I bought my first Adenium

10 years ago

Hi All,

I bought the Adenium Obesum in the photo below a week ago for $50 Pesos. About $3.50 US Dollar. Normally in my area I see rooted cuttings with very little caudex for 150 to 180 pesos. So I could not resist when I saw this plant.

It is in a 6" pot. The caudex is busting out of the bottom. So I bought a new 8" pot also. It was in flower when I bought it a week ago, but since then the flowers have dropped. They appeared to be similar in color to photo's I have seen of the standard species. It also has a bonus seed pod attached, which if I understand correctly I should place rubber bands around or place a plastic bag over before it matures if I want to save seeds. I think i read somewhere that the seeds explode from the pod when it matures.

I thought I would transplant it to the new pot this week, but now I am having second thoughts with winter approaching. Normally in my area we get cool fall weather around mid-October, closer to Halloween. And then the cold winter air moves in, with lows in the mid 30's around the 3rd week of November. I know the plant will go dormant once it gets cold enough, so should I wait to repot until Spring? And since the caudex is busting out of the bottom, do you think 8" pot is big enough or should I move it up to a 9 or 10" pot?

One other concern I have is that it will be kept in a unheated room with an east facing window once it get's too cold to keep it outside. During a normal year, this room maintains a temperature of about 45 F during the shortest day's of winter, the last two weeks of December through the first two weeks of January. After that the temp in the room very slowly begins creeping up again. I have only seen that room go below freezing once during 2011 when the temp outside got close to 0F. Last year my ficus stayed in this room and it did not get cold enough to cause it to go dormant and drop its leaves. Do you think this room will be ok to keep it over winter if I do not give it water?

Hope that was not too long of a post. Any comments to my questions above or any other comments are much appreciated.
Matt

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Comments (14)

kodom087 z9a
10 years ago
Hi, Matt.
Repotting is up to you as I think you still have a bit of warm weather for a while but up to you, really. I just repotted a couple of mine.
I think if your ficus survived in that room then the adenium should to. I find ficus to be extremely temperamental and fussy. More so than an adenium. Just remember to cut back on the watering quite a bit during the winter season.
As for the seed pod, I hear just wrapping a wire or perhaps string loosely should do the trick. Or a fine mesh something. Anything to allow air circulation but hold it together or catch the seeds when it does burst open. I've not been lucky enough to get any seed pods so I'm going by what I've seen others talk about.

Hope this helps.

Kirk
maark23 TX/8a
10 years ago
Hey Matt, good looking plant.

Where did you happen to get that plant? I live in El Paso, and have hardly seen these for sale anywhere.

Mark
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I agree with Rick--I experienced this blackening myself--excessive moisture. Stratifying the media would be okay when growing plants in the ground, but for container-grown plants…I don’t know think so. For sure, leaf appearance is a good indicator of problems that are occurring or had occurred. I had this one adenium that I up-potted, and a few weeks later noticed the leaves were turning dark. On close inspection, I found that the plant was rotting—so I cut off the caudex and roots at the apex, applied rooting powder, and planted it. There was too much moisture and one of the plant's roots was damaged during the up-potting. This is an example of my experience of “problems that are occurring.” An example of “problems that had occurred”: My plants didn’t get water for 3 days and they were quite dry; I had held off watering because it seems every time I water, rain comes within a few hours. And so, it finally rained, and two days after the rain, I noticed that many of my plants had yellow leaves and were falling off. My observation is this: By the 3rd day, as a survival mechanism, the plant cut off water supply to the leaves to prevent water from transpiring. So even after a good drenching, the leaves were already dying and destined to drop. This had happened once before, so I know for sure the underlying cause for the yellow leaves--lack of moisture. -Kadie
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jstropic, I think with this particular plant that the Haddock roots (main heavy roots) are very thick and would easily split right up the center toward the caudex. Not worth forcing it and the foam would most likely get squished over time with the roots growing. Most times when you use a piece of rigid foam, it is to keep roots growing in a desirable direction (like if they where crossing) then removed over time. It seems that the roots would grow tight together, but not fuse and become one, as you see with some older Vines. Rick
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So nice you have warm weather still in the 90's for your adenium. I agree it may be wise to start bringing it in at night but keep watering and keep putting it back out in the sun while your temps are warm enough. That is probably the easiest. Alternatively if you have a heating pad that is safe to set outside, you could put it beneath your plant and set a timer on it so it's only on after dark until morning. You could even drop a mini greenhouse over the plant just for the evenings like a cold frame but leave it open during the day. As you are in zone 10 it may even be sufficient protection through the entire winter and would also provide shelter from rain if you get a cooler, cloudy, wet spell. Anyway, welcome and glad to have you join us! I hope your plant does well for you. If you enjoy it and ever want to try more, we'll encourage you to order some seed in the spring so you may explore the adventure of growing these interesting plants up from tiny babies. Whatever you decide to do, we're glad to help if we are able!
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Loveplants2 8b Virginia Beach, Virginia
10 years ago
I agree with Kirk!!

