Wow, that is some amputation, Crenda! I believe most people wouldn't touch this thread because the plant simply may not make it. You're well versed in succulent care and know the risks. All you can do is cut to clean tissue and hope for the best. If you initially see clean tissue like this:

If this plant makes it and you want to create centipede roots, please review the following and make sure you lance the border, as well, now:

Keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Maria Elena

It's not the turning a little dark that concerns me, but the darker spot in the middle picture at 1 o'clock. Can you post a close-up of it?

Connie, I am hoping that could be oxidation, which is my reason for suggesting Crenda cut another 1/2" and observe the first seconds ... or take a photo immediately after and share.

I spent most of yesterday trying to find sulfur. Nobody has it around here. I finally found a product with 40% sulfur, so that will have to do. I have used other products by this company, so I think it will be alright.

Here is after I cut off another 1/4 inch. There were still a couple of dark spots that concerned me.

So I cut another slab off.

Quite a change from the original caudex, but I think I have gotten all of the rot. Not the first plant that I've had to severely cut back, but I can hope it is the last! (Yes, I am a Pollyanna!)

So I will be watching like a hawk for the next week. I have it inside for now. Please feel free to disagree if you think I haven't gotten cut back to good tissue.

Couldn't have done this without y'all giving me good advice. Thanks!

Crenda,

That was quite an ordeal. I truly wish you well with this one. Please keep us updated.

In the meantime, please check your substrate. You want something very free-draining, non water-retaining to prevent a recurrence.

Maria Elena

Maria have u ever tried lime sulfur liquid I'm testing it on a DR in the garden covered in black scale

Hi Peter -

No, I have never tried sulfur at all because the cinnamon works for me. For scale, aphids, mealy, I have effectively treated my plants as follows:

- Check any new plants you may have introduced to your garden. 99.9% of the time, I have found that these pests were introduced by a newly acquired plant.

- Quarantine plant(s) but maintain outdoors with plenty of fresh air circulation.

- Using a cotton swab / paper towel dipped in alcohol, hand pick the insects off. Be sure to carefully check the underside of leaves and all soft stems.

- Once most of the pest is removed, wet the plant with a hose. Suds up the entire plant with a mild dishwashing liquid (Palmolive, Dawn, Seventh Generation) and literally wash your plant, including the leaves. Take your time ... Do not rush this process. It's important that you have been thorough. Use an old SOFT toothbrush if you need to. Rinse thoroughly.

- Lift plant up off the ground, away from ants and all the junk you just washed off it.

- Check plant daily and remove any residual pests.

One single treatment has always worked for me ... The pests never returned. I find that ants are a major culprit. They transport many insects, so try to keep them away from your plants. If your adeniums are planted inground, use a product called Tangleroot, which is "painted" onto the base of the trunk to keep ants from crawling up into your trees. TIP: If you see lots of ants on your plants, they are very likely infested.

If you have Insecticidal Soap or Neem Oil, use it regularly at 1/2 strength. I regularly spray my plants with both. I've been using the following recipe for insecticidal soap, gleaned from master organic gardener Jerry Baker. It has always worked very well for me. Works on houseplants, orchids, etc.

4-4-2 Insecticidal Soap Tonic

In a 1 gallon (128 oz) sprayer, mix 4 tsp Baking Soda, 4 tsp Cooking Oil, 1 gallon Water. Shake well.

Add 2 tsp Mild Dish Detergent (Palmolive, Dawn, Seventh Generation)

I also add 2 tsp Minty Mouthwash. The juice of 2 Garlic Cloves can also be added. Bugs hate this stuff.

Spray daily until the problem is eradicated. This solution will keep for 2 weeks. After that, the oil will begin to become rancid.

***

Happy Gardening!

Maria Elena

Great advice Maria Elena!! Looks like I have ALOT OF WORK TO DO! I have been trying to eradicate three of those pests! I will definitely try your advice THANK YOU!

-Jean

Jean, I also use Bonide systemic on my non-edibles, when needed. You may be interested in this post, as well:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3781036/schefflera-has-pests

I've lost two obesiums to rot this year.....

Crenda, How's it going?

Thanks mate

So far things are going well. Caudex is firm and no more signs of rot. Yea!!

I also unpotted a cutting I had done from this plant last year. My neighbor returned it to me with no limbs! She didn't know what was wrong.

A closer look revealed scale. I got rid of the scale and may have to cut back a little. I don't see any leaf scars on the branch nubs. But I am duly impressed by these roots!

You can see the soil line and the line where the roots formed.

So back into dry gritty mix for that one.

