I posted a similar plant back in 2012 from a friend in Vietnam.

Design adenium

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1652364/designer-adenium?n=16

take a look.

Marie

Marie, it must be the same man.

What a experience, i wish i was in your place.

Stuart! Would you mind taking closer shots of the split to show what it looks like when it heals?

Pagan

The first split i didn't put glue, i only put little cynamon for the styrofoam and that was 2 weeks ago.

The second split was yesterday and put wood glue.

Nicely done, Stuart. And it only took less than a month to heal properly. Don't forget to update.

4 day after the second split.

It is so fantastical what you are doing there, Stuart. Pushing the adeniums to their potential. I suspect that in nature, if they had to, given the obstacles they have to endure, that they would have had to adapt to a splitting of sorts. Wonderful example of the adaptive nature of adeniums. This is really nice.

Kadie

Mayby i will cut under the upper tape and braid the splitted sections.

Any fantasy?

You could cut in the middle (where styrofoam touches) and braid both top and bottom, and try to root the top.

But maybe the cut portion is not long enough.

What a super idea. Maybe it will root faster how it is splited.

Thanks, rooftopbklyn

I need to get a clearer image in my mind as to what you are doing. I understand the splitting process.

Question 1:

After you split the stem into four sections, you now have four sections with "bark" on the outside, and a juicy, spongy core facing the inside. Did you coat each section with glue, or cinnamon, or coat the exposed tissue with both glue and cinnamon.

Question 2:

Let's suppose that everything goes well and no rotting sets in the cut areas of stems,... will a layer of living cambium (bark) eventually roll onto/into the cuts and seal them off?

This might be a good technique to use if you want to create a plant having multiple branches coming out from the caudex, at top end. Just split the stem into 4-5 sections and treat them as individual branches.

You may also be able to split cuttings at the base. spread the base section out into a flare, and root it. Then at least the cuttings would have a more interesting flared/buttressed, root base with some taper. The last series of photos show this technique.

Interesting.

Frank

Answer 1: for the fist split i didn't put anything. After one week i made the second split due to that the trunk was thin and added glue.

Answer 2: I am not an expert but i think you are right.

I see that glue is healing the wounds faster.

Maybe an expert can help me explain better.

Thank you Frank for good advise.

Hello, Stuart-

Thanks for the information. It's all interesting to see, and the photos are great.

I like your cutting pictured above. It already has a nicely flared base where you split it into four sections.

Good luck with your special plants. I hope they root and grow well.

Frank

New shoots

Branches/trunks manupilating

Stuart, these are very interesting experiments. I'm glad you were able to salvage it and start a new project. I learned long ago that problems become new design opportunities.

Before. split into four sections.