Adenium Plants growing questions
We received a couple questions about growing adenium plants just received or recently received. The adenium plants from Epic grower LLC are growing in southeast Florida which is a tropical environment unlike any other areas of the USA. It’s hot, extremely humid (90 to 100% everyday), very long hours of sunlight (10+) plus we get many inches of rain every week during the summer. All of our plants are grown in the open in plastic nursery pots – no cover, no screen, nothing. The soil never dies up during the summer months. The soil is critical here to prevent root rot and we have to fertilize every week since the nutrients in the adenium plants soil is leached out due to the rain. Yes, we do lose a percentage of plants to due root rot (about 2%) or other issues. We would lose many more if our soil was not correct.
Question from a client:
Just a quick question. I bought 4 jumbos last July and up to now they have no leaves but there are couple flower buds on two of them. I only water them little ( just enough to wet the caudex) once every two days since I planted them in a pot. the weather in San Diego has been 75F during the day and around 60F at night. Most of my adenium has very little leaves. Is it because I gave them not enough water? I’m so afraid of root rot.
Answer:
If you are using the right soil you should not get root rot – use plenty of perlite (75% of mixture). Perlite gives the soil space to allow air flow which is critical to prevent rot root. The roots need water and nutrients. Water transport the nutrients to the roots so if you do not have enough nutrients or water the plant will grow slower. Use coir instead of dirt soil. Do not use moss in the mixture. In this blog there are many articles on soil. Use the search feature (top of blog) and put in the word “soil”.
Question from another client:
I received my order few weeks back. I checked my order and one plant that is 3 in 1 has all of its leaves are dry up. I was thinking when I plant it down new leaves will come out. Typically the leaves turned yellow and new ones come out. This plant came with leaves wilted. I planted in a pot with new soil for about 2 weeks now. As of today, no new leave comes out or any new development.
Answer:
Adeniums are desert plants. The majority of the time we cut off all leaves prior to shipping because the plants go into water conservation mode (leaves dry up and drop along with any buds). If you planted it per the instruction in the packing slip (right soil, root hormone, etc) the plant will recover faster. New leaf growth depends upon nutrients in the soil, amount of sun and hours of sunlight. When we receive plants from Thailand (no leaves) it takes 4..6 weeks for the plants to recover (start to grow leaves). We are located in Southeast Florida so the plants get 9..10 hours of 100% unfiltered sun with temps at night between 78-83 degrees and day 88-95 degrees everyday during the summer (which here is late April through October). This is optimal for succulent type plants. If you lived in our area you know summer does not start on June 1st.
It is normal for the adenium plants to produce flowers first and then leaves. Several of the just released jumbo size (releases this week) and standard size adenium plants bloom before we saw any new leaves. They were received in June and we started to see buds late in July (6 weeks later) and then leaves.
I have a desert rose that I have had for 11 yrs. It is very tall and spindley. The foliage and pink flowers are just at the top. I would like to prune the stalks down but I am afraid I will kill my plant. What do I do to forceore grown below? Thanks
Adeniums plants need to be cropped/pruned. If you still haev a couple months in your growing seas go ahead and crop the branches. If you have many branches crop 1/2 the branches this year and the other half next year.
I am putting an adenium time schedule together for: fert, repotting, pruning, etc. I was wondering if you have already done this?
Regards, Craig
When to fertilize, water etc depends upon your growing environment (location, sunlight hours, etc). Here is southeast Florida adeniums experience a very long growing season (1..2 months of dormancy) verses somebody northern parts of the USA who experience a dormant period of 3..5 months. Each environment needs a different schedule. Right now we are putting on time released fertilizer (we do this two times a year) and using Dyan-Grow once a month. In late January we start to switch over to our spring schedule and use Dyna-gro grow twice a week, Dyna-gro Tetk once a month and dyna-gro bloom for 4 weeks on new plants that haev arrived.
What is the exact mixture for the soil does it grow better in peat Cora mixture. Or just potting soil
Please put the words SOIL in the search area (top right of blog) for many articles on soil mixture. Do not not use peat – Coir is much better. Regular potting soil in a major no – it retinas too much water and does not allow enough air in the soil.
What can I do for my 3 adenium plants since the weather is too cold around 45/68oF(in San Jose, CA)? I bought them 3 months ago, all their leaves were falling off a week after that. Now the top part of plants are sere. Please give advice, I don’t want them going to die! Thank you very much!
Regards,
Anh
Adeniums go dormant (lose all leaves) which is when you need to greatly reduce watering. I would check the root system for rot if the tips of the plants are soft.
I have four gorgeous adenium’s about 5 years old. I just moved from the Florida Keys to the beachside of Brevard County. I noticed a ton of yellow beads (I’m assuming it’s pollen) all over one of them, on the flowers and surrounding leaves, then I noticed that there were also black beads that made me think my plant was being killed off by some fungus or bug. What is this?! I just pruned it back and noticed a SECOND one of my beautiful plants had the same thing. Help! Please!!
Sounds like aphids or similar bug. I would remove all leaves from all the adeniums and repot them with fresh soil. Wash the pots well soap well before re-using it. Then spray the adenium with an natural insecticide every 5..7 days for a month.
Thank you so much!
Thank you from what I can see while searching “soil” you mentioned 75% perlite and then mentioned coir in another answer. So would correct potting mixture for Desert Rose be 75% perlite and 25% Coir. Nothing else?
thank you
Also, do you recommend pumice? except its hard to find here in S. Florida
No pumice
Add some time released fertilizer plus a layer of rocks on top of the soil after you plant to keep the perlite from floating to the top of the soil.