Laurie, in my experience that is still normal. If you see my pic right above, you can see the ends have done just that, and I wood glued them. With this Adenium it'll heal itself under the dried bits and then the dried tip will just pop off. You can see a couple of branches that have flat ends, the dried tips already popped off and the end underneath is healed. Hope this helps.

-Heather

Heather, thank you for the reply!

Hello Everyone!!!

In another thread that Rick started, I was looking at one of my trees and it needed to be trimmed ASAP in my opinion. I usually don't trim untill spring when the trees are ready to grow and have a lot of energy to focus...

This one had soft branches and I just wanted to get my hands on it and give it a hard prune. Here are the pics.

Sorry for the multiple post, photobucket is having issues and I can't upload so I have to post one at a time. Sorry you all...

This pic was taken Jan 18, 2014. It was a mess. Soft branches on most .
Time for a hard prune...

Laura

waterproof Wood glue and pruners to do the job...

Applying the glue to the ends of the cut branches...

One months later.. Still cold outside. ( I brought it outside to take the pic..) This was taken on Feb 20, 2014

I noticed some back budding within 4 weeks.

This has been only in my living room.. No extra grow lights. Just by the western window.

No more soft branches.. ;-)
Laura

March 20, 2014. Two months later.

Tree is looking great and is showing more back budding. I took it outside for a few hours to enjoy the first day of spring and also to take a pic for you all to see.

It is happy.. My other trees are leafing out and showing signs of budding with new flowers!!!

Laura

Close up so you all can see the new growth.

Again, is was really early for pruning, but I felt it was necessary for me to do this to help save this tree. I like to prune at this time of the year or even in a few weeks to come.

Now I can just be patient and wait for it to really leaf out. I will take another pic next month for you all..

This is a great place to show what we have done and to share our experiences. I'm just glad this one turned out alright!!! ;-)

Anurag. Great job.. I hear you really like your new mix!! it's good stuff!!!

Take good care!!!

Laura

Here are links to excellent information from experts including N. R. Sundaram. Pictures include branch pruning, root pruning and hanging. Click on each photo for text overlay containing explanations.

Disease problems

Tips and tricks

Carol in Jacksonville

This post was edited by love_the_yard on Thu, Mar 20, 14 at 14:39

I thought I'd post how my recently pruned ugly snail bitten Adenium is filing out, not many leaves but tons of blooms.

{{gwi:338605}}

{{gwi:338606}}

{{gwi:338607}}

-Heather

Hello Somaelense

Its been only 4 years since i discover adeniums as like you all felt in love with them, this year was my first hard prune because as many people i was afraid, after rreading and reading about adeniums this year I said I am going to do it , the problem is the more you read the more confused you get, why? Because everyone tells you something different, so after reading for 3 years I just went by what my feelings told me
1. Took the adenium out of the pot
2. Clean the roots very well with pressured water
3. Let it dry , no sun light , it can burn the roots
4. Repot with new soil
5. Hard prune leaving around 2 to 3 inches of the original branches
6. That's it

Pd. For plantlover2
I did the same as you but instead of applying glue I used wax and what I got was a plant full of fungus because the dead tips of the branches didn't dry and inside got ugly , I will post a pic of my poor plant later

This pic shows the good results of the way I repoted and hard pruned

hi everybody, I have a question about leaves. My plant is covered with leaves and a few flowers. All of the photos that I see around the web shows plants with much less leaves. Why is this? Do you remove the leaves from your plants?

Hi Elland! I certainly do not remove leaves from my plants. They fall off as it gets colder and sometimes disappear altogether in the winter. Sometimes they don't at all. I've only had adeniums for a year and only one of my plants has flowered at all!

However, people staging a plant to highlight the blooms will probably will remove some of the leaves, just for aesthetic reasons.

Post a picture of your plant, will you? I love leaves!

Pagan

Great thread everyone!!

I'll share my "pugging" on my Adenium...this one was from a few years ago...

Before "pugging" aka hard pruned (picture)...

After "pugging"

taken April 28, 2011

Taken yesterday...Time for another hard "pugging",lol...
I'm planning on doing it late Fall.

This is a pic of my plant. See what I mean about all the leaves on my plant?puglvr your plant is stunning? How do you get it to be covered with flowers?

patience my dear

Rome was not built in a day

you can't compare a 7yr(maximum) old plant with a @ 15 yrs old plant
[ my guess correct me if I'm wrong regarding age]

repeated hard pruning and 'replantado' is the key

am I right experts

puglvr1 oh I envy your specimen and your dedication

I,m in love with your DR please tell us more about it , its age...etc

and yes I can't wait to see it in next spring
probably our forum will get a new icon

anurag

Thanks for the kind words eilandkind and anurag...

