I think it's a great idea, Rick. I'm new, but I've really been enjoying the forum.

Sadly I don't have a life outside this forum - I live on here, and I love it!!!

I was thinking exactly the same thing. Last winter I took a bit of a break from indoor plants to focus on other things while I let things languish on a windowsill, but it was a sad winter and I decided some bright lights and baby plants would make things much nicer this year.

Coincidentally, just before seeing this thread I popped some newly received thai soco 'petch banana' and 'golden bell' from adeniumcenter into paper towels via Christine's method, and more (but not all) of my evil plan to thwart winter is here:

Daniel

DRY HUMOR

'here i sit, watching the spines on that cactus get longer'

tantamount to watching paint dry …

CONTAINER SOILS - WATER MOVEMENT and RETENTION XXII

These are articles that Tapla posted and they are so intsightful and a really good read.

Was not sure how to bring the 'link' over to this thread so that people could just click on it to read.

The articles that Tapla posted and I was able to copy and print have made the a wonderful portfolio of information.

Rick

I created a link to it Rick: Container Soils - Water Movement & Retention XII

Kadie

I must be the class clown or just plain thick, that's too heavy reading for me at this moment in time lol

Ha ha! Phil, you have all winter to read it. Then you have the honor of giving us a cliff's notes version.

Thanks Kadie for adding the link.

Phil, It can be alot to take in. I printed off a bunch of Tapla's articles and then I peruse them. I find then that I can pick out one that pertains to what I am wanting to research.

Rick

You're very welcome, Rick. Here's another thread where both Al and Laura made very helpful comments. the nitty gritty

Kadie, How do you bring over the link like you have? Shows up in 'green'.

Could not figure this out.

Rick

It's worth the read, Phil. Al takes the woowoo nonsense out of container gardening. There are still on-going discussions I read like I binge-watch series on certain the-hell-with-you-world days lol

P

Okay...go to the thread you want to link, bring your cursor up to the http web box located at top left of your window...right click on your mouse then click on copy. Go back to the thread you want to post the link on and type in the title of the link in the discussion box...highlight the title, click on the "chain" Link which is above the submit button. A window will pop up...highlight the second box then paste the copy of the web link, then click insert.

I am not sure if I gave succinct instructions, if not, maybe someone else could pipe in.

Kadie

Also, there's a nice "Test" forum on gardenweb where you can experiment with links/pics/formatting/whatever without worry about making a mess of the post you spend an hour composing :)

Adenium Towers - Interesting to see

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1652386/adenium-towers-interesting-to-see?n=13

Rick, I too, have an LED set up with about 30 little ones under it. I've been pretty excited watching them grow, and will continue to provide updates. I noticed one of them is bulging the edges of the plastic pot. Time to bump him up it looks like!

What a fantastic thread Rick. Most of my adults have already hit their dormant period. They don't all fit in the tent so the large ones are taking a rest. It is hard to let them sleep, I want to continue caring for them all winter long. Especially one that has seed pods. I have been loving seeing Marie's October blooms and JP's Thai Socos all practically doubling in size. It gives me hope that Spring will be here again soon.

Tracy

Tracy, don't worry, I'll post some blooms, too. Two of mine from Rinoa have buds. And another one that I've got going in a shallow bonsai pot bloomed on Wednesday.

my winter here in hawaii prolly will go as low as 65deg and thats about it and morning sun will always be the same, so everything will be staying outside, probably gonna change my watering and feeding to morning instead of sundown so that they wont sit on a cold soil at night, not sure about obesums since they are more prone to rots, but for arabicums and thai socos, and all my seedling outside willl stay outside for sure, and my indoor ones will be indoors until i decided that they will go out also, my soil mix will always be the same...

Rick, I know winter is a sad time for plant growing, so I thought this might cheer you up a bit. Here's one of Rinoa's as of a few minutes ago.

And here's a better view of my pseudo-bonsai:

Dain, really nice. Congrats on your blooms. I was hoping you would get a flower show from your new Rinoa plants before it starts getting colder. I like how you have this little seedling with the compact internodes staged in the bonsai pot.

Tracy

Hey Daniel how are them Petch Bananas doing? :)

Its kind of funny that you ask that Tracy, the honest answer is I don't really know :)

I'm totally disorganized with my plants and never keep cultivar's straight. I really need to get some kind of system going.

