We recently received a couple questions concerning the adenium or desert rose plants caudex being a bit pliable when received recently. AdeniumRose Company LLC ships adenium plants and other succulents everyday except of Fridays. However, we are pulling adenium plants and letting them sit bare root for 2..3 days to dry out a bit before shipping do to constant rain. We have had rain every day (some times thunderstorms that dump tons of rains in a few minutes to all day rain like yesterday) for the last three weeks except for last Thursday so the soil is always moist in the pots. The soil AdeniumRose Company uses for adeniums drains fast but it still retains some moisture so the roots have time to get water and nutrients.
During the tropical raining season in south Florida (during summer) the caudexes are expanding to capture more water so when we pull then the trunks are a pliable. The adenium trunks and caudex has not had time to harden which takes a period of dryness to do. Not everybody understand how succulents and cactus absorb water during raining seasons (expand) and then either contracts or hardens during dry periods. In the raining season (now for us) the caudex grows the most and sometimes feels a bit soft – not rot but not hard either. It is a normal process for adenium and many other tropical succulents.
All succulents have some pliable of their trucks and roots. Therefore, we are pulling the adenium plants 2..3 days prior to shipping to give the adenium roots time to dry out a bit. No it takes longer for the adenium plant trunks to harden fully than a few days. The second problem now is that the rest of the USA in having the opposite problem – high heat and very little or no rain. When shipping adenium plants; the moisture in them gets hot if left in warehouses or hot vehicles. This is the reason we are not shipping desert roses on Fridays. Does this solve all problems associated withe shipping desert rose plants? No – but it take care of most of the adenium problems.
If you have any questions please post them here and we will quickly respond.
This is off topic but I am in Tampa Fl and am having a problem with SOFT SCALE insects on my adeniums. I have tried manually removing them but there is too many. I have bought 2 different type of insecticides but wanted approval from you before I try them. I was told a mixture of the 2 would do it but have forgot the ratio. They are: ORTHO Volck Oil Spray and Spectracide Malathion.
I am sure they are soft scale and not armored.
Your thoughts
I have not used malathion on our plants at all due to hazards associated that the chemical. We use an insecticide that is soap based. When soap is mixed with an insecticide it it makes the chemical stick to the adenium plant and not wash off easily. Just like in your shower the soap film is not easy to get off. In your area, just as in South Florida, we have may things that like the adeniums. Some are beneficial and some are not. We get a caterpillar that turns into a orange butterfly about once a year that eat some of our desert rose plant leaves. We do not mind because it cause the adenium plants fight back once all the leaves are gone and shoot up more branches than before plus may times we get an additional flowering because of this. Anyway back to the subject. We have used Garden Safe brand and Earth-Tone concentrate. We have not tried the Volck oil spray because we prefer soap based which are a bit dryer than oil and adheres better (longer lasting). Scale is one of the harder things to get rid of because our our high humidity.
In your post from July 23,2012, You write about how the caudex of the Adenium will expand during a lot of moisture and is pliable (soft). I have one in a pot with a well drained soil mix. It has become pliable even when the soil is dry. Do I have rot? I see no signs of it. What is your suggestion? Also I want to lift them to expose more of the base. Is there a proper way of doing it? I live in east central Florida and the Adeniums are outside.
Thanks, Dave
In your area of Florida I think it may be under watering. However, It’s wise to un-pot teh desert rose plant and check the roots just in case. Root rot does not show in the branches until its gets bad. Better to check before there is a major problem. If you do not see any rot on the roots then its under watering. In our nursery we tend to under water sometimes this time of year before the daily summer rains come. We are Now watering them 2..3 times a week because of lack to rain.