Hi Kathy,
Thanks for creating this post. What a great idea!! Well you all ready know about my big discovery. I really cannot take credit for it. I got it from the Aloha Plumeria forum moderator Mimi. She and I both used it for plumeria but I know it will work for brugmansia too!

If your going to water root your cutting, after it has formed roots, put abouch an inch of soil in your pot. Then, take a whole raw chicken egg and put that on top of the inch of soil. Then, you plant your cutting as you normally would. The egg acts as a fertilizer and also it gives the cutting other nutrients that it needs to grow and thrive. Basically, the roots of the brugs will grow towards the egg, and then begin to absorb the nutrients. I swear this works! I have not tried it with brugs but I am sure that others have. I repotted a plumeria that I had placed the egg into the pot. The egg was 90% gone. All that remaind was a small amount of the inside of the egg and the shell. If your skeptical, just go to the Aloha Plumeria group and you will see the pics. I also know that this can be used on other tropicals, and even once there rooted and established, the whole raw egg is still a great source of nutrient to the brugs.
Andrew

Hi Andrew-
Thank you for sharing this very interesting idea for starting hard to root brugs. I am seriously going to try it on a "Sam" cutting and an "Angel's Exotic" that I have that are taking too long to root. Very cool!
Thanks!
kasha77

This really isn't a NEW trick, however, it helps me where
having to water so much is concerned. Some of my larger
brugs are in large nursery pots (and , they'll stay in
them :)...I cover most of the holes with black tape so
that the plant can absorb most of the water rather than
have it all run out so fast.
For sure, I'll have to root prune some of mine come spring
and, I'm not looking forward to that chore. I've got to
work much smarter next year and growing them in pots will
be better for me.

Margaret

Hi Margaret-
Great idea! If I did that I'd just have to be careful not to overwater them in the winter. (I'm very nurturing!)
Next year I'm hoping to plant my brugs with their pots. I'll just be sinking them very deep in the ground. I'll just root prune them in the fall and take them up- pot and all. My biggest problem with digging up so many brugs- (around 70) were finding pots for all of them. It was a mad dash and scramble, but I did manage. Thanks for the tip! Anyone else have something to help make our lives easier?
kasha77

Seasons Greetings, kasha and all!

Some of the tricks I learned came from sheer laziness! LOL
For my potted brugs, in the spring I pull them out of the pots, use a sharp knife and cut off about 1/3 of the bottom and some of the sides. Fill the bottom of the pot with fresh soil, plop the plant back in the pot and fill the sides with fresh soil also.
For potted brugs sunk in the ground, I sink a slightly larger pot and then put the potted brug in that. Sometimes I have to fill the space between the two pots, sometimes I don't. Makes for pulling out the pot when you need to much easier. Plus, when the next spring comes, you already have a space ready for another pot.

kasha - hope you had a very merry christmas! My brugs are doing great and so are my sisters.
Bad news... my grandson had to go back to his mom. She came and got him after a rash decision on the spur of the moment. We are devastated. It's been 12 days and we miss him so much. Sorry to be a downer in your thread but you know how bad I am with emailing! Hate to open the darn thing. Not on the computer enough to keep up with my email then I'll have 400 unread junk emails, plus spam folder. uggg

Hi Mona! Long time no see! Great ideas! What size pots are you using? I ask because I want to do that too!
I am so sorry for you and your husband. In a different situation, I grieved for 28 years when I gave up my first child- a girl- but my joy was so fantastic when we were re-united in 2002. I'll pray for you, and I hope you get to see him again soon, maybe he'll come back for good!
great big hugs to you-
kasha77

Hi Kathy! Generally I use 3 and 5 gallon pots, of the nursery variety, since I can get them free, and I don't feel like I'm out anything if for some reason they have to be cut off the plant, like they sometimes do! :)
And, sinking them in the ground, although they need as much watering, they tend to not wilt as quickly (or get blown over) as ones that aren't sunk. I can't stand to see a wilting plant. Just makes my heart ache! LOL

I can only imagine the pain of giving up a child. How wonderful to be reunited after all that time! ~hugs~ Wasn't this your husband's child as well? Perhaps I'm remembering someone else.

Just have to give you this tip :):) I have large island
beds (a LOT of gardening)...so...I place those nice, plastic
barrels throughout my garden (tucked away somewhat). Anyway,
it works so well whenever I need to give my brugs or other
shrubs a drink while taking a stroll. The barrels have tops,
so, no mosquitos! I have hose stations spaced throughout the
garden also. I'm not a spring chicken anymore LOL!!

