Could easily be the start of rot. I would put them in a glass of water and let them root from there as that is how I root all of my brugs. Just my opinion.

Rober I found that rooting cuttings WITH tips on is hard to do. Unless you build them a dome so the top does not shrivel up. It DOES work on some brug cuttings for me in the heat of the summer...but as the weather declines...it is harder to root cuttings anyways. Just do not place them IN the sun.
When I see that a top of a cutting is not making it, I cut it off also and from there it goes well.

Good luck
Lucy

i moved the trimmed cuttings into water & have now them on a low light window sill. even the healthy looking cuttings are now out of the sun. how dry do potted cuttings need to be? i would think they would require some moisture. is it better to keep the pots in a wet saucer so that just a small amount of moisture wicks up thru the soil without actually watering the top?

My question here is I'm trying to start cuttings in water. This is my first try. I see at the bottom of the stems that are in the water are starting to get white bumps which I'm assuming are the roots that are starting to grow. My question is the top of the stem cuttings all the leaves are going limp and falling. Even the new forming leaves that are emurging are starting to wilt. Is this normal? Or should I cut off the tips and let them go from there?

Rober are the tops getting mushy or kind of dehydrated? Mushy is rot but dehydration isn't necessarily a problem. Oftentimes the top few inches of a cutting will shrivel. It normally stops on it's own and will eventually drop off. If it's mushy you should cut it down to healthy tissue with a sharp blade then dust it with a fungicide. I use rooting powder that contains a fungicide. Even if the rooting hormones are expired the fungicide is still active. You can also use sulphur. Unfortunately I've found that cuttings that are rotting from the top often die regardless what I do.

Joellege that's not normal. The new growth shouldn't wilt. Are the bottoms of the cuttings firm and are they in clean water? I'm not really sure what the problem might be or a solution. If the cuttings are long enough you might want to remove the wilted portion but I'm honestly not sure if that will help or not. You might also try putting them in soil instead of water to root. Good luck.

Karyn1 thanks for your reply. The bottoms of the cuttings are still firm and I change the water daily. I was thinking it might be the temperature since during the night it is getting down in the low to mid 50's and up in the 70's during the day. One of the cuttings is starting to come back but the other I just don't know. I think I will take your advice and place them in soil since the roots are starting to form.

Thanks

karyn-
sorry for the slow reply. i always subscribe to these listing must the e-mail notices never arrive. they are dehydrating. the roots are developing but some of the the tops
dry out & get hollow. i did have one cutting get kind of brown at the very bottom so i trimmed that off. once they have roots i put them in pots. since its winter how moist should they be kept?

The water temp doesn't need to be warm but probably shouldn't be lower then the 60's. I keep mine at room temp but my potted cuttings are in a greenhouse that goes down to 50 at night. I water very little until they have a good amount of foliage and even then I don't water much during the winter. My cuttings in the GH have been watered about once every 10 to 14 days and I don't saturate the soil. With the cuttings that are leafed out I wait for the foliage to start looking a little limp before watering. Drying tips aren't usually a cause for concern. Many will have the top few inches dry out. Eventually the dried part will drop on it's own or can be trimmmed but I'd wait until there's a good amount of new growth before trimming the dried portion and cut it off just above the healthy living stem. Someone posted pics of a cutting with what they think are buds. The cutting is a good example of the top drying out.

Hi Rober and Joel and to whom it may concern:

It is normal for many plants to lose all outdoor grown leaves when they are brought indoors (especially after transplanting or cutting) and that may include even the new little leaves that may have been there when you first got the cutting. I go through fall out every year - just give them a fighting chance to recuperate.

As far as cuttings go, think like this. Your cuttings were branches, now you want a part to transform into a root system. Initially your cuttings have very little capability of uptaking/intaking water. Those white nubbies need to be doing more than just intaking moisture from the air now. They are now solely responsible for providing water to the plant, which isn't much at all to start with. Therefore, keep them in a moist environment, above and below - not wet. I pressume you do not have a greenhouse. The nubbies should be transformed into what would be obviously roots before putting into your soil composition(whatever you decided is best), although I'm sure if you kept the soil moist enough (but not soaking wet) and depending on the branches maturity, it would make it to.

