It has been my experience that they Y when they want to...anywhere between 6 inches & 7 feet, the shorter ones coming from cuttings above the Y on the original plant. They have a mind of their own but all but Snowbank bloomed for me the first year (it Yd after I brought them in for winter).

Linda

I have to agree with Linda! They kinda have a mind of their own..Depends on where your cuttings was taken.. I have a double that has grown for a yr and a half.. still waiting.. BUT Miss B Havin bloomed the first yr I had her.. along with several others.. HEY.. I think I got that slow dbl. from Mark...maybe we need to talk...LOL
Kylie

What am I going to do, I have a few brug cuttings setting buds at 12 inches high!. Each new node is a bud and a new "Y"! Looks like it will be a bush brug, blooming this winter. Is this possible? Will It revert and get bigger when I plant it outside in the spring?

If not, what is the point getting above the "Y? cuttings, only to get stunted brugs?

It really depends on the variety and the look the grower wishes to obtain?

How many branches did you all leave on the doubles to grow for them to flower their first year?

The singles (don't know about all of them, and certainly not the varigated) do real well with 3 branches their first year and tree size but common sense says 2 branches would of Y'd quicker and one even faster but less leaves to help develop roots might just do away with that common sense or at the least just slow down root development just a tad.

I want all of them to Y earlier in the year so as to get 3 major flushes in our short summer growing season. Surely if there's only 1 branch on ANY brug it'd be more likely to Y earlier in the season, disregarding anything to do with the height seeing any and all roots could focus on the one branch.

I'm hoping somebody found the above true. Maybe growing the same kind of brug as 1 branch and a 2 or 3 branched tree? It's especially for the doubles to bloom their first year (I did make a lot of mistakes on mine last summer though)but also to get to Y faster and get more major flushes. You know everybody NEEDS to know anything they can to make a brug Y early! So any other ideas are always welcome. ;)

I have acquire that high phospate (middle number) fertilizer for next year and for the early stages of the cutting after the first indoor leaves are on. 10-52-10
It's suppose to push blooming. Only sellers of weaker kinds put it down. The higher concentration of phosphates is pretty new on the market but there is some good feedback.

Another observation, is all 3 of mine Y'd at 3' -all hardy kinds though. By the end of fall the stalk grew more and put that first Y at 5'. (except for the double - didn't grow quite that tall - keep in mine my mistakes I made with this prissy plant).

Oxmyx - the Y raises up over time but it'll be a bush type. Just keep the one branch from each that is growing straight up and eventually you can lay right under it and have brugs in your nose and what ever else suits your fancy.

I don't think it matters how many branches. When the plant is ready to flower, it will. In my gardening experience, its a matter of building up enough stored Carbohydrates in the plant, proportional to the nitrogen in the soil. The exception to this, which I don't quite understand, is if the cutting is above the Y. I am still wondering if, given enough nitrogen, the brugs will kick the habit (flowering) and go back to vegitative growth for a while. I will be experimenting with this.
Good point Sandy........ I can prune to one or two branches.

If Brugs are different and, like the Sanguineas, require proper temps and Photo-period to some degree, then someone please correct me.

I don't think that pruning has any effect on when it's going to Y either. I also have some varieties that will only grow in a bush shape no matter how much I try and shape them. I think it's mainly dependant on the plant. I don't really prune off any branches anymore except for those little ones that come off the trunk that never amount to much anyway or of there's something that's going to snap if the wind blows too hard.
Karyn

Sooo, what your all saying is, that if a Y blooming brug was going to Y at 3' as it had before, it wouldn't matter how many main stalks it had, it will still bloom at 3'. In which case, if I only had one, if only for it's first year it would certainly grow faster than 3 stalks and I'd get an earlier Y'ing and therefore more bloom flushes over the season.
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Oxmyx - I'm glad your into the biology of the plant. Big grin. If it's going to Y at 3' then pushing nitrogen might do the trick, as you will force it into foliage growth, and not flowers, which is what nitrogen does. But what of the consequences to the flowering plants system.

You might end up depriving/inhibiting and/or delaying it of it's ability to change into a blooming system. That change they make to utilize the phosphates/carbohydrates and whatever other enzyme(s)/mineral(s) it uses to convert it's nutrients for a blooming system.

We already established that in many brugs the Y signifies that change in it's ability to utilize the phosphates for blooming. And we also know that branches that include a Y and rooted below the juncture on these brugs come complete with the established blooming system ...therefore the bush. So it's not necessarily the height alone. This also means that something has to develop in the main stalk(s) over time to establish the blooming system.

What we need to know is what mineral/enzyme does the plant use for the uptake and utilization of phosphates. Whatever it is, the brug signifies it can do so, only when a Y is formed. Which means it had to develop the ability to utilize phosphates and once created, it passes the ability on to the rest of the plant. We need to help the brug develop the ability faster or for when we personally want it to turn on. Which would also mean to inhibit the chemical mechanism as well as turn it on. I'm doing some research on plant genes/biology and nutrient uptake. I'm sure they've been working on just this kind of thing for fruits, veggies and nuts. If anybody else wants to help.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=plant+genes+nutrient+uptake&btnG=Search&meta=
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More queries. I know that if you start a brug cutting's root system below the Y juncture you will get a bush type with early flowering which is nice with it's drawbacks of coarse. And has anybody had a branch grow below the 2 branches that form a Y? Did they grow as a tree stalk or with a flowering system? And what would happen if the roots started above the Y juncture and down. Would we get 2 main stalks for trees? Anybody ever bury a Y?

I don't think you could change the bush form if you already rooted ONLY below the Y first, I'm thinking that it already took up it's ability to utilize phosphates by not allowing the 2 upper Y'd branches to root.

Sandy, you said:

"Oxmyx - I'm glad your into the biology of the plant. Big grin."

Would you please clarify what you mean by Big grin?

Oxmyx - You want to know how they grow.

Mycorrhizal fungi - helps a plant with nutrient uptake, biofriendly
Grows naturally on almost all plants since the dawn of time.
Drawbacks - can't use peroxides treatment with it
- recommended not to use with high phosphate fertilizers with it
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/06/040621073636.htm Just a statement of scientific accessment and value

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbuscular_mycorrhiza
Areas in the document of interest:
Scroll to the section titled, Nutrient uptake and exchange.
-5th paragraph
-Agriculture
-Phosphorus fertilizer
-Perennialized cropping systems

SuperThrive - are supposedly strictly addable nutrients (vitamins/harmones) you use with your fertilizer.