Hi Joe, great questions! Can you post a photo of the plant?

Ryan

Yea.. pix would help .. Where do you live ?? Is this baby inside/outside?? Do you know which one it is?

BTW!!! WELCOME!!! Thanks for stopping in I look forward to seeing you around..
Kylie

Welcome Joe...I can't help you with that, but wanted to say I'm sure you'll get your answer here :)

btw...My oldest, son, is named Joe :)

knotz

Hi, where in Canada are you located ( makes a difference in the instructions I give you). I am in Zone 5 in Burlington, Ontario.

Hi Joe Welcome to our group.
Sorry you are running into problems. My first thought is that yes Brugs are waterhogs. But they do not like to have wet roots constantly.

I hope I am right with this..Pro's??

Otherwise I am with the others that a picture would help a LOT.

Lucy

I'll try to get some pics up this afternoon of the plant to help with the diagnosis. This plant has been indoor only thus far (only got it last summer) but I'm located in Saskatchewan, Canada, so indoors it shall stay for at least a few more months.

I should also mention that for light it's currently in front of a large north facing window, so it get's a lot of indirect sunlight during these winter months.

Here are a couple quick shots I fired off this morning. Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks again for all the input :D
--Joe

{{gwi:458814}}
{{gwi:458815}}

Hi Joe, great photos. I'm still kind of a newbie myself here, but my first impression is a lack of light. I've had some potted brugs outdoors that grew in pretty much full shade, that had the same paleness. As soon as they started getting direct sunlight, they greened up quickly. You said its in a north facing window, do you have a south facing window you could put it in? Or maybe try a grow-light?

Keep us posted!
Ryan

Hello, and welcome!

I agree with Lucy, & I am thinking you are over watering. The soil isnt going to dry as quickly indoors as it would outside, and they dont like constantly soaked soil. Only water when needed, don't let it sit in the water. I only water mine inside when I csn stick my finger in the top soil and go down about 1.5" and it's dry..I then check th bottom drainage holes and stick my finger in there. If it's dry on both ends, I water.

As for any deficiencies, I'll let the pros handle that one.

Thank you for supplying a photos and that is the best way to do it. It appears that these are the lower leaves and beings that this is inside, it's either watered to much or it's drying out to much. Lower leaves can be removed and the top ones appear to be doing just fine. Remember the inside leaves are nothing like the ones you will find outside and are much thinner, this is why we keep ours stripped. It also keeps the critters at bay as they have nothing to feed on. I don't think you have a deficiency here, just ageing plant leaves on the bottom. I would not do anything in the lines of fertilizer, if you have a little lime that might green it up some but 'little' is the word here. But again this is winter growth and I wouldn't worry to much at this point.

So I should just prune the large lower leaves right now? See picture for reference.
{{gwi:458816}}From Plant Pictures

I definitely have been trying to keep up on trimming the small inner leaves, they tend to crop up so fast on me it's tough to keep up.

With regards to the watering advice, how would I do a proper check with a selfwatering pot? diving into the upper levels of dirt tends to not show a lot of moisture since it's watering from the bottom up, so is there a better way to keep track?

That is exactly how I would make her pretty, I'd only keep whats in the green in your pic. You'll get better air circ for the plant that way too. As far as the self watering pot..I personally wouldn't use it at all.
hmmm..I wouldnt repot it now tho either. You can buy one of those gauges..brain fart, cant think of what they are called..it tells you how much moisture is in the soil.

joryn, First I wouldn't put any plant in a selfwatering pot. Those can do damage to the roots and that might be what you are seeing, this Brugmansia is screaming for help.
You have the right idea in trimming it up since you are treating this as a house plant. Personally if you saw our leafless one you might think I am sick. ; ) I'd put her in a basic black nursery pot, then if you need a pretty pot. Put rocks in the bottom of the pretty pot and put the potted Brug in the black pot inside the pretty one, no need for added dirt, it's up to you.

No worries just Winter.. I would strip leaves as others have mentioned.. But for the most part I think it looks great!!!
Yep! Trim these...
BTW!!! WELCOME!!!! I hope to see ya around!!!
Kylie

Thanks all again for the input. I'll be trimming the lower older leaves tomorrow morning (since the plant resides at work actually heh).

With regards to the pot, I'll likely keep it in the self watering one for now, and just take to watering it normally (i.e., through the top instead of through the resovoir) and we'll see how it reacts. I suspect that with proper water and the trimming things should liven up quite nicely. I'll be sure to keep you all posted.

For those wondering what breed of brug this is I must frankly say I haven't the foggiest. This cutting was nabbed off a co-worker who also doesn't know where his original cutting came off of.

Hopefully come summer i'll be able to get it flowering, although since this is still fairly young I'm not sure if I can count on that this early in it's life. Any tips on getting flowers out of it this summer?

Thanks again and regards,
Joe

You are doing wonderfully well with your plant if the leaves are that green and that big from the light of a north facing window in Sask.in the winter Joe. Our sun is so weak this time of year I feel that is all that is this plant's problem.
If you wish more help with care, click on my name and send me an email with your email address and any questions.

Hi nice to have you at the forum. I think it looks great too for being inside in the winter. I used a self watering pot this summer and it worked very well but once I brought it in the house I found it wasn't using the water fast enough and started causing root problems. I think if you trim up the bottom leaves and start top watering it when you stick your finger down in the soil and its dry it will be ok. In the spring start fertilizing and once it makes a Y give it bloom booster and it should flower for you this year.

Joe your NOID brug baby looks really great! Since no one likes to show off their naked babies...here ya go :
{{gwi:452813}}From Pictures to share with Garden buddies

As soon as the leaves get bigger I trim them. Like everyone said..bug control and once you take them outside the sun will burn them anyways.

Lucy

Quick Update:

Pruned the leaves off and it hasn't Died :) so I'll take that as a good sign. I've actually had almost no new growth since I've pruned the lower leaves off, although I must say that it looks like a proper tree now, which is nice.

I've watered it just once since my last post, the soil had a LOT of water in it so it took a long time to dry up properly, and I have a feeling the brug isn't taking up as much as it used to with so much less foliage.

I'll try to get a snap of what it looks like now, but in the meantime, should I be worried that there's no new growth? The existing leaves haven't started wilting so I think it's OK, but best to check. Any input is appreciated.

thanks again,
Joe

Joe I think your brug is actually able to sleep now.

Hope I am right with my thoughts.

Lucy

Bump!

Thought I'd bump this one up for the discussion on the self-watering pot.