In our area, South Florida, growing season is just about year round for adenium plants. During the winter months is our dry season so with summer around the corner with its constant daily rains now the time to check you desert rose plants condition. If you are in a true winter area you need to do this in the fall before your rain season starts.
Do a soil drainage test to make sure it does not hold water that causes adenium root rot. Now, make sure you have plenty of air space around the container for the same reason. If water drains from the pot but puddles on the self it can cause fungus growth under the leaves of the desert rose plant from evaporation. In our area fungus is always a problem with the summer rains and very high humidity.
When you do water try not to wet the leaves. If you have hard water consider an alternative because acidic water tends to sour the soil too fast and may cause root rot on your adenium. Water desert rose plants preferably in the early morning, and allow them to drink up throughout the day. Watering adeniums can be done daily to every few days. Never allow your desert rose plants to sit in a saucer of water and do not allow them to dry out too often which causes adeniums to go into early dormancy.
Growing adeniums is easy if you take a few precautions. Look in previous post and Epic Grower company website for more growing information and tips. Also, if you plant to bonsai your adenium plant now is the time to wire wrap before the leaves start growing. It’s always easier to wrap when the adenium plant has less leaves. Remember you want to do a loose wire wrap around the branches to allow room for trunk and branch growth on the desert rose plant.
Than you a lot for your tips on growing and care, especially for for those of light and watering.
How do you do a soil drainage test?
We have been using the save soil mixture for a few years so we do not do drainage tests on the adeniums. We get DAILY downpours which would cause floods in most other areas in the USA (south Florida is a tropical climate). Many times our soil will not completely dry out for a couple weeks due to the daily downpours but the soil only captures a small amount of water and the rocks/perlite insures that the roots have plenty of air which prevents root rot. The water should “flow through” the pot and not accumulate within the pot at all. The soil mixture should capture some of the water (use coir) to give enough time for the roots to adsorb the water and minerals but have other things in the soil (rocks, nonporous said and perlite) to allow airflow in the soil. Do not use moss or porous rocks or sand in your mixture.