Pictures help us help you, if at all possible. It helps if we know how mature your cutting is (lots of white bumps/nubbies) or very few (boooo but many many times the best shot you'll get at having a rare brug), how long the cutting is (as it may be too long) or what kind of 'top tip' you might need to refer to - is it the very tip of a very green branch or an off shoot from a thicker branch that is now growing a new branch, and when did it start growing? Were leaves already there when you got or took the cutting - some maturer cuttings/branches can hold on to some smaller leaves while most greener cuttings cannot and most if not all leaves should be removed if they stay wilted for a couple of days - I know for a fact, leaves 'help' grow roots and so it's good if they can be kept but that's not the priority if the cutting cannot sustain the old leaves while in the process of establishing a new root system and new leaves according to it's new limitations of resources.

Joel - you didn't give Karyn time to reply after answering her questions. She only conjectured as to what you might need to do but I'm sure was still expecting an answer before advising you - If your cutting is still firm at the bottom and nothing is sliming off, then you can leave it in the water to root better before transplanting. I'd also like to know: that when you stated that you just started rooting your cuttings, how long ago was that? If those new growth leaves were there before or very shortly after you took/received the cutting then it doesn't count as new growth and you can expect them to fall off/shrivel in the new environment (unless it's just like it was outside where you have them now - unlikely but possible) I'd still need to know how long you've been rooting them for or for you to just 'know what I mean'.

You all might want to remember Karyn stating that it is NORMAL to loose a little off the top. Don't panic and jump the gun too soon to transplant you'd be giving your cutting a harder time.

Karyn - In all my 4 years here, not you or any others with greenhouses, have I ever heard of anybody not watering a well rooted transplanted NEW brug cutting for 10-14 days while it was in a growing state, in it's first year. I realize it's a moist environment in there Karyn but are you serious? Is it that humid and tropical in there? Dang I need a greenhouse...lol Are you referring to your older dormant brugs regarding that watering level (1yr and older)? You need to describe your 'potted cuttings'. I'm sure there are a few people curious. A baby plant in a growing state getting that little water must be throwing people for a loop. Sounds like you have a sauna going in there...lol
Tender Care - Sandy

Well, here I was, trying to clarify some of what I wrote and it had been posted already, after an earlier attempt at submitting it. So I'm not going to nit pick it anymore. I'll check back later for any questions or responses.

- Sorry if I was fague but I try to keep it KINDA short but responsibly detailed. And I'm more tired than Karyn is, although not as sick...hope you're feeling better Karyn.

Sincerely - Sandy

Sandy these are cuttings that are just beginning to root. Not well rooted cuttings and I find that keeping them on the dry side encourages root growth. It's also cooler now so the soil retains moisture for a longer amount of time. In a cooler enviroment or inside I water well rooted plants very little as well and like I said I water when I see that the foliage is starting to get limp. It's easy to revive an under-watered plant but if it's over-watered you'll end up with rot. During the heat of the summer it's a different story and they are watered often. I don't know if it's possible to over-water in the summer here. BTW the greenhouse isn't that humid during the winter.

As for foliage dropping I agree with Sandy that the transition to a new environment will cause existing foliage to drop but new growth that's taken place in the new location should hold. Even if it looks chlorotic it should remain firm.

hello all

first...this is a tip giving page...please lets be nice...

second...what zones are you guys(rober49 and joellege 21)..might be helpful to know...

i live just north on montreal and have grown brumansia for several years...some get to about 10-14 feet...with many flowers......i really love that scent they have..
one of the first things i found out was what works for some doesn't work for others....to many factors involved.
. so here's what i do....
just before first frost i bring all the brugs into the house(i have about 30)...the ones that are near blooming go in front of windows until they finish and parts start to fall off...lol...
then they join the others...i trim off all foliage and cut the ends off about 2-4 inches...i find that this part of the plant attracts the most bugs so if it's not there...fewer bugs..
i cut them down to about 6 iches above the soil line and place the cuttings(between 1 and 3 ft long) in a big pail of water...in a dark space in the basement..i change the water weekly or just add to it if the level is down...they take about 1-2 weeks to start getting knibs..i leave them in the pail all winter and a few go soft,but not many...i cut the bottom off the soft ones and do it all over again...around april..i put the cuttings in pots with good draining soil and place infront of some windows...or give alot to friends and neighbors....after last frost...out they go...lol....i do put a couple in the ground....
brugmansia are alot easier to grow then people think...
good luck to all and lets keep helping each other here....
thx,,
diggy

Diggy it sounds like most of us with a number of brugs treat them the same way. If I didn't have so many to winter over I wouldn't cut them back to 8" but it's too difficult to store them otherwise. The one thing I don't do is allow the blooms to open inside because the scent is too over powering to me. Even if I keep them in the garage the smell permeates the house.

