Question: I should be receiving some new adeniums from you in a few days. I would like to grow them for increased caudex size and height. How do you think I should plant them in order to maximize their growth? Should I start them in a shallow bonsai pot then transition to a deeper pot once I’m happy with the caudex size?
Answer: The biggest one thing you should do is to use Bonsai pot so the roots are forced to spread out not down. Also, the pot should be size properly for the plant – no more than 1.5 to 2 inches beyond the current caudex. I did not check what part of the country you are located but we recommended re-potting once every 6 months of growing.
When you pot the adenium plant arrange the roots to grow outward. You may need to use aluminum bonsai wire to hold the plant down in your pot. Remember to check the wire once a month to make sure it not causing damage to parts of the adenium plant. Do not wire the roots of the desert rose plant. Sometimes we place rocks under the center of the plant or in-between roots to help force the adenium plants caudex to grow in a particular arrangement. Use Dyna-gro K-L-N 
once every three months to give the roots a boost and on the other months use Dyna-grow one watering (not when you see flower or flower buds or you tee flower may drop).
Adeniums are not usually grown for height. Yes, the desert rose plant will grow very height with extremely large caudex over it’s life time in the wild (200-300 years). We have one that we continually crop at 4..5 feet tall with a base of over 48″ round that it over 25yrs old in a 30 gallon pot. This adenium plant started as a standard size desert rose plant about 22yrs ago (NO the image to the right is not the pant – ours is not blooming now). Growing tall and growing large caudex is not something you do at one time. To force caudex growth you need to crop the desert rose plant branches to keep the growth towards the bottom of the plant. If you want to grow it tall you need to let the branches grow which takes away from growing the caudex wide/fat. We recommend growing the caudex first fat because you need to crop the branches during this process.
When you crop the desert rose branches usually 2 or more new branches will takes it place which will help the plant caudex to grow faster so you will need to re-pot more often. When you re-pot you expose more roots above the soil so the plant get taller above the soil line too.Please see other articles about cropping adeniums, growing adeniums on this blog.
I am new to growing Adenium plants. I received one from a friend last year,repotted it and this year it is blooming beautifully. I have a question? Is it possible to remove soil from top of plant to expose more of the caudex and roots, rather then repotting it. Thank you
When you re-pot or adjust the plant in the pot you only need to leave 2″ to 3″ of the actual root below the soil line. That is way desert rose plants grow the best in bonsai type pots.
from what I have read, when you repot (hopefully at the proper time which is early spring), You should raise the plant so that an inch or two stay above the soil. You will see the difference in the caudex’s color when you raise it.
Thank you for very useful and detailed information on adeniums.
I would like some clarification on root pruning. For better growth of the caudex, does one prune all the roots all the way to the caudex? Do the adeniums have tap root which should not be damaged.
Thank you in advance.
We only prune the roots when we re-pot the plant. No they do not have tap roots. You need to look at your desert rose root system and cut away the small roots but not the thin roots coming form the sides your main larger roots ones – these are feeder roots. We look at the over-all design/shape of the root system and think what it would look like as we raise the adenium plant to expose more root above the soil line. Also we spread out the toots in a radial manner when possible when growing the adenium desert rose plant.
Just repotted my adeniums, soil was not allowing proper drainage. Had a great deal of rain in SC this summer to a point of bringing plants in to dry out. Research showed my soil was too heavy. Now one caudex is soft. Worried it may be rotting?? Also three other plant were very wet and leaves have turned yellow and most have fallen off. After repotting an
D putting a little cat litter in with the soil mixture I gave mild fertilizer. Does the soft caudex mean it if full of water and the plant may die? The plants are outside and get plenty of sun and heat. Is there anything else I can do to in hopes that my plants will survive? I also gave it mild diluted bone meal couldn’t find fish fertilizer. Now don’t know how often to water my adeniums and how much to water them or fertilize them? Please help.
A soft caudex is the first sign of rot. It may survive but not likely. Cat litter retains too much water. Cat litter is designed to retain cat urine (water) which is not what you want to do. Bone meal retains water too. You are using the wrong soil mixture and fertilizers. When you repot you need to give it a rooting hormone. Adeniums are desert plants and it sounds like you are giving it plants I would use for terrestrial plants. Please put in the search area of this blog (top right) type in fertilizer and then after you see the articles put in the word soil. Adenium soil needs to be very airy with very little organic material. You have about 1 month of growing season left in your area so now is the time get your plant healthy before they go dormant.
You say kitty litter is too absorbent. Would shop floor dry be the same case? I have considered this. but not done it as yet.
I woudl not use any absorbent material. Adeniums are desert plants.
How can we able to increase trunk size of adenium
I will write another article soon about growing large caudex size. In this blog look up caudex.