Glenda is that one a cutting

Just a word about my potting mix. I use a gritty mix for all of my succulents. And I still cut the soil for my annuals in pots with 50-60% perlite. My reason is - summer. It rains all summer starting in June and ending the first of October. Without a well draining mix my plants will all drown.

I use Turface, Granite Grit and Perlite. Generally speaking, I use a 1-2-2 mix of the ingredients with Turface being the least. I can always tweak the mix for any plants that require more or less moisture. But again, getting my plants through the summers is the hardest part. And they stay outside all year long.

I quit using bark in my mix because it decays quickly in the heat and moisture and I have a compost in the pots that retains too much water. And guess what? I used bark in the large pot for this desert rose. I wanted to cut down the weight on the pot (so I could move it if a hurricane is headed our way). I think that was a mistake on my part. I also did not seem to put as much perlite in the mix as usual. In the end, it was a mix that held water for too long and since I used a plastic pot, evaporation was further impeded.

So I'll be correcting a few things before I repot this plant.

Yeah I get were you are coming from i used reptile bark in the bottom of my pots to cover the holes , it is winter here now been raining constantly for two weeks so removed 40 plants out of the pots the bark was rotten I went back to my corse coco choir I put about 1 to 2 " depending on the pot putting them back out side next week after drying them out all my plants are outside to.

Crenda,

I don't follow you. When you say you don't see any leaf scars, are you referring to where old leaves fell off on that particular cutting? I see many. Every single "smile" is a leaf scar. Cut at an angle and you will activate the surrounding nodes to branch.

Maria Elena

I guess I wasn't clear. This is what it looked like when I gave it to her in March. The top was branched and has nice growth.

When she gave it back, it looked like the above picture - no leaves and most of each branch gone. I actually thought she had cut them off for some reason, but after finding the scale I am not so sure.

I do not see leaf scars on what is left of those 2 branches. There might be one or two, but there is also scarring from the scale. You can see that there is still some scale in this picture. The ends of these 2 branches are pretty iffy, too.

So I cut just below where it branched and we'll start again.

You repotted the rooted part, then? It should branch out nicely. I would've cut lower on the stem, just for less of a bare stem with more compact growth.

Please be sure to get all the scale off & quarantine or it'll infect your other plants.

Keep us posted!!

Maria Elena

Here we are a week later. Unfortunately, when I was sprinkling the sulfur mix on the plant a bunch dumped out! So there is more on here than intended. I used a little paintbrush to get a lot of it off.

Everything is firm. No further discoloration on the caudex. Now for the callousing - is that sunken area OK or is that an indication of bad things happening inside? I've never tried to callous something this large before. It hasn't sunk any more for the last 5 days, so this happened almost right away, then stopped. Again, firm in the middle of the stump.

looks good to me. (dehydrated, but good under the circumstances)

That's what I was thinking, too, but being a novice at this . . . =)

Crenda,

When a plant is left to callous over, you will see a little atrophy ... it's normal. So happy to hear everything is firm. That is a great sign.

Maria Elena

Hello, again, Everyone! Sorry I haven't provided an update, but waiting for roots is not very exciting. I did get the plant stabilized in a pot, out of direct sunlight and rain. I have threatened anyone who gets near enough to bump it! LOL (I don't know why it looks dark, but the mix is turface, granite grit and perlite.)

I am not fond of pulling a plant out to see if there are any roots. I'm afraid of knocking off any new roots. And yes, I'm very tempted. But I do see signs of growth up top. New leaves!

A closer look at a couple of them -

I think we have turned the corner! Yea!!

I have been misting the plant lately. It has been soooo humid that I have been afraid to give it a good watering. My other plants have not been drying out, and given the recent rot I do not want to take a chance with this one.

Thanks for all the help and support you've given me!

Great job! Please keep us updated, Crenda.

Crenda, I wish you all the luck.....

Marie

Thank you, Ladies! All signs are looking good so far.

Wow, that was some surgery wasn't it? Glad to read the plant survived the operation and goes on to make a full recovery Crenda, please keep us updated as to its progress.

Gill

How's it going Crenda... wondering how your plant is recuperating.. great thread everyone

Hi, Sara! The plant is coming along nicely. New leaves and branches are sprouting. I am so wanting to see what is going on below the soil, but I will resist. The top tells me things are going well. Thanks for asking!

I tried to take a picture, but the light is too low and the quality is poor. I'll see what I can do tomorrow and post a couple of updates.

Yay I'm so happy for you, it's pulling through... and so happy for the ppl that DIDNT knock that pot/plant over lolol, have you been able to water normally now? Can't wait to see pics.. keep us updated on this lil guy .. he has a great caudex still and the roots may be spectacular after a little while, you have great patience my friend as I prob would have looked under there by now.. but so glad you've decided to wait as to not damage any forming roots.

