Aww, you guys are hopeless lol I swear, I did nothing! They are outside on the deck, in full sun, getting rained on, drying out, sometimes watered, often not. And definitely not being fertilized yet because they are in 3-year old composted soil that my mother in law gave me (I'm just learning how to do that, now that we have space for a compost pit); amended with perlite.

One of the first things I did when we moved into this house last August was to put thermometers all over the place. The difference in this place is that the deck gets really hot---the thermometer tells me it goes up to about 38C to 40C there when it's about 28C down on the ground (the house and the attached deck are on a slope). I was actually about to move my haworthias and gasterias down somewhere cooler until my father in law (who grew up in SA) assured me that it gets way hotter than that in the Karoo in summer, where these plants are native.

So! I bet it's the heat.

Pagan

Pagan, thumbs up! They look terrific.

I cant be bothered to start a new thread so I'll just stick this here. I only just noticed one of my surviving two-year olds was starting to push the sides of its pot. So it was liberated thusly:

Up close, the roots have wrapped around the lava rocks that I put there last year. I just stuffed them back in, rearranged some roots and put it in a deeper, though not wider, pot.

I have my eye now on that pink abomination that I have. It might find itself out of the pot tomorrow lol

Pagan

A. obesum x crispum, tall and lanky and was going to be axed down to the bottom three inches.

But then there was this on top:

Six months! 'Roid seeds. Go Dimmit!

Pagan

Juicy roots! Wow those look great. The feeders are fat! Glad you posted here because I missed the post w/ the roots.

Oh obesum x crispum! From what I've read the caudex from this cross is bigger than both parents on a grand scale. I am amazed that it is budding at 6 months. The leaves remind me of arabicum. Keep us posted on this diva.

Tracy

Just seen this thread but wow cracking plants pagan.

In my adenium Book I recently got it does say in there about growing them hard, which could be similar to neglect? It said that less water and feed can cause the plant to fatten given the correct environment, cant remember if it also said to nip the top out.

When I get some seeds I will try my own experiment and see if there is a difference using the grow tent/ led which you guys have prob done before but it's new for me :)

Yes, they are real "stouters". ;-)

Phil, you can always push plants to your desired size and then prune them. Grown hard, you keep them in small containers, cut back on water and fertilizer which will produce more compact fat and tough plants (greater caudex:stem tissue ratio). It is a matter of personal taste. ;-)

I push my larger ones by watering daily and by giving them ample room for growing. Growing them hard, I would keep them underpotted and water them maybe 1-2 times a week.

You're spot on, Phil, growing hard is identical to abject neglect. I'm particularly fond of this cultivation method lol

Tracy, those roots grew on a flat disc, one of my early experiments. A small diameter surface will flatten it, a bigger diameter one will also spread it out. It has to be done very early though, before the roots have had the chance to bulge downwards to the point when you can't bend it anymore.

Pagan

Martin, wow lol On my bench, growing hard means they get water when it rains. The seedlings will get fed only at the first sign of leaves yellowing at the tips. These are for seedlings 5 months or older. Plus they are pruned all the time.

Pagan, how often does it rain, then? It sounds like you grow them extremely hard. ;-)

Oh that's the beauty of it, Martin. I don't have to worry about that since I have no intention of supplementing anyway. If it rains, they get watered. If not, then they get none. If they die, oh well. They did not die though.

I've only ever lost seedlings to hard freeze---about six of them--when I forgot to dig them out of the ground.

Pagan

These are my best growers.

Dimmit's Adenium arabicum x crispum: They all have dark trunks and very vigorous roots. The one on the far right already has roots sticking out of the bottom and may have to be potted upwards before winter. At some point I'm going to start looking for true crispum seeds.

Pagan

You've some cracking plants there Pagan, and sounds like your kinda carefree in your care for them, in a good way, if that's the right word even. I mean I think I tend to tinker with them a bit too much maybe rather than just let them do their thang lol, and I have already lost 2 dorstenia gigas young plants due to tinkering too much. Whatever your doing, it clearly works and they are a credit to you :)

I love these seedlings Pagan! It appears that they were crossed with a Black Arabicum. The caudex color is fantastic. They are all chubby but the far left is a total pig. I mean that in the best way of course.

