Not come across this myself Gill, but what about trimming all the leaves off and see what the new ones grow like next year?

What you feeding them Gill, maybe they lack something from the food?

But it also looks a bit like scarring too, which I know sounds insane lol but can maybe a water droplet or something settled on the leaf which has then been hit with full sun and kind of burnt/scarred it?

Sorry not much help, just looking at various angles but the pros will help out I'm sure :-)

Could do Phil, just read your post where you had been playing at Edward Scissorhands! Just curious to ask if anyone knew if it was short on something, no doubt they all are as I admit most of my plants have been rather missing out on essential 'meals' this year, as my concentration in some areas has been sadly lacking. That said, the three seed grown obesums have done fantastic this season: ) not a bug in sight.

Gill UK

Well if you need some feed I have dyna grow foliage stuff in liquid form and Chempak number 8 which is like a crystal powder form. If you need some I can post some for you to try but if they not far from going dormant you wont feed til next spring ish anyway

Thanks for the offer Phil, I do have the feed, I just forgot to give it to them! Would like to ask though, where did you get the dynagrow from please? When ever I've checked it out eBay, it's from the USA and shipping costs almost doubled the cost. Will no doubt be looking out for some new feeds come spring, it can't come sooner, it's like pea soup outside all day, can't even see the end of my nose!

Gill UK

Here you go Gill

www.orchidaccessories.co.uk

That's where I got mine but add about another 9quid postage on the price you see for the larger bottle,its around 26 quid delivered which is pretty expensive

Here's the stuff I've used this past season as I tend to swap around....

I know boron deficiency has been mentioned in other posts, does your feed contain boron, cant quite see it there on the label?

This is what Chempak no.8 has in it, which is classed as a low nitrogen feed

Mmmmh, yes, it wasn't a particularly good pic was it....this one is better, far better now with my specs on, lol!....trying again, looks like no boron.......so there could lie the answer....? the manufacturer is Vitax btw.

Tracy was the one with the boron thread and trail, so when she sees your thread she might offer some light more than moi :-)

Thanks for the further info Phil, I will see what's around come next spring and will especially look for chempak no8.

Whilst here, you may be interested to read that the flowers that formed on one of my larger obesums did what they have the past two seasons......dropped off! Well at least they went further than before as one got to two inches or so in length, it proved that it was going to be pink in colour, grew and grew for what seemed like an age, then went limp, turned brown and promptly fell off. I'm gutted to say the least. Next year they WILL flower properly :-/

The formation of the several flower clusters have done one positive thing though, they appear to have prompted the branch tips to sprout more branches immediately surrounding them ; )

Gill UK

Good stuff Gill, maybe the flowers formed just that little bit too late in the year, if they did their thing like a month ago you might have got lucky?Ah well next summer then all being well :-)

Phil, the ingredients on the label of your fertilizer seem perfect for adeniums...it has everything and in a very good ratio. My opinion, of course.

Cheers Kadie - I bought the dyna gro stuff on others recommendation, which I am happy with BUT I am also happy with the Chempak no.8 and will prob use this more for a while now over the dyna gro and see how we go :-)

I have even looked at bonsai feed and even that looks quite good for adeniums variety dependant of course

Oops! Phil, there is one important element that is not on the label: calcium.

Calcium deficiency is usually caused due to low calcium availability or due to water stress which results in low transpiration rates. The symptoms of calcium deficiency include curling of young leaves or shoots scorching or spotting on young leaves, poor growth, leaf tip burns, stunted roots, and damage to fruit.

Here's a link regarding calcium and plants.http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1940/

Sound info Kadie which I had no idea about :-) there's me thinking I have the dogs doo-daa's in adenium feed lol maybe not then....

Bone meal is a very good source of calcium. You could incorporate a tidbit into your media. I do.

Found some calphos aimed at the equine market, thinking this could be good stuff as another option to mix into my coir/growstone mix?

Had to look up "calphos." This should be good to mix into your media mix.

Calphos is what the guy in the above link uses. I assume the stuff sold in the horse market is the same stuff they sell in the plant market apart from the different label/picture on it,which is the case for various stuff when it's the same product in the tub

Gypsum is readily available on ebay so that could be another alternative to use too?

I thought you had Calphos readily available in your area. Please check around in your area...

Another alternative would be to cremate the bones left from your meals and incorporate the ashes into your media. Check with Sweeny Todd, maybe he could give you some bones.

I can get the calphos horse powder, which contains the following :

ANALYSIS
Calcium carbonate 50%
Dicalcium phosphate 25%
Dendritic salt 25%

Just not sure how the salt would affect the trees? Or weather that's in all calphos inc stuff sold for plants?

Apparently there are different kinds of salts, and used and behaving differently depending on the other substances with it. I wouldn't worry over it. When you flush-water your plants the salts will leach out.

Might try some of that bad ass stuff then ;-)

@Phil, I found your Chempak No. 8 from the UK on Ebay and was at checkout to pay for it. But I double-checked the elements of the fertilizer I use and found it to contain the same ingredients (though not at the same ratio) except for mangnesium. Then found out that vermiculite, which I sometimes use, contains magnesium.

Epsom salt also contains magnesium, but I have yet to try it. I have read in this forum and others that folks mix a tsp. with a gallon of water and pour the solution on the plant. This soluble form is immediately available to the plant.

Anyway, with this new information, I cancelled the transaction for the Chempak No. 8. Would have been nice to be able to say I got something from the UK, your homeland. <sigh>

Thanks for the info Kadie. It's easy to get lost in all the info, so to summarise is it fair to say it's a good idea for to to get some calphos and mix it in with the compost mix? I wonder if Himalayan Salt is as good or better than Epsom salts to pour into the plant, as it has approx 88 minerals or so in at and it's what we have used ourselves instead of refined salt for several years now?

