Under normal circumstances, I would have put each variety into a separate jar to root (I prefer to get my cuttings to the white nub stage before I plant them into pots.), but I wasn't feeling well so I put them all into the same large bucket and placed the bucket in the shade house. Two weeks later, I remembered the bucket and went out to check the cuttings. The Texas Pink cuttings all had really long roots while the rest had roots 2" or less in length. Some cuttings didn't have any roots yet. Just be patient and don't overwater the cuttings. When they start to grow, you know they have some roots. However, it will take several months of ideal growing conditions for them to acquire a good and sizable root system. VLD |
| Mangogirl Apr 22, 2012 3:51 PM CST |
These have not batted an eye since potting them nine days ago. Still looking great. I put the two tiny pots inside the larger pot just for stabilization - to keep them from falling over. Have them in light shade for now. Will move to part sun/part shade after roots are developed. Photos just to show progress:    Carol |
Name: Elaine South Sarasota, Florida (Zone 9b) The one constant in life is change           dyzzypyxxy Apr 23, 2012 1:29 PM CST |
| Carol, I like to root my brug cuttings in water before potting them. I've had more dependable results that way. They put out new roots in water in about a week, and keep more leaves alive, too. The more cuttings that are in one container, the quicker they root (the stems secrete natural rooting hormones, so I'm told). These are just over a week in water and I'm potting them up on the weekend. btw, I'd take them indoors tonight, it's going to get chilly!  Elaine "Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." –Winston Churchill |
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