It's can still be done now, but if it makes you feel better, wait until spring and then bareroot it and pot up and raise the Caudex. It will love it.!! You could go one size larger, but I wouldn't go any larger than that. It looks really healthy. I also like terra cotta pots to!!

Like Kirk mentioned, cut back on the water during the winter...

Good luck and you have a beauty there!!!

Congratulations!!!

Laura
Marie Tran
10 years ago
Matt, that was a great buy. Healthy look plant.
Marie
mateopava
Original Author
10 years ago
Hi Kirk and Laura, thanks for the input. I decided to pot up today. I bare-rooted the plant and raised it slightly to expose more of the Caudex.

Hi Mark, to answer your question, I bought it at a small garden center in Cd. Juarez. Are you familiar with Juarez? I could tell you where it is at. I also saw similar plants at the HD in Juarez, but they were a bit more expensive there.
I saw some larger Adenium plants at the Walmart near Airway Blvd. in El Paso in the spring, I have not been back there since May so not sure if they still have them. That Walmart usually carries really nice, large succulents in the Spring, just FYI.

Hi Marie and Thank You!
ilovetogrow z9 Jax Florida
10 years ago
Matt good looking plant. What does it look potted up? Paula
mateopava
Original Author
10 years ago
Here is a picture after pot up. Is it ok to leave any exposed roots after lifting it, or is it best to trim them off the Caudex?
kodom087 z9a
10 years ago
Looks great in the new pot! Some people trim the finer roots and some don't. Is all preference. If you don't they add character and eventually fatten up some. If they die off then you can just easily remove them.

Kirk
mateopava
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks Kirk.
maark23 TX/8a
10 years ago
Thanks Matt! I actually don't go to Juarez, I used to go over for the dentist but that was all. I no longer have a reason.

Thanks for the info tho. I will check there. I hardly go to wal mart. I usually check home depot and Lowes.

Mark
chuy415
10 years ago
Matt- lucky you for finding a nice Adenium with a seed pod!! As I was reading along.... I saw "Cd. Juarez".... My heart instantly raced- my parents have property there and my Aunt used to live there but had a very bad experience there - she now lives in Cali ever since- but I was so shocked to hear you bought it there :-). It's been about 27 years since I've been there- and lets just say- never will return. Great find and very healthy looking too!

Chuy
mateopava
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks Chuy! Yeah Juarez can be a pretty dangerous town. I'm only here because I followed the manufacturing jobs out of the U.S. If my job ever goes away for some reason, I would definitely leave Juarez.
mateopava
Original Author
10 years ago
Just an update on that seed pod. I got 11 seeds from it. I sowed them all 2 weeks ago and got 10 of 11 germinated. Pretty good I think.
chuy415
10 years ago
Congrats!!! Let's see some pics! ;-).

Chuy

I bought my first Adenium

Comments (14)

kodom087 z9a

maark23 TX/8a

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