bonsaiTALK Community - View Single Post - Bougainvillea feeding question

This is a post I saved from the good old days of gardenweb. I've reposted it several times, as it's the most detailed description of bougie training that I've seen. The author is specifically talking about bougies in Michigan and Florida, so some of the specifics may or may not apply to other places.

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Posted by: BillStruhar 5b Detroit (My Page) on Mon, Sep 20, 04 at 0:04

For a Michigander to give advice to a Floridian on how to grow Boogies may stretch credulity, but what the Hell... I grow them in the pretty dismal climate of Detroit, and what you have seems to me to be worth saving, so if I didn’t offer advice- and it died- I would grieve. Therefore, I expose myself to the critical elements... for the children.

In Florida, the major growth period for Boogies is from May/June to October-ish. During that period it should have rampant growth because as an equatorial critter, hot temperatures, long photo-periods, and lots of rain (heavy, daily) in a rich, highly-organic soil (lots of plant material breaking-down in the presence of billions of organisms) is home-sweet-home (well, kinda like South American jungles).

The typical Boogie growth cycle is 6ish weeks of rampant growth, 6ish weeks of flowering at the tips of new growth, 6ish weeks of quiescence, back to growth, etc. Typically, they flower around Vernal and Autumnal equinox. If you do the math, you will find that this aforementioned 18ish week cycle does not exactly match the 26 week equal night and day cycle. The exact cycle depends upon the exact conditions the plant is in. The part of the cycle that has the best growing conditions in Florida is the long, hot, wet, summer, late April to early November.

Climate is worldwide, weather is local. Florida’s climate doesn’t change much, but weather in Florida can be really different year-to-year. The exact Boogie cycle may be expected to be different year-to-year just like the weather.

Anyway, the growth period during the North American summer will be longer than the growth period during the North American winter. Not hard to understand. The flowering period following the long, hot, wet summer SHOULD be longer than the winter flowering period because more energy can be stored in a longer, hotter, wetter period. The quiet period, may or may not reflect the exhaustion resulting from the length of the flowering period and/or the other factors contributing to using-up the resources of the plant during the previous flowering period. A lessor flowering performance during the Vernal Equinox may contribute to a shorter quiescence period in late North American winter/early North American spring.

So, Clay, it appears that you have re-potted this critter just at the end of the normal high-growth period. Not depriving it of high growth, but in saving it’s life, you may find him/her wanting to flower, and thinking that good. We all know that sex takes a lot out of us, and your Boogie is no different. It probably won’t kill’um, but it won’t do any good either. For now, that is- until you see the next high growth period commencing- pick off all flowering tips.

When the next growth period begins in your neighborhood (there in Florida), prune back every branch to the most inboard live bud, or, failing to see a live bud, to the most inboard leaf. Don’t feed until it sets a head of leaves (unlike the feeding of a non-bonsai plant). When the leaves are full sized, begin feeding.

Unlike other kinds of critters, the most outboard bud on a given branch, which you have left, WILL NOT be the dominant bud growing first and longest. That bud will produce foliage slowly, later. After the whole critter has set a batch of leaves, some time later buds elsewhere will send out rogue or dominant shoots. These may be characterized thus: each leaf will have a longer internode then the one before it. You want to prune off 3 or 4 leaves when the shoot has six leaves. The same thing will happen with this wild shoot as happened before. It will park. This is really good from the standpoint of bonsai.

Over time, you will accumulate lots of these parked stems which have lots of buds (more buds will develop during the "parked" period. Eventually, you will get fewer and fewer shoots bolting, and more of the parked stems producing clusters, that is- all of the buds on that stem leafing-out at the same time and with leaves sort-of the same size. As this clustering continues, the rogue shoots will be shorter, they will have shorter internodes, and there will be many more interior buds per shoot.

The next part of this is a function of growing these critters in the poor conditions of the North, and I don’t know how it applies- or doesn’t apply- to you Southerners. When I bring My Boogies into the house (not a greenhouse), all the leaves drop within two weeks. It’s not hard to understand, from full sun to a lousy window, I’d do it, too. Anyway, at that time I prune off every leader bud. When it re-leafs out in these poor conditions inside the house, it does so weakly. Every time I bump the plant, leaves fall off. It continues this all winter. I only prune long shoots, as above.

When the time in spring comes when I can thrust the plant into a greenhouse, high sun situation, I give it one last pruning of too-long shoots, and the growth cycle begins, anew. The part of this winter situation which may be very important to me , but not attainable by you is that I am obtaining the equivalent of several defoliations over winter. Each defoliation contributes to an increase in ramification and a decrease in robust growth. Bad for flowering, good for leaf reduction and more modest growth. Again, I don’t know how this applies to your Florida situation.

Good Luck! Once in the cycle, things get easier. Below is a Link to the Bougainvillea Information Page created by Gordon Braswell, a retired nursery owner who compiled more information on Bougainvilleas than anyone else in the world, and made it available to everyone else. Those of us who know anything about Bougainvilleas have learned it from Gordon. All Hail Gordon!

The link he mentioned was a dead end. Hope this was helpful for you. I don't know if Bill is still active in the forums - I haven't seen him around.

- bob