I'm impressed by the size that yours and Ruth Ann's brugs reach being in zone 5. Do you plant yours inground during the growing season? If so how big of a rootball do you dig up? I used to dig up a large portion of the roots but decided to follow Rith Ann's advice a few years ago and now only dig up about a 5" rootball. I haven't seen any difference in the size the plants reach the following year. The only time I dig up a large rootball is when I'm not going to cut the plant back so I can hold seed pods which works about half the time. If the pods are at least halfway grown they'll usually mature. Any smaller then that, they abort.

Karyn I ask myself the same question. I mean when I look at how big mine are. INground or pots...they do NOT reach THAT size. well...YET lol But I doubt they ever will.

Lucy

Welcome Diggy: I'm sorry if you mis-read any of our chat. Some of us have been here a long time and know each other pretty well. This is really an opinions room - sometimes lots of different opinions. Though like Karen said, there's plenty of commonly agreed opinions. There's lots of 'apparently' contradicting opinions or perhaps just a request to have information clarified for those asking or reading, but there's also a lot of different conditions and experiences to which these opinions are formed and from which we gather our best knowledge/advice from.

There are lots of different brugs but more imporantly there are different maturity of cuttings of which require special care. Have you ever had a green cutting (not many nubbies present, if any at all) make it in your basement bucket method? I'm sure others would like to know, as that is what many people have to work with, green cuttings that may be not much more than 1/2 of an inch in width as well. So this is what we're trying to formulate the best possible treatment for to acheive the best reliable outcome. So we're all trying something. The more people that experiment the more likely we'll get to the best answer faster, or at least two or three reliable options. Something that will work with just about anybody's green cuttings. A humid environment on hand is different then what is usually a dry indoor home environment so we have to sort out what's applicable to ourselves and our own resources. Those nubbies on the branches also help with water intake above the ground.

We support each other here in all of our different
experiences and respect those opinions. We try and help, time permitting, we try to offer as many varing experiences as we can but some times you'll only have one or two people offer advice as some of us are not always here or have time or whatever. We're human. But we do mean well.

We who have the bigger cuttings to regrow don't have this problem. And it is harder to work with the greener cuttings. We're always willing to learn here, so thankyou for your advice and welcome to our brug family.

I was planning to try your bucket method with some big 1 1/2" thick very semi-woody Y's of Charles Grimaldi (which is one of a very few hardier brug in the first place for this kind of treatment), but later in winter, and with some water jelly crystals instead (they don't let the rot spread around.) There is a Bucket of Brugs method posted in here somewhere but quite a bit more complicated as far as necessary resources go.

You do save your rootball don't you? It doesn't sound like you do but then why would you cut it down to 6" and not all the way down if you only save your branches/cuttings.

Sorry Rober, you'll get this email, while it is meant for all the newbies who are just getting accustomed to our chat/forum.

Good Hopes for the future - Sandy

hi all and thank you for the welcome...

i plant a couple of them in the ground...
i pulled up the biggest the middle of oct.
the rootball was about a foot and a half round..
i trimmed it and am trying something different i read somewhere..leaving it bare root hanging in the basement..
i did trim the roots in half and cut it back..
and i wish i could only trim them in the fall...but no space..lol..

i do have success with green cuttings,but i only keep them in the pails for so long...not like the wood ones...

if someone can tell me how to post pics.i would gladly try to do that...

or i will email karyn...and ask her to do this...
i have many questions for her too...lol...\\
i am in need of advice for my plumeria and ginger...

thx and cheers
diggy

I think that Sandy pointed out the main thing, though there's certain methods that we all pretty much agree on we all do what works best for us. What works well for me won't necessarily work for someone else, even in similar conditions. Over the years you try different methods and come up with what works for you. I've probably tried just about everything that's been mentioned on this forum, along with other sites. Some work for me and others don't. It's trial and error. Thankfully brugs are surprisingly forgiving. I can't think of many other sub-tropical plants that I can take to the brink of death and have them recover, repeatedly. lol