You really might want to try a different approach next year. Try planting your brug in the ground and starting new cuttings each fall, or planting your brug in a 3-gallon bucket with several one-inch holes drilled around the sides (but NEVER in the bottom!). Plant bucket and all in the ground, and come fall, cut around the bucket and lift. It's easier than digging the whole thing, and the brug resents it less, too.

Read the FAQs for this forum for more suggestions on how to take and over-winter cuttings.

I have a similar problem to yours, Sujiwan. Like Judith mentioned, with the really tall ones, you can plant in the ground next year, and then in the fall cut off near the soil and re-root them. You can also, as she says, plant in a 3 gallon bucket with holes drilled into the sides.

However, if you need to prune this year, make sure that you prune ABOVE the "Y". Try to get it as high as you can, without destroying your ceiling. I have one that was over 8 feet tall, and I did transplant it into a smaller pot, after a serious root trim. It sulked for a while, but has rallied back and is doing quite well in my dining room in a 2 gallon pail.

I did manage to carry many of my brugs in larger 24 inch pots, with the aid of a dolly, into my root cellar for the winter. It surely is packed in there now......and I still have to make room for my fig tree. Ah, the joys of gardening.

Say what, you all are not keeping the huge ones in 32 to 36 gallon pots or whiskey barrels? How about going thinking about going to a smaller pot. This last spring we took one of our 36 gallon potted brugs and cut it into! After repotting her for the third time it was time to rethink how we do things. Why keep bumping them up into bigger pots? I'm now smiling and keeping them in 5 gallon pots and keeping the back from going out! Can you picture a 7 foot tall brug in a 5 gallon pot?

I was thinking about doing that with some Karma. Thanks for the encouragement.

I have to say mine got to six feet in their second year, but I"m going to try and keep them that, though next year , I'll have to prune them back most likely to keep them under eight feet. Mine got so top heavy and of course with the tops acting like sails, they were blowing over every day almost, til I finally sank the pots in the ground. They're still outdoors after several nights in the 20's , but only recently showed some browing of the edges of the flowers, since the tree canopy that's been protecting them is getting a bit thin as the leaves fall from the tree. Time to come in I guess!!

After lugging the 6 I had last year to the basement in their 5 gal buckets I decided something had to give...especially since I'm up to 20 (stop the insanity) now! A small nursery went out of business this year and I scarfed up sev. dz 3 gallon pots. All the root balls went into those and I drilled holes for handles I took off the 5 gal. ones to make carrying them easier. Oh, and I cut the tops of to root instead of leaving them on this year. Now I just have to find time to insulate the far corner of the basement which is a bit warmer than I would like, though evrything came back welll last spring. Let's see know 20 rootballs plus 20 big tops rooting in my bucket o brugs plus the dozen new cuttings I'm rooting from trades. I'm in trouble.........grin
Will

Definitely, Will. Somehow, in spite of the fact that I decided to "cull the herd" and composted several single white bushes, and gave a lot away, somehow I have more than I had last year. Hmmmmm.....and I was a math teacher...LOL.

Jroot, I'm sorry but you made me laugh!! You can blame me for helping your math problems! LOL

Will, you can't stop with just 40, you can't stop until that basement if full.

One thing I have noticed with mine that makes me hesitate a bit with the pruning, is that it seems some of the pruned branches seemed not to heal over as expected continued to die back down from the original cut point. I was concerned that die back might spread to the entire plant, though it did stop at a certain point. On the other hand most of the other cuts seems to heal over quickly and there was no die back with those. Oh well , I tend to "overthink" and "overworry" about some plants , and my plants came through the winter just fine last year. They do need some serious pruning to fit inside this year, though most likely it will be to reduce the overall width of the plants, moreso than the overall height!

Birdinthepalm, one would ask how you clean your tools between cutting your plants?

Sorry to say, I'd don't clean the tools, as I should, and I've been gardening for many years, with few problems, but I'd agree it's better safe than sorry, most of the time. Can't say I've ever suspected transmitted diseases in the case of a couple of pruned tropical hibiscuses however, which did die back all the way to the roots, after pruning.
Seemed to start at the cuts and moved all the way down.
Seems with all the little things I concern myself with when potting and doing other chores, I'm generally very fussy about most procedures, but in the case of "cleaning" the tools , I've never gotten into the habit! Oh well, but nobody's perfect!! I do smoke as well, and I know that's a possible hazzard for my brugs!!