Been Busy

How a lot going on over the 18 months, I'm planning on getting back on here soon. So if your interested in following go ahead and post. I'll get back to anyone who does soon.

Sowing Seed Part 2

   This year I'm prepared for better success. I changed my soil mix to prevent holding water for to long, and the I got smaller pots to transplant them to when they are ready. I also plan on fertilizing the seedlings before I transplant them to give them stronger roots and caudexes. I'm also trying a few different methods to assist in preventing fungus from even starting to grow.

Sowing Seeds Part 1

   Sowing the seeds from your Adeniums can be a rewarding activity in the keeping of desert roses. Although in my experience so far it has been a bit difficult to get my seedlings to live past a year of growth I still feel I'm learning a lot through trial and error that when I finally do succeed it will be so much more rewarding. Over all it has been a great learning experience.

Soil Recipe

Here is a quick post of my soil recipe for anyone to copy.

    * 1 part organic compost (I use Black Kow composted cow manure)
    * 2 parts course aragonite sand (any course sand will work though)
    * 1 part crushed perlite


I use this for for adeniums in all stages of growth, from seed sowing to mature plant. It also works well for any plant that needs good drainage.

"The miracle is this--the more we share, the more we have."
— Leonard Nimoy

Buying Seeds: Pros and Cons

    I've recently been doing research as to the viability of seeds purchased from online dealers whether from e-bay or web-sites, and unfortunately as I suspected in the beginning of keeping adeniums, the vast majority (I would guesstimate 95%) of them are either knowingly selling seeds that are being falsely represented by the picture of said auction or site, or they are unknowingly selling the pictured flowers seeds but not being completely honest as to what the resulting offspring of the plant will look like. Since the chances of getting flowers to bud in seedlings in the first or even the second year, it could plausibly be 3 years or so before one would find out that the seeds they purchased didn't grow accurately colored flowers as the one that was pictured when purchased.

It seems that the only way to guarantee that you get the plant pictured, is to buy the plant or get a grafted cutting from the plant, and that is only if you purchased it from a reputable dealer.

It turns out that Adeniums very seldom produce seeds through natural pollination, in fact, most breeders hand pollinate their desert roses in an attempt to get those unique color hybrids. For the most part though, it's a virtual crap shoot when this is done because one seed out of the entire seedpod might produce a new color or new variant of a color. It is this plant that will be grown and pampered and the remaining seeds are typically used as root stock for cuttings from the unique plant to be grafted to.

There are good reasons though to purchasing seeds online. that being Experience. I've purchased 120 seeds through e-bay for less than $20 shipped from Thailand, including all the necessary customs forms for the importation of seeds. Of the 120 seeds 90% have germinated. I still purchase by the color that the seller claims them to be, knowing full well the chances are slim that it would be accurate, I may get lucky though. The experience I've gained through learning how to properly germinate these fairly inexpensive seeds has been invaluable. I've learned through my own trial and error and I'm not out to much $$$ when I don't succeed. Once I get growing them from seeds to be more successful I intend on learning how to cross pollinate them so I can harvest my own seeds.

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."
— Groucho Marx (The Essential Groucho)

A few pictures of my Adeniums

Lots of new leaves can't wait to find out the color.

Here are some pics of all my Adeniums. I only know the colors of three of the seven mature plants. The other four plants I bought without any blooms or leaves for that matter, after they have entered into their winter do

The people working at the big home improvement stores don't have alot of knowledge with these plants, and I can usually get a 50% discount or more when I ask for it.

How do you Kill em!!!!!

This isn't  actually a post on how to kill these wonderful plants, but more a post on what kills them and how we prevent it from happening.

Pests

They have very few natural pests, at least here in Florida. Every year i tend to get an aphid invasion on the new flower buds which are easily killed with an Ivory soap and water spray, or I catch any ladybugs I might find in my daily travels and release them on my plants. I've also found some types of caterpillars eating the soft terminal ends of my seedling, which I remove by hand when I find them. Some info on the web mentions stink bug sucking from seed pods and fresh flower buds and other bugs getting into them, but I've yet to find them on my plants. I try to "wash" my plants with soapy water in a spray bottle which I use liberally any time some critters start to invade my collection and that tends to do the trick.

Outside of other critters it seems the only thing that I've ever done to kill my Desert Roses is to be overly generous with the water. Adenium are very susceptible to root rot, fungus and molds if you allow their feet to stay wet for too long, and once the rot starts there is little chance of reversing the effects, so a well draining potting mix is a must. I personally mix my own instead of buying a pre-made potting soil. I've included my recipe below:

    * 1 part organic compost (I use Black Kow composted cow manure)
    * 2 parts course aragonite sand (any course sand will work though)
    * 1 part crushed perlite


Clay unglazed pots also help with drainage and evaporation, although I do have a few of my plants in glazed ones, and make sure there are plenty of drainage holes.

I've found that fungus and molds tend to be the main cause of my seedlings demise, since until seedlings get the second set of cotyledons (seed leaves) have sprouted the soil needs to stay moist. It's best to prevent these problems before they begin. I've found that standard household cinnamon powder sprinkeled over the soil around the base of the caudex of the plant to work very well at preventing mold/fungus growth. I then water my seedling with a spray bottle of strong chamomile tea (4 teabags to 32 oz. of water, steeped for a couple of hours) and this prevents and/or stops fungal problems such as damping off. I also use the tea to spray on damaged areas of mature plants as a prophylactic measure.

(As you may have noticed I try to only use organic / non-toxic means to take care of my Desert Roses, I do have a bottle of copper and neem oil and other pesticides in just in case, but fortunately have never had to use them)

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."
- Abraham Lincoln