Month: April 2014

Questions: How can you be certain that the adenium seeds will produce lowers like the parent of a hybrid plant?

The problem with hybrid adenium desert rose seeds is that only a small percentage actually flowers like the parent plant.  It’s not like annuals flower seeds or vegetables you buy at Walmart, Home Depot, Loews, etc. stores (get what’s on the image).  Adeniums hybrid seeds are from grafted plants that after several years of growing (usually 5…7 years) they produce seed pods.

However, since the grafts where place on adenium plants that are not hybrid the seeds only produce a few plants like the graft and the rest different in some way.  Many collectors are used to buying from eBay expecting the adenium seeds to produce flowers like they seen in the sales image but rarely do.  It takes 2…3 years for adeniums from seeds to flower so by them the buyer usually forgets what they saw on Ebay and it too late to give correct feedback.  In the future Adeniumrose company will offer seeds; however, they will be honest and put up a notice that the adenium seeds are form the Hybrid plants; however, they may be true to the hybrid flower when they bloom.

Special note: Epic Grower Company  just received 5,000 seeds (5 different supplies from Thailand) and will be offering adenium seedlings next Spring 2015. We are using a new growing method to grow the caudex faster on the adeniums plants and will post updates in the future. All the seeds received are supposed to be from double/triple/quad rosy adenium plants but only time will tell.

Question: I purchased three seedlings last year and they all died during the winter. They were keep in my dining room which has a western sun exposure. The soil was a mixture of potting soil and sand. They were watered very little during the winter months

Answer: There are four things that make the plant trunk to soft:   Lack of water so the plant contracts (this is normal for cactus and succulents when they go dormant), too much water causing rot, micro disease/pest of some type destroying the plant and the 3rd temperatures too cold causing damage to the plant.

Mid November 2013 a NY client ordered we sent 12 adenium desert rose plants and she went on vacation for two weeks so she was not there to receive the plants (not wte3red, planted and exposed to cool/cold temps).  After 6 weeks (beginning of January) she said all the plants die and sent them back.  We received the plants and they were extremely dehydrated and soft.  We treated the desert rose adenium plants with Dyna-Gro K-L-N before replanting them and after 4 weeks they started to sprout leaves.  They were not dead as she thought but just dormant and not treated right fro her location.The desert rose plants were exposed to temperatures considered too cold for them when the were away on vacation.  But once treated properly the adenium plans survived,

   You purchased seedlings.  Seedlings are harder to grow especially in Northern areas without grow lights, more watering and regular fertilization than mature desert rose plants.  They are much more delicate than regular mature desert rose pants. The adenium we grow from seeds are grown under much more supervision than our regular adeniums. Our young desert rose plants get fertilized monthly, water twice as much and given grow lights during winters months to prolong the hours of light they received until they are 1.6 years old and 1″+ caudex. Some adeniums plant seedlings grow faster than others due to type of adenium and quality of seeds.  I would say your adenium plants did not received enough water and possible light hours during the winter. Seedlings dry out very fast because they are not large enough to hold enough moisture.

Question: Ok, thanks for that info, now one more question: should I order the Dyna-Gro Grow liquid fertilizer or the time release granular?  Thanks  Rose

Answer:   The two things most adeniums growers use is the time released or Dyna-Gro grow for after flowering and K-L-N when planting, transplanting, re-potting.  The K-L-N and Dyna-gro Grow is good for all plant types when planting, re-potting, etc.   Some client even use the K-L-N for two watering in January/February to promote root growth when cactus or succulent plants starting to get out of dormancy (we start in December in South Florida and northern areas do this in Feb/March once weather is above 50 degrees).

 If you are in a heavy rain area use the time released after flowering a 1 month before dormancy and K-L-N.  Otherwise use Dyna-Gro (one week of watering in June, July and August after flowering)  and K-L-N.

Miami is considered tropical and during the summer we can get 1” to 4” of rain every day from thunderstorms so the soil is leeched of it nutrients fast.  If we just use liquid we would need to constantly fertilize to get the plants to grow well.  We use the time released fertilizer for the adeniums twice a year,  K-L-N when planting/re-potting/etc (dip the plants into for about 20..30 minutes) and then Dyna-Grow grow on all out plants (I mean all types of plants) in December thru February our dry months when they come out of dormancy before they start to bud and bloom. Not everybody fertilizes like we do but the more consistent you are the faster and larger the cactus, succulents and your other plants will grow.

P.S.  I grow vegetables for family use (not to sell) and use Dyan-Grow 100% of the time. The vegetable plants consistently out perform my neighbors in yield, problem resistance and duration of season. Its the Micro and Macro nutrients that does it better than other products on the market.