Anyway, I decided I was going to keep these seedlings well labeled. I attempted to germinate the seeds in two identical small plastic containers, that I labeled with sharpies. BUT, I labeled the lids and not the containers. One day I opened both containers at the same time, put the lids on the kitchen table, and when I went to put them away realized I had no idea which lid went with which container. Long story short, I attempted to germinate 3 each of petch banana and golden bell. I lost one seed one day when I opened up a container, separated the paper towels, and didn't realize a seed stuck to the top towel that I removed, and it flew ... somewhere.

The two remaining seeds from that container both germinated. The three in the other container all stuck out root tips then turned to mush. Probably my fault.

Based on reading various things here, it seems like everyone's biggest thai soco adeniumcenter success was golden bell, so I decided the two that germinated were golden bell. maybe time will make it clear, i'm hoping.

For anyone who managed to read through my sob story, some pictures as a reward:

the 2 babies where they live (under some 6500k t5ho). I find a plastic bag just loosely draped over pots provide a perfect level of humidity - it breathes just a little out the bottom, but stays pretty moist and I check on them every day or so anyway, so mist as necessary. This doesn't scale well though, so I can see how someone with a tray full of seedlings would use something fancier. I have very little space, so work slowly with few plants at a time.

Under the bag. One has only a single cotyledon leaf, not sure if I knocked it off or thats just how it is - hope it makes it.

My evil plan coming to fruition. This is the second prototype, just about done. I have little floor space so use shelves, and I don't really have the option of putting the fixture far away from my plants. So I decided it was important to have good control of intensity. It's easy to set up an LED to be dimmable if you're putting it together yourself, but I wanted more control - so I'm using an arduino to give myself the ability to modify intensity over time - now I can ramp up and down sunrise/sunset style each day, and also gradually increase maximum intensity over a number of days/weeks.

The first prototype is currently sitting over a small Ficus, some jades, and a 6 month old mr. ko obesum seedling, kind of a test. It's not easily dimmable though.

I will have 3 or 4 shelves total, with 2 of these fixtures each, hopefully all controlled from a single brain. My shelving unit is 18x24". I'm using full spectrum ("white") leds, that I'm pretty sure will soon replace all the purple stuff you guys currently use. It's what the cutting edge cannabis growers are using now, which is where I drew my inspiration from. google "diy led cob" if you want more information there's a bazillion threads on cannabis forums.

The first shelf should be operational this weekend.

and oh yeah, since I decided the golden bell germinated, I now have 2 more petch banana in process. I used some hydrogen peroxide when soaking this time, and am crossing fingers. It's been two days and one of the seeds shows the tiniest pale green root tip poking through.

Daniel

Dain, that is a beautiful bloom. Love the creamy yellow w the rosy color bleeding from dark edge. Especially like these cultivars w the point tip to the petals.

Thanks for sharing with us.

Rick

Some of my winter blooms..

"AURUM CROWN"

"CARNATION"

Kadie, That Carnation is stunning. I hope that when mine blooms it is as nice as this. Just like the photo in Rinoa's catalogue.

Your Aurum Crown a very nice solid yellow color to it.

Congrats,

Rick

Thanks, Rick. I am very pleased with both of them.

"Night Shadow"

Thanks to Rick who advised me to shelter my blooming adeniums from rains, "Night Shadow" went from this:

To this:

11-25-2015

This is wondrous..outer petals are rounded, inner petals are pointed! Definitely a keeper.

It is an outstanding bloom and color. I love the petals you see with the pronounced pointed tip. This is nice having both forms of petals. Color is very deep and solid to.

Rick

Absolutely beautiful, Kadie! When I lived in the Marshall Islands, I noticed that all of my plumerias, hibiscus, and other tropicals did much better when they were sheltered from the constant rains. We got over 100 inches a year there. They loved the humidity, but a bit of shelter really made them happy and helped cut down winds too.

Thank you, my friends for your nice comments.

Dain, yes, they are from Rinoa. (Rick turned me on to Rinoa..ha ha!)

Karen, so true here as well I'm finding out; next rain season I will erect a white canopy for my Adeniums. They don't like the sweltering heat of that time either: brilliant all day sun one day, rains for a couple days, and so forth. I lost a few adeniums two months ago due to rot.

Rick, thanks for your advice, they are always welcome.

Blessing Star. I love this one to death.

Pray tell, Dain, where did you find this ethereal beauty!

I love that one, Dain! Where did you find it? Welcome back, Kadie. I missed your comments.

Rinoa! It was one of the cheaper ones, actually. I think it was $9.