We should be close to ending the rainy season, although I am still leery of the tropical lows dumping rain on us. But hopefully I can start weaning this guy into the sunshine. It's in bright shade right now.

I don't know if you can see all of the buds, but I have pointed out a few.

And a closer look -

And one more -

I know those pruned stems look a tad ugly. I had used wood glue on another cut stem on a different plant and it rotted. Since I was already dealing with rot on this plant, I decided to forego the glue.

Crenda,

Looking good so far. You have done such a marvelous job with this plant.

You know, I have used the Waterproof Wood Glue and the Super glue for above ground issues and although they are good products. I have found with a couple of larger plants that I have used it on, that if it where to have just healed over on it's own. I believe that the appearance would be a bit more natural and the bark/skin of the Adenium would have healed over giving a much more natural old scar area. With the Woodglue it always remains a biege color, unlike bark or skin. The superglue it similar, just not biege.

My experiences with hard pruning which is visible above the soil level.

Rick

Wow what great info Rick .. thank you as well fir that, and Crenda I'm so happy for you as it looks amazing with all the new buds coming out, what a great sign that is!!! And I don't think the cut marks look that bad, I've most definitely seen worse however I also just started using the glue method thanks to Rick and Patty... I'm so blessed as I believe it saved my adenium as it also had the most horrible rot .. HATE ROT btw!! Lol but thanks to you guys for sharing your endless knowledge and tips and for sharing your story Crenda as it helps to see others going through the same thing and seeing your progress..please keep me updated ;)

Just wanted to show what a little sunshine and time will do!

I did have to clean up the leaves today. There was a soft brownish scale that I did not notice sooner because it kind of blended in. (even if it doesn't look like it in this picture) I think I've had this before on other DRs and removing them with a cotton ball and alcohol worked then. I will keep an eye on them and spray down again in few days. And there was honey dew and ants on the plant, too!

Hi Crenda,

I am so happy you were able to save this plant and gain all this experience in the process! This is a great instructional post.

I would love to see an update in the summer. If you prune off all the soft, weak branches about half way down at the beginning of spring, you will activate multiple branching and have that many more blooms for summer.

Maria Elena

Is there a sulfur powder on Amazon that anyone in this thread can recommend? I am hoping to find a powder I can just sprinkle onto a fresh wound after I do a cutting. Having it in powder versus liquid form is nice because you can visually confirm the adherence of the powder to the cutting and make sure there is uniform coverage.

Just another update. Scale is gone and late spring rains are making my plants happy. I could probably prune back some of the skinnier branches, but I'm still a little leery - or timid. I'm one of those people who prunes one or two branches at a time - just in case I mess up!

Can't thank y'all enough for all the help and advice you've given me!

Nice, Crenda!! Is this the plant that had root rot last year? If so, I am so happy for the followup. It's looking strong! Great job!!

Maria Elena

Yes! Hard to believe it, but that is the same plant. Thanks for all the help!

Well, I looked out this morning and saw that my post-op plant has broken the pot!

Last June, when I amputated and dried the plant and treated the caudex cut with sulfur, it looked like this. The very outer tissue of the caudex looks a little crispy and separating from the caudex, but I thought that was just part of it drying out. This picture was posted above, too.

As usual - all advice is welcome! Thank you, again!

Oh, no!! That is not supposed to happen with gritty mix!! Someone please tell me what happened here. So sorry, Crenda.

ROUND 2

Scrape all the black / brown off to clean tissue ... All of it. You know the drill.

Maria Elena

Thank you, Maria Elena. I think I knew what I had to do as soon as I saw it. I'm completely shocked to see this happen. If that pot hadn't split I would not have repotted until the end of summer - after a bunch of rain!

I have 4 other plants that look fine, however, they are not sitting on the hot deck. I really don't know if that matters. I have other plants sitting on the deck, but they do not have the nice fat roots that DR has.

I'll have a nice terra cotta pot for this one, too. It has rotted twice in plastic pots, so I'll make a change. Darn darn darn.

I'll keep y'all informed.

Crenda, sorry to see you’re having problems with this plant again. Having your plant sitting on the hot deck would not have caused rot to develop. Rot is caused from too wet conditions, cold, drainage problems or fungal issues/disease.

Having said that, you will sometimes find that one desert rose seems to be more susceptible to rot then others, continuing to have rot issues year after year. This plant may be one of those....(It was around this same time last year that you had rot in this plant.)

Dare I suggest, that maybe it’s time to let this plant go to adenium heaven, rather then fight this issue each season. Maybe it would be better to buy yourself a replacement plant that you can enjoy without the heartbreak of rot issues. Of course if this is a particular favourite of yours, maybe it’s worth the effort. Good luck either way.