Tracy

Hey P. Curious about where you were able to score the Hansoti seed?

I got it from MY mentor, Tracy, the first to answer my obscure question on this forum ("will adeniums be okay in hypertufa pots?"). He's also helped me sort out my yard when we moved into this house (lots of things growing that I didn't know what's what). I got 20 seeds and about 14 germinated out of the batch. Now I'm in abject terror of disappointing him so I'm trying to grow them well! But as you can see, they were such good seeds they thrive even in my neglect-inspired methods.

Oh. Yeah. They were from Rick.

P

Rick you are so funny. Pagan you inspire me also to try more to ignore my plants. I see what you have grown from hard culture. It is so difficult for me to ignore, not feed, not water, not pull on leaves, etc. You must have really strong will power.

Tracy

The secret is to get mesemb seeds, Tracy. On one side of the bench, my mesembs drive me batty. On the other side, my adeniums give me rewards--they benefit from the conophytum massacre going on three meters away.

Now on my second year of the War On Mesembs,

Not everything goes as planned, though. The seedling below was from my root-spreading experiment. I dug it up this morning because the new growth had started to dry out. I was expecting it, really. I violated my own rule of succulentry: when in doubt, don't water.

Oh well. I'll pick another two-year old later and try again.

Pagan

Pagan I am down to my last 5 pots of Mesembs, Cheriodopsis and Pleiospilos. I seem to kill them mostly due to overspray when watering my other plants. They don't like to get wet at all. Their oversensitivity has me wondering if I should even continue to try.

Too bad about your little experiment I was enjoying the thread with Marie. Can't wait to see which experiment you try next.

I'm going to try this one again, Trace, until I get it to work.

A. obesum x crispum, blooming at 7 months.

Pagan

That is stunning, Pagan. What a wonderful bloom with that thin white edging to petals.

Rick

Pagan, beautiful flower. Is it the adenium you wanted to "axe down" to dwarf size? ;-)

Hey you noticed, Martin. Yes, it was this one:

This morning:

Pagan

Pagan & everyone,

I wanted to let you know Pagan. As you know I posted a picture of your bloom from this cross Obesum x Crispum with the friends on Australian site that made these marvelous seeds available to us. They are all so pleased to see it and impressed to see it blooming so early.

My friend also sent a copy to Mark, as she said he likes to see the product of his crosses. He sent a note back to her and I wanted to share it with you, Pagan as well as the rest of the folks here.

“”””I'm envious! That's deeper red than any of my plants in this breeding line”””

I do not think that Mark Dimmitt or Cheryl will mind this posted. I just thought that it was such a special comment and the credit needs to go to Pagan and Mark for producing such great crosses.

NOW PAGAN, It deserves a special name. This could turn out to be a bloom much sought after.

Rick

How cool is that!? The flower is absolutely stunning. I have something you can graft the top onto Pagan ;) JK of course. Congrats to you for seeing it to the first bloom at such a young age. Looks like there are a couple more blooms coming too.

Tracy

Whoa, seriously? Mark Dimmit is envious? I wish I can say I'm sorry I got the prodigious seeds, Rick. But I'm really not sorry lol

I'm glad he has not stopped experimenting with them, though--made even more awesome by his eagerness to share. Thanks again, Rick and thank The Man for me too.

Pagan

Great job Pagan. It sure is a beautiful bloom. Also, you should be very proud that the flower was recognized in such a fashion.

Indeed a beautiful flower. Hand it over, Pagan! I want it! ;-)

I'm hoping the three others will bloom the same way, too. Someday I may learn to hand-pollinate. In the meantime, I wish I can graft them to my chin.

Pagan

Nice blooms Pagan. Love the red veining. Nicely captured too.

Tracy

Pagan, a keeper, definitely. :-) But I am more fond of your red one... ;-)

Thanks, guys. This one is not so bad but I prefer the red too. The veining on the petal is the crispum trait and I'm glad it made it through the hybridization. My sister recommends watching the blooms for at least two cycles--she says the saturation and even the hue sometimes change and the first bloom is not always indicative of how the more mature plant will bloom.

