Picture of the one I topped.

Those seedlings are great. Good size for only 2 weeks! You must be really pleased with the little fellas
Kind regards
Averil UK

karmaticflow: when you topped that 1 plant, what did you do with the piece you cut off. Could it grow a new plant with rooting hormone?

Yes you can do that. From what I have read it is not an easy task. I will try to root the bigger taller tops. I actually have a larger plant outside that came from a cutting that I purchased from Home Depot.

JR

Just thought I'd post a picture of the seedlings I've been caring for for about the month. They all look good to me. Nice solid caudex. Growing taller and more leaves. That's always a good sign. I'm not expecting blooms this fall. I'm shooting for more branches and more blooms next spring.
JR

Here is a picture of the plants I've topped. I decided to cut one a week. So far I've done 3 so far. It looks like the one I cut last week has started to poke some branches out. The first one I cut two weeks ago is just showing signs of skin cracking to poke branches out. And the other I cut yesterday. I do have a question about topping. When you top your seedlings. How many nodes do you leave underneath where you cut? The 3 I've cut so far have atleast 6.
JR

Just

This post was edited by Karmaticflow on Mon, Aug 5, 13 at 12:40

JR: it's hard to tell from the photo. How tall are the cups? What size of bits did you use for the bottom holes?

The cups are roughly 2.5 inches tall and there are 5 1/8th inch holes in the bottoms of the cups. Drain as much water as possible. The medium and holes drain very well. When I water I set out on my wood patio to allow water to drain and wood to pull excess water out. Then I move them back upstairs to 6+ hours of sunlight.

JR

JR, your seedlings look fantastic. I can see the new growth beginning to emerge from your seedling with the cut date of 7/22. I cannot wait to experiment with some of my newest babies.

Good luck with yours.

In Zone 9A, I don't understand why you aren't taking maximum advantage of sun and heat to optimize growth during the growing season. Why don't you have these outside in full sun (after a period of acclimation)? Here in Jacksonville, mine spend the entire summer in full sun. Scratching my head on this one.

Carol in Jacksonville

JR,
Sounds like you are doing fine with them. I am sure once your new plants are established as you have only had for a short time and being bare root you will have them, in full sun for most of the day wuite soon. Older and more established plants can withstand the extreme heat, but bare rooted need time to establish a new root system for it to survive.
Have a good time growing these.
Rick

Actually, he is missing out on time. If you don't care about progress (growth), then it is no big deal, because yes, they look healthy and happy and can carry on at a moderate rate where they are. But you only get so many months each year for good growth and we are in that period now. If you miss out, you miss out. You have to take advantage of good growing conditions while you have them.

I germinated mine in a west-facing patio which gets a half-day of full sun, so my seedlings were acclimated upon "arrival". Adenium don't need a very long period to acclimate if moved from shade to sun - they thrive in heat and sun - so they should adjust well. Even if put in part shade, part sun, I would have these outside to take advantage of the heat. An air-conditioned house is not the same. This is just what I would do if these were my plants. They can be very satisfactorily kept where they are now and survive just fine.

Carol

Please keep in mind your zone 9A is completely different that mine. You're in a tropical zone 9A. I am in a desert zone 9a. I live in Las Wages, NV. Las Vegas for those who didn't get the joke. Your zone has humidity, a temp that rarely reaches 105 degrees consistantly, and rain. My zone 9a has no humidity, a temp that doesn't drop below 105 degrees very often in the summer, and very little rain. That being said. They get more sun where they are now. If I moved them outside they would get about 4hrs of direct sun.

This is my first time trying to grow anything outdoors. Let alone adeniums. I have a bigger DR that has been outside all summer and has done just fine. I'm just babying the seedlings. So far I'm 10/10. I'm trying to keep it that way. I figure they will just do better next spring outside with more branches and leaves. This is of just MHO.

Thanks for taking the time to read,
JR

JR,

I didn't mean to imply that our zone numbers have any significance to my point. If I was in St. Louis, MO, where it is 106F, I would have my adenium outside. By the way, it's 100F in Thailand today, the adenium capital of the world. I'm just saying that you can't get this growing season back once it is gone. If significant growth doesn't matter to you, and you are just looking to keep them alive, and you are happy, keep them in the window. As a long-time gardener, I have learned that for me, it is important to take advantage of optimum growing conditions when I have them. Every March/April, my to-do list gets insanely long of all the things I want to get done while I have the growing season ahead of me. For me it is the busy time, as I know I won't be able to do things like root cuttings once I have lost the time. You can't get adenium to make a lot of progress in fall/winter, but you're right, there is always next spring.

Happy gardening!
Carol

This post was edited by love_the_yard on Tue, Aug 6, 13 at 19:28