Margaret

Hi Moonie!
Do you mind letting me in on how you get your pots for free? I really need some larger ones for this summer. I like your ideas. I'll have to try them.
Margaret- great idea- I'll have to mention that to my hubby- he wants to do something like that. Are the barrels rain barrels?
As far as my eldest daughter goes- no- she's not my husband's child. Actually, I was just 17 when she was born. She went into foster care til I could prove that I could provide for her. No one would give an apartment to a single mom back then. My folks weren't supportive, so when she was 6 months old I decided to give her up for adoption, so she could have a better life.
I met my husband the month after. He said- " I wish I could've met you sooner, then we could have kept her." I literally grieved for her all that time (28 yrs), even after I gave birth to our 3 children.
What a shock when I got a letter stating that she signed up for the re union registry to search me out. Such a sweet time in my life that was!
kasha77

No, not rain barrels, Kathy. Some, I think are barrels that food was shipped in and other products. Sometimes you might
find them at large, fancy grocery stores.
I'm thrilled for you that you met up with your daughter.
What a blessing.
Margaret

Thanks Margaret- We have such a great relationship, and I have 2 precious little grandchildren from her and her husband!
kasha77

Kathy - I work at a plant farm so am able to find used, discarded pots in the "toss out" pile at the end of summer when we clean out the greenhouses. At least I can get enough usable ones to get me through each season.

And yes, -now- I remember that you met your husband not longer after. Blessings for being able to make such an unselfish decision at such a young age! I know it hurt, though. It gives me goosebumps imagining you getting that letter and the emotion that would accompany it!

Margaret - Your idea of barrels in the garden sounds good. I'm thinking those half-barrels would work for me. Y'all think mosquito dunks would be ok since they wouldn't have lids? Definitely will have to give this more thought!

Kathy, I winter sow and give lots of plants away and /trade sell others so need lots of pots. I have gotten various sized free pots and plant trays from big box stores which collect pots for recycling.

Also got a couple of 18-21" diameter pots at swaps at which people bring pots to share. The host of one swap works for a city plants department and brings a truck load of empty pots.

My neighbors and friends bring me their empty pots which I use or recycle.

Once I happened upon a landscaping crew planting trees at a new retail site and they gave me all the pots I wanted.

What is the size of pots best used to grow brugs? I use the 18-21 inch pots for those that don't get planted in the ground. Can I use smaller sized pots? Even those need watering every day. How about putting the brug in a smaller pot and sinking it in the larger pot so I can pull the smaller pot out for over wintering, like some do in the ground? Those large pots are really hard to lug to and from the basement even with DH's help.

Moonie- I used to work at a nursery back home in NY- never got any free pots but tons of free plants! Enough for me and all of my family and friends too!

mnwsgal- did you happen to get them from Walmart? I'll have to check them out. Man- you've got all the right connections! I'll have to get over my shyness and start asking around! Thanks so much for the great tips!
kasha77

No, not Walmart. Home Depot and Lowes.

I'm using 15 gal nursery pots from a local g'hse which does a lot of trees. I just asked if I could buy some of their used tree pots and he charged me $4 ea (gottem for 3 a couple of yrs ago). I think he gives me such a great price cuz I start out asking to purchase not to get smoething free (not to mention the $ I drop there every year LOL). the plants then go into 3 gal pots for the winter in the basement.
I really like the idea of taping up all but one of the drainage holes as I use a very porous mix including bark fines and slowing down the drainage might let the bark absorb more of the water.
Will

The only new trick I learned is how much better the brugs do inground than in pots. I put 3 inground and they loved it. Yes I dug them up, now they're asleep in the basement, but come May they'll go back in the ground to enjoy another summer, hailstorms and all.
Diane

I've noticed that I'm being invaded by aphids on my brugs in my basement. So I've come up with this concoction to repel and kill them. I boiled some crushed garlic in water, dissolved 2 aspirin, strained it and poured it into an empty Windex bottle. I added a Tbl of Isopropyl Alcohol, and a tsp of Dawn dish liq. 1 Tbl of olive oil, and sprayed everything, top and bottom of the leaves.

Garlic- repels pests
Alcohol- dries them up
Dish liquid- coats and kills them
Olive oil- coats and kills them
Aspirin- builds up the plants' resistance to viruses.