Easy for her to say, the bloom cycles tend to overlap in the tropics whereas I have to tolerate them for two to three years if I'm lucky!

Two lovely flowers! I believe I have some of these little seedlings.

That is pretty pink....very nice.

Marie

It could darken up the next time it blooms! This and the prior are both exsquisite seedlings. Wondering of both seeds were from the same batch?

Tracy

Wow, a second tree blooming. So good.

This one has such deep red veining. Quite cool.

The first one is so special!

You definitely are doing the right thing with these seedlings.

Rick

I wondered the same thing, Tracy--whether the seeds came from the same pod. Also, was it an obesum plant pollinated with a crispum or the other way around? Or, maybe an obesum x crispum pollinated with another obesum x crispum? I don't really know how these things are named.

I have two more seedlings in this line; doesn't look like they will bloom yet though. Can't wait to see what yours will come up with, Jed.

It's all about the cross, Rick! Go Dimmit!

Pagan

I can tell you that I planted Thai Soco, Diamond King, and Queen, and the OxC Dimmit seeds on the same day. The Dimmit crosses are the first to get their first set of real leaves, and it looks like they each have 3! I'm sure it's just me, but I love all of these babies like my children. With what three people have given me this year, and my purchases, I have around 70 plants now!

That settles it. I'm doing an audit tomorrow. I must know how many I have!

Too many here to count.

Doing the morning rounds today, I counted that I have 36 adeniums. This is either too many or too few---I have this geeky urge to always stop at primes lol So I either need to get rid of 5 or get 1 more.

Just to give you guys an idea of how many of my plants have been culled by either experimentation or hard growing, I checked against my orders and here is what came out:

3 surviving 3-year olds from a batch of 15 Mr. Ko obesums (great germination here, I got 14 out of that sowing)

3 surviving 3-year olds from a batch of 20 arabicums from some seller in the UK (sad, sad germination rate, only got 6)

5 surviving plants I got as grafted adults out of 7 (lost 2 to cold temps in two separate experiments)

3 plants from Rinoa

16 Dimmit seedlings, out of a batch of 20 seeds

3 Golden Bells out of a batch of 5 seeds.

I have three 3-year old plants in a box--they spent summer in the ground and I dug them up. They're somewhere in the basement. If they survive that, I'll plant them again in the ground next spring.

Wow I'm glad I did this. Now I have notes!

Pagan

When I started out several months ish ago with Adeniums I wanted to keep everything as getting seeds to germinate was an achievement for me, especially before I had the LED light and tent. But since getting the tent and light I have sooooo many more germinating which is not just down to the grow lab but also reliable and trustworthy seed suppliers.

Now the honeymoon period is over and the more pics I see online only intensifies my joy for these plants and inspires me to try and get mine to develop into fine specimens, I mean the type that if you post a picture of it people would actually look at it and thing daaang that's a mighty fine tree!

I guess the point I am getting to is that I am more easy about letting undesirables go rather than take the space up, sure if I had a climate like hawaii or Thailand etc I would keep many more and let them develop before deciding their fate as they would be outdoors in plenty of space rather than restricted to a tent.

Rather than simply bin some I might even try sell a few on fleabay which will raise funds for more seeds or pots etc but now I have more of an 'eye' for what I want I feel more comfortable letting some go to create the space.

Learning all the time and one day I might have some trees that might turn a few heads, but whatever the outcome I'm happy to have come into the adenium circle, it's like a therapy which can only be a positive thing :-)

Oh man, Phil. Ya just gotta love this place, right.

Pagan an audit would take too long for me. I am amazed that you have managed to keep your brood at such a minimum. We will have to do something about this come Spring time.

Phil admire your eagerness to purge them so willingly. I am the one that has to give them a chance and see what they become. I need to find that in myself to get rid of the overflow with such ease and not think twice about it.

Tracy

Hi Pagan !!!!

I Just read this thread and I'm drooling at your beautiful trees!! Very, very nice!!!!!

Congratulations!!!

Laura

Thanks, Laura. I had a high casualty rate in the beginning though!

Everyone should do an audit!

Pagan

Pagan just came across this post. Love your plants, great work!