You have some beautiful DRs!!

I've had that DR since Fall of 2005 I believe, purchased it in a 4" or 6" plant and once or twice a year I "up-potted it to raise the Caudex/Roots...and trimmed it once a year to shape...last year I didn't prune it...but I have to do it this year for sure.

Believe it or not I don't do anything to make it flower...it pretty much does it on its own. I do notice when I give it a hard "pug/prune" it seems to develop a lot more flowers shortly after it leafs out...

I fertilize it "weakly" every 10-14 days and it gets watered often in spring, summer and fall...but I do live it FL so it lives outside 350+ days a year...

hello Everyone!!!

So nice to see you Nancy!! Love your tree and it looks beautiful as always!!!

I hard pruned on of my trees in Feb and posted each month. This is the third month pic after its pruning... With the spring warm temps, it is leafing out beautifully!! I agree with Nancy, I also get blooms after I prune. It really is good for the vitality of the tree.

Here is my pic from the the thread above... Hoping to post a final pic once the leaves are full and I have blooms!!!

Have a great night everyone!!!

Laura

Close up...

Laura

this is the next group to repot and hard prune...

They were just brought outside and were inside the house since October and are just waking up. They are going to be pruned and repotted so I wanted to show you the before pic...

Night...

Laura

Thanks Laura!! Nice to see you too :o)

Love, love your desert roses...Great job with the pruning, congrats on the new growths...looking great!!

It's always fun to see the difference after potting up!!!

This one really didn't need to be, but I wanted to be able to see more of the Caudex.

Nancy, my wish is that one of my trees will be as lovely as yours.. Always a pleasure to see. Is breathtaking... ;-)

Before...

After..

Have a great day!!

Laura

just repotted this guy!!

I pruned a few branches a couple of days ago, so I'm not to worried about pruning and repotting a few days apart.

Laura

Gritty mix ready...

Root bound tree.. I trimmed and barerooted.

Cut and rinsed mix from roots....

Checked how the roots were looking as I rinsed and trimmed

Made sure of where I wanted it to sit in the same container.. I raised it about 3-4 inches

It is now raised and waiting to grow leaves so it will look like a normal Adenium. It needs to rest now... Lol, but it was super easy.. The mix just fell off and I didn't need to soak it off this time.

I will also post a pic from the " Mandrake side". Lol. Or as some would say.. The Budda ball side!!!

The other side...

Just to get the feel of the size...

Hope you all have a great day!!!

Laura

Hi everyone. ÃÂ I am so inspired by all of your lovely plants! It dawned on me now that the reason for all the leaves on my plants all year round, is because I am living in the tropics. Only a few leaves turn yellow and fall off every year. ÃÂ Thank you for the responses Somalenese and Pagan. You are correct, Rome wasn't built in a day! That is why my plant does not have so many flowers, I am just impatient, haha.

{{gwi:338609}}

My biggest DR, 'Harry' yip I name my plants, is a testimony to the resilience of desert roses!
I got Harry about 5 years ago, when he was only a baby as big as my little finger. I was so stupid then, I hardly ever gave him any water, because the man, whom I bought him from, told me never to water him! Well, he did not realise that I was going to keep the little guy inside the house where he never saw any rain! So, little Harry turned into a little stalk resembling a raisin, until I realised one day that he can not survive without being watered, EVER!
He is now about 5 years old. I've been up-potting him once or twice every year in the last few years and also pruned him a few times.

I decided this morning to up pot him, after looking at all the wonderful caudices on here! So, the above photo was taken before and the photo below is the after.

{{gwi:338610}}

I love the new look, but need some advise please. Do you think it is ok if I leave all the fine roots as it is at the bottom near the soil? Should I cut it off? My second question is whether I should prune now as well or should I wait until the Fall? I last pruned at the beginning of 2013. ÃÂ ÃÂ

ÃÂ

Side view, where most of the fine roots are:

{{gwi:338611}}

Back view:

{{gwi:338612}}

The front, my favourite side:

{{gwi:338613}}

E/Virgin islands

Laura, your plant with the 'ball' is so,so gorgeous! I don't trim the roots when I up-pot mine, should I? I was worried that the plant might get root rot if I cut the roots and put it back in the mix straight after, what is your experience with this?

Eliandkind....

I love the look of your Caudex!! You did a great job!!

If the rootball was extremely bound, then I would gently work it loose or take a saw and cut off a inch or so, but even with my big belly Caudex, I just gently trimmed. Mostly on the side. Look at how bound my tree was. It hasn't been repotted in three years or so. I did cut some of the side roots, but I wouldn't cut any of yours. It looks perfect to me. Mine had side roots that caused the main fat roots to be hidden, so I worked on those.

