Do bougies fuze over time?

[Mapleminx]

I was just wondering if Bougainvillea will fuze together over time? I have a very twiggy little cutting and was looking for a faster way to fatten it up. Tried a google search but I mustn’t be phrasing it right.

thanks

 

[hemmy]

I don’t think so. We had large ones, decades old in the yard. They were intertwined, but not fused. The cambium is very thin, as evidenced by how long it takes to heal wounds. Maybe they behave differently in tropical regions.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I was going to comment, but then I realized I never actually fused a bougie. So I will accept @hemmy 's experience, even though "theory" would predict fusion is possible with any woody tree species. So given Hemmy's comment, go with "don't expect bougies to fuse" , unless someone comes in with photos and experience to the contrary.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I have attempted to fuse hornbeam seedlings, and they did not fuse for me in a reasonable amount of time, more than 5 years.

Best way to thicken up a bougie trunk is GROWTH. Let it grow, without pruning to many feet long, 10 feet long is reasonable. Then prune runners back (prune in spring or early summer) prune back to only a few inches, even as short as 4 or 6 inches. Then let grow out to many feet long. Then in early summer prune back adding only a small amount to the height since last pruning. If 6 inches when done pruning last time, prune to 8 inches. Then let grow out many feet. Then prune back adding a smaller segment than the previous, for example prune to 9 inches, meaning you only kept one inch thus time. Keep repeating this process. Of course there will be back budding and branches formed. Let them grow out and cut back in the same manner, each subsequent segment should be shorter than the previous.

5 years of this and you will have something worthy of a nice pot.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Key us let the main leader and side branches extend to great lengths, then cut back. Vines are slow to develop girth. But they will, just let them run for a season or two, then be brutal in cutting back.

 

[Crazy Diamond]

Where I live there are a lot of old Bouganvilleas, its comon they "climb" on to their own trunk, but can clearly see each trunk, they sort of fuse in the surface but you can see that they are separated trunks not like a Ficus for example

 

[Carol 83]

5 years of this and you will have something worthy of a nice pot.

Or just put it in a nice pot because you have one and want to. Pretty difficult for me to let my bougies limbs get several feet long inside for the winter. I do let them grow freely all summer.

 

[penumbra]

Or just put it in a nice pot because you have one and want to. Pretty difficult for me to let my bougies limbs get several feet long inside for the winter. I do let them grow freely all summer.

Yeah, I cut my back about 80-90% when I bring them in from a summer outdoors. Inside you have to keep them tame. Though I do have a couple dwarfs.

 

[Lorax7]

Pretty difficult for me to let my bougies limbs get several feet long inside for the winter. I do let them grow freely all summer.

Yep, the struggle is real for those of us who like sumo trunks but have limited indoor growing space. I plan ahead when repotting tropicals to decide which ones get to be overpotted this year to thicken up their trunks while the rest get potted up in the smallest shohin container that is appropriate for them.

 

[Mapleminx]

Thanks for all the replies folks