Hi Mike, I'm no expert, but I did rescue a few adeniums this fall from wal-mart that had top rot. I think it can be caused by something as simple as having moisture sit on the trunk when they are in a cool room, I don't really know - however, I cut it out of mine as you did, and they made full recoveries, so i don't think you need to worry. However, I think you should take them out of the cool room - from what I understand it is not essential for Adenium (obesum at least, if that is what you have) to go dormant, and in places like florida or thialand they generally dont, though they may take a month or two off from flowering and full leaf. If you have a warm sunny location they can sit in, put them there, and go ahead and water when the soil is dry - especially if they are just seedlings. If you do want it to go dormant, I think yours is big enough that it could handle no water while in a cool room - mine that are always thirsty still look like bean-sprouts... either way you want to go, cool and dry, or hot and moist :) If you do hot and moist leaves will reappear very soon, adeniums just seem to worry when they get moved, or spend time without light, and drop all their leaves just in case dormancy is necessary ;) anyway, my long-winded 2cents, hopefully an expert comes along to give better advice :) Best of luck - keep us posted! -Willow

What cheeze said may sound harsh but it's definately the truth. My potted bhut is in standard Miracle Gro potting soil with a bit of bonemeal and fish emulsion. That's it. I water it when it goes dry. The rest are in the garden with plain garden soil and a little fertilizer and I may have used bonemeal upon transplanting. They're all prolific. Fact is, too much attention can be worse than neglecting the plant. Especially when you start throwing in chemicals without being positive of what the problem actually is. I've had quite a few pepper plants show purple stems, especially where they branch off near the top of the plant. I believe that's just from the sun. As far as the leaves go. They could be overwatered. Personally, I water when the plant starts showing stress.

I checked my garden this morning and found one stem completely wilted on an otherwise healthy tomato plant. When I looked further down the stem, I found this damage shown in the pic. I've grown tomatoes for years but this one is new to me, can anyone tell me what sort of pest did this? I ended up cutting the affected stem off, well below the site of the damage, but I don't know if that was enough....

I'm quite sure after reading this thread that i have an answer for my early girls, which are all doing this thick leaf stem growing upwards and twisting (more like a sucker would do), with large, thick leaves that are also turning upwards and rolling/twisting. There is zero discoloration or otherwise poor health indications, i grow in the middle of 50 acres, totally organically, my own compost used, mulched with wood chips a year old from within the property. I've used zero pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers. Just compost, coco coir, water and my seedlings. They aren't stunted, are growing quite fast actually but, here in Northern California in the Sierra Nevada mountains we've seen record breaking temps between 90-105 for a few weeks straight now and I'm pretty certain my plants are just tired of baking. I'm hanging shade cloth tomorrow and will post pictures as well because it's quite bizarre how hearty they are but growing like an upside down tipi (and it's only my early girls doing this, the other varieties are all fine.)