Your plant won't get root rot when you root prune our tree unless you let it sit in water or have a water logged soil. We talk about fast draining mixes here and that helps the tree from having a Pertched water table. I never worry about that with a fast draining mix.

You are right about the leaves.. I'm not sure where you live, but seeing that you are in a zone 11 means that your tree probably doesn't go through a dormant period like our trees do. I'm sorry my trees don't look as good as they normally do in the summer, but we wanted to show what and how we prune and repot in this thread. They usually have a full head of leaves and blooms.

When I trim my branches and side roots, I seal with a waterproof wood glue by Elmer's. this seems to really help from rot.

You did a great job and I also love the little rocks. Looks beautiful!!

It's a great feeling...

Take care,

Laura

Thank you for the reply Laura. I'll try sealing the cuts with wood glue if I ever cut the roots.
E/Virgin islands

Beautiful DRs and great job with the repotting/trimming you guys!!

Very Cool caudex...love them!!

Update.

More back budding!!!!

Whoo hoooo!!!

Laura

Hello

What is the reason of sealing the cuts with glue? I taught it was a good idea too, but found out it isnt
the cut will heal in a couple of days and only about 1/8 of an inch will die, using or not glue it wont lose water if you look the wound one hour after the cut was done, it will be almost dry

I pruned my 4 adults around the first week of February and seal it, but instead of glue used wax, what happened? The wax trapped the humidity and it started rotting from the top down and from the outside there were no signs that it was rotting and it went down from the cut all the way to the caudex and now I have a horrible hole in the middle of it

Everyone has such fantastic plants.
In case some of you guys don't already know, that unbelievable adenium on the Adenium Forum front page is that very one Puglvr owns. I know you prune the tree quite often, Pug, but how on earth did you do those roots!

Laura's ball, on the other hand, was the first adenium I saw on google search and it is the plant I blame for my sowing frenzy last year lol It's a dangerous inspiration that inevitably leads to a dramatic increase in seedlings from zero to about 92. If I hadn't been merciless about culling weak plants, I'd still have 92 seedlings!

Eilandkind, Harry is quite a specimen too. And it only took five years?! You must have magic woo-woo, it's amazing! What did you do? Did you leave it in the pot undisturbed until the roots got fat, then exposed them? how long before the roots got that swollen and ridiculously fantastic lol

This thread is perfect with morning coffee. I'm drooling so much over your adeniums, I'm getting dehydrated.

pagan

Roma,

I sorry to hear about you problems sealing with wax. Personally, I have never used wax or other types of sealants except DAP. I like the waterproof glue to protect mine.

No one has every said that you have to do this, it is a preventive way to prevent moisture form Getting into the cut. Yes, it will heal naturally and I have let mine heal naturally as well. But I have found less problems when I add protection to the cuts. Also less die back of the stems...I also wait 20-30 to let it dry , then seal to the ends of the whole cut to prevent any moisture to settle in. I make sure it isnt outside in the rain when I cut or even after until the wound has been sealed and settled in for a day. Remember I cover the whole cut and seal up and slightly over the side to make sure moisture will not get in....

Sounds like there was fungus already in between the cut branches and the wax. Could the wax have separated at all and allowed moisture to settle in?

You have some beautiful seedlings and trees and I remember that you have lots of new babies... Strong work!!!

The question to seal or not is up to you. If you feel like you have better results with it healing naturally, I'm all for it. I have just found that I like the sealant that helps best for me. I also prune my Bonsai trees and they are woody stems. Many masters use this as well... So, it does have its benefits.
You just want to prevent before anything can get into the wound before you have to take action after the fact..

I'm sorry for the problems. I have heard of people using wax to seal the bottoms of Plumeria... Over in the east...That's all I have heard about wax.

I hope you can cut away the rot on Your larger tree. It is hard to see this happening. I always make sure to wipe my cutters with alcohol between each cut to prevent problems.

Please keep us posted...

Laura

Pagan... Nancy has a beautiful tree and it is the most beautiful I have ever seen... You are so much fun to have around this thread... I hope you and your trees are doing well....

I am enjoying my coffee too!!!!

Have a great day, Pagan, Roma and everyone !!!!!

Laura

Hello! What does back budding mean? I think I know what it means but just want to be sure. Lol

Have a great day!
Mark

Mark,

Hi!!! Back budding means that a branch that is pruned will usually generate more growth and energy by sending out side branches . We call it back budding because they look like little buds at first , then they branch out to become full size branches..

Hope this helps...

You can see in this pic the little leaves forming from under where I cut back hard earlier...

Have a good night!!!

Laura

Bumping this thread because it's so darn fantastic!

It is a good one. Thanks for bringing it back up, Halfwaythere. I love doing searches on specific topics and digging up older threads that are still useful and interesting.