So far, the aspirin has really made a difference. Some doubles are susceptible to viruses- leaves are mottled. A week later (after spraying these leaves) new leaves appeared without the virus. So I spray them all. Anyway- I'll keep you posted on how the aphids are reacting.
kasha77

Last winter I had aphids and sprayed them with water with "Real lemon" mixed in and it did the job quite nicely. About 1/4 cup to a pint spray bottle. I'm sure it wouldn't help with viruses though. Kathy's mixture sounds like it might have the potential to do more things.
Bill

Has anyone tried a systemic in the soil for our brug BUGS???
I think it's worth a try. I'll post my results.
Margaret

I found spider mites on the small brug I'm trying upstairs and aphids trying to get a start on the cuttings rooting in the basement....sprayed'em well and seems to be holding but I'll be mixing up some systemic to use with my next watering. As I repot over the winter/spring I make sure to dig in some bonide granular systemic which 'seems' to work pretty well..........but I sometimes think its up to some sort of gremlin that arbitrarily decides whether I'm gonna get bugs or not.
Will

Moonie...for the barrels that don't have lids (for time
sake..I simply sprayed the rim of the barrel inside and out
with a weaker solution of Sevin...works like a charm. I
find a lot of ways to improvise when I get really busy in
the garden. I'm making covers this year because mosquitos
and water ....not a good thing!
Margaret

I grow all my Brugs in pots. Although I would love to plant them in ground I am not physically able to dig them up in the Fall.

I did not use a trick this year that I do every year. I will do it next year. This was such a hot dry Summer that I could not water enough. I will never forget this trick again.

I buy cheap pampers at Big Lots. They are 3.99 for 24 diapers....
-open them up to reveal the water absorbing crystals.
-Place on the bottom of the pot. Like putting a diaper on the baby. You want the inside of the diaper facing out because you will put your soil on the water absorbing crystals.
-Line the bottom and sides of the pot with your diapers
-Put your soil in then place your plant and finish with the soil on top.

It keeps the soil moist and gives me time to water before they wilt.

Also if you grow annuals in those coir hanging pots these diapers are plant life savers. line those pots with your diapers before you put the soil in the pots You will never have a dry hanging plant again.

I just remembered another thing- I had spider mites on a Suave White in my garden. It was planted close to some Russian Sage- when the two entwined together, the mites left! Curled stunted leaves were quickly replaced with healthy ones. I made up a "tea" of Russian Sage and sprayed it on another affected plant with fantastic results. Companion planting - at it's best!
kasha77

Kathy
I have learned not too get any clippings late in the year
also not too keep so many that I don't have room for, with limited space

Elizabeth

Oh Elizabeth- that is SO TRUE! Don't they struggle so when you get them late in the year? I've lost about 15 cuttings so far :(
kasha77

Kathy
I have lost quiet a few also, I wasn't sure they had bit
the dust but when I lifted them out of the pot, they were
all dried up, had too toss them, yes they do struggle

Elizabeth

Well, my new concoction works! All aphids have dried up after 2 days. But as usual, there is another generation on the scene. So Bill- I've added the lemon juice to my tea. They'll be running for sure! it's great that you all have shared such great ideas with each other. Doesn't it make life a bit easier?
kasha77

Elizabeth..so true! Last year I realized that I shouldn't
take so many small cuttings. I take 90% large, Y'd cuttings
and it saves so much space and work in spring. Besides, I
don't need 4/5 of the same brug unless it's something REALLY special :):) I always have enough to take cuttings
for friends, though.
Margaret

Margaret if you put mosquito dunks (BT)in the barrels they work great.. we have 4 rain barrels.. you can usually find them at the Big Box store and they last forever..

Kylie

Hi Kathy,

For your next generation of aphids, go to (My Page) on my post and look under My Clippings. A very good article about using Neem Oil for insect control. It does work.

Jerry

Hi Jerry-
Nice hearing from you! Yes- Neem is fantastic!
Thanks for the tip-
kasha77

Kathy & Jerry
I just had too use neem oil on my Brugs in the basement, how often do you use it for aphids? I sprayed the leaves
on Wednesday, then I used a paint brush too clean off the leaves,some of the aphids were still alive, so now I am going too clean the rest of the leaves, then spray them
again
Elizabeth

Hi Elizabeth,

Neem Oil does not provide immediate gratification. There is virtually no instant death factor. Usually takes 3-14 days to die. The greatest benefit of using Neem Oil is in preventing the occurance of future generations.

Click on My Page on my post above, then clip on My Clippings. There is a very good article about Neem Oil.

Jerry

Jerry, I will check out your post, Thank you, I took some of the Leaves off, that had them all over, then I sprayed
the Brug limbs again with the Neem oil

Elizabeth

Wow! Lots of great ideas!
I have learned when I plant my brugs outside to leave the
soil around them a little lower then ground level so I dont
have water run off, the plants really love the extra
water.