My brugmansia is dying from it's tips inwards --- it blackens, becomes limp and leathery and dead. Each of these ends has lost a couple inches. I tried surgically amputating a tip to no avail. I hadn't been watering it so I increased the watering and that didn't help either. Admittedly, I don't have any experience with these and maybe this happens every year and in the spring it just starts growing again --- is that what happens?
Probably not warm and bright enough at this time of the year for it to be active. You can actually overwinter these as cuttings in cold storage.
Oh, so, to stop the inward-progressing softness and rot, I should stop watering it and put it in the cold? How about a dark, cooler-than-room temperature vestibule? Would that stop it from all turning black and dying?
I have a dozen or more rooted cuttings in my cool (40f - 50f) crawl space on about 9 hrs of light per day. I water them about once every 3 weeks or more. Cheers, LPN.
I have some cuttings at work sitting in a bucket of water, lots of roots coming off and foliage growing ( I need to get around to doing something about them). The ones I have in pots at home are in little pots getting little water, and sit near a cool window.
Hey guys, this is getting a LOT worse. The die-back has gotten as far as where the trunk formed a "Y". All the budding activity occurred after the Y, so now I just hope that it doesn't have to re-grow all of that before it buds again. I tried watering it and it just seemed to accelerate the die-back. Should I put it outside? The frost threat won't be over for another month, but I could bring it in on the really cold nights. I really hope I don't lose this plant, it means a lot to me.
Indoor conditions are not the best for these plants. Having said that, outdoors aren't either, at least yet. You need to find a spot where they can stay dormant or near dormant (45f -55f) untill weather permits. I have seen these sprout from ground level in my garden every year after winter freezes them down. Keep the watering down during the dormant period. Cheers, LPN.
TA, Your brug is trying to go dormant. Let it have it's rest. Stop watering it now. Let it dry up a little in a (sunny) window. I would cut off all the rotted wood, well into the green, and put your brug in the garage or a cool but not freezing place. Does not need light. Let it get quite dry before giving it a tiny bit of water. Not to worry though, if the stem dies right down, it will sprout again from the base. And likely be bushier than ever. (As long as you haven't over watered and rotted it completely). Once the weather gets warmer and the days get longer (without frost), you can start putting it back outside again. Brugs really do grow fast and with lots of water and fertizer, you will have your long awaited blooms. We'll have to see who's opens first this year!
OK, I trimmed the dark, dried-and-collapsed looking ends right down to the healthy green area and sprayed the cut with anti-fungus stuff (as shown). I will move it into the vestibule between the outer and inner door where there is no light and it is much cooler but never freezing, and I won't water it anymore. I haven't watered it much anyway, the last time I gave it water the brown-ness seemed to spread even faster, so I didn't give it any more. I used to give it a liter a day in summer and it eagerly slurped it all up. In the last 3 months it's had maybe a lier and a half, total. The soil in the container has been thoroughly enmeshed by it's roots, and although the soil-surface looks dry, if you go down even just a couple millimeters it's still quite damp.
In case anybody is still following this thread --- the brug survived and did wonderfully last summer. It made a ton of amazingly gorgeous-smelling blossoms, which, sadly, all dropped off after a couple weeks (flower buds too). I over-wintered it in the garage where it actually had a few healthy leaves on it in early April. I thought it was warm enough outside so I put it out and it started to wither, and all the leaves fell off, and the dying-from-the-tips-inward thing started happening again. So, I trimmed off the worst of the dead branches and brought it back inside and kept it near a south-facing window, and now it seems to be putting out new shoots again. I moved it outside today to get some of the hot sunshiny (but cold wind in the shade) weather. I guess bringing it out in April was premature. It should do great this year --- I have it in a huge, 4 gallon pot and the root ball is very healthy-looking. I could probably even use a bigger pot for it.
Thomas - Except for my Brugmansia sanguinea, I find it simpler just to allow my brugs to go dormant over the winter. I used to bring them into a warm studio in the winter but it was such a hassle dealing with low light and insect infestations. Now I wait until we are looking at a hard freeze then prune them back a bit and put them into a dark unheated shed for the winter. I keep them just barely damp. Over the winter the leaves all fall off and towards spring I prune back any die back and put them back outside as soon as danger of frost has passed. They take just slightly longer to get started in the spring but catch up quickly once we get some sunshine and heat. I use time-release pellets for fertilizing most of the year but in the spring I use a big dose of compost and a feeding of 20-20-20 to get them going as the cooler weather keeps the time-release from releasing enough food. Tough love seems to work fine with them. I even had one I kept in ground that sprung up each spring almost from the roots until some housesitters killed it. Diane
Really? Wow. I had no idea they were that robust. I thought they were a delicate, sensitive tropical kind of plant. I guess not. Thanks for the info.
I don't want to leave you with the impression that these fellows can take freezing temperatures. The coldest temperatures my guys have been exposed to is -2 and putting them in my shed keeps them frost free. The in-ground one I cut down to a few inches tall and put a well-ventilated pot over it to keep it from getting too soggy. Then when we had temperatures down to -5 C. I put a blanket over the pot. The B. sanguinea is probably the most hardy and it goes into an unheated greenhouse in the winter which I keep from freezing with a lightbulb during cold snaps. It keeps its leaves and will bloom continuously 12 months a year. While this variety isn't scented, it more than makes up for it with it's exotic bright red/orange/yellow/lime green flower and continuous show. I am fortunate to live in a Zone 9 micro-climate. Diane