With the above additions carry on with Chempak no.8 and dyna gro foliage pro, alternating them every few weeks or so? With this mix inc the calphos etc the trees are getting a more fulfilled/balanced nutrient dose overall which will be more beneficial long term?

Am I getting it right?

Gill - sorry to hijack your thread here, but hopefully the outcome will be of benefit to all lol.

Anyway after a bit more searching the dead looking patches on your leaves can be caused by magnesium deficiency. No idea on your soil mix but general info for everyone, sandy soil mixes, which I see recommended for cacti and succulents and some companies sell pre mixed composts containing sand, well the sand part in the mix over time locks in the magnesium which the plant cannot access/use which results in magnesium deficiency. I for one used to use such mixes, John innes being a popular one here in the UK, but I no longer use it. For now I am just using a no frills, Billy basics compost containing approx 50-50 coir and growstones with regular feeding. This is a much more light and airy mix that doesn't seem to compact like the previous stuff, so far so good but am always open to learn from others :-)

The calphos addresses the lack of calcium in your Chempak No. 8 fertilizer; but you only need a pinch per pot mixed into the media.

Your Chempak No. 8 fertilizer already has magnesium in it so no need for Epsom salts.

Thanks Kadie will order a small tub of calphos when I have a few quid spare :-)

No worries Phil, so no apology necessary at all, it just goes to show how we are all striving to get the same end results for our charges, and helping others do the same along the way. Plus it makes an interesting read on such a foul evening here in the UK as again we are shrouded in fog.

As already mentioned, things are slowing down here in the UK and for other climatically challenged growers, so there's plenty of time to get some better feeds in stock ready for next year.

BTW, will yours go dormant in the luxury 5* 'glamping tent' do you think? My bet is they will keep on growing. You will have to move house soon!

They grow in my version of the gritty one with perlite, bark, horticultural grit and regular cactus mix in equal quantities.

Gill UK

Fog indeed is smothering us too here up north, good news it is forecast to go in a day or two, bad news is its rain, rain and a bit more rain lol

Nah none of my brood won't be going dormant this time round, and one of the trees I got gifted from averil I am really trying to get it flowering so I just keep on with the watering regime when needed. Dont know if it could do with a dose of some other kind of feed to try and induce it to flower as I am not sure that the nitrogen content in the two feeds I have (Chempak no 8 and dyna grow foliage pro) is too much which will not help it in flowering?

So the glampimg season here will keep on going all way through winter and into spring and by then I think there might be a few changes in how the trees look and will hopefully had added considerable size and chunk up somewhat lol

Thank you, Gill!

I had to look up grow stones (Phil's) as this is new to me. Apparently it is now all the rage because it is a sustainable material, along with coco coir. It is from recycled glass and has better qualities for moisture retention and aeration than perlite and some others. Hmm. Learn something new everyday! And that's all good!

Kadie

Taking the day off...so nice and balmy.

Kadie I am a huge advocate of the Growstone GS-2. I have been using perlite forever but it gets crushed into bits and makes a huge mess too. I love how Growstone maintains its form and doesn't get crushed. I thought it was a little expensive at first, but I found a place that orders the 1.5 cubic foot bags for me close to work. The 8 quart bag was about $13, but I can get the 1.5 cu ft bag for $21 which makes it about the same price as perlite if I buy bulk. Once I work my way through my current supply of perlite, I am done with it forever! LOL. Anyhow it is probably readily available in Guam. Someone even mentioned that Home Depot carries it.

Tracy

home depot can get it if you order it online thru HD … they don't stock it on the shelf in the stores

Tracy, now I remember...in a couple of your posts, you did mention using grow stones in your media.

Dave, for the last half-hour I had been trying to get someone live on the phone at HD, but always put on hold. I'll try again later. Thanks.

I completely missed this thread, Gill. From your picture, there are branches on that plant that do not have this thickening issue? It might be a tendency already present in the cultivar (since your other Bouquet plants tend to have them too, if I read that correctly). But what I would do is change my fertilizer to Foliage Pro, mainly to first establish the baseline for nutrients that the average plant requires. Then over a period of, say, a season, if the problem persists, then maybe the Bouquet just has unique requirements.

Here is FoliagePro's ingredient label.

I use this for all my plants, including the finicky ones that melt if you feed them urea (i.e. my one surviving orchid). Then once a year I add a splash of silicon (sold separately) at the end of summer.

I think it will be worth the trouble to track this mother down and use it instead, or similar product that have the same list of plant yummies. It goes a long way too, I use a drop per liter. Hopefully that will fix it if it is as I suspect.

Also, may I see the whole plant?

Pagan

I need some reading specks lol as I didn't see calcium on my foliage pro, so don't need to buy the powder now the, happy days, it's all good :-)

Cheers Pagan

Hi Pagan, thanks for your input too and for the foliage pro info, I will have to try and source some as its been highly spoken of by many of you. I have yet to sea UK product with all of the ingredients in one package...it's worse than feeding three under fives!! One drop per litre? It must be very economical then as you say : )

So, here are shots of my three Bouquets with an overhead shot of each one...

Plant no1, with the more marked 'thickening'...most leaves are affected, the only ones not are on one branch with this seasons new leaves. The older marked ones are almost certainly from last season as none of these three dropped all of their leaves last winter.

Plant no2, this one has just a couple of marked ones, and again they are old leaves

and finally plant no3, this one is clear.

I have found that Arabicums are slow growers for me and they have had problems with glued up leaf clusters. Often when the leaves have eventually lengthened, they have been deformed, probably as a result of this glueing up effect.

Gill UK

Lovely arabicums, Gill. I have heard Dain mention this glueing effect with some of his Adeniums . He spritzes them with a tad bit of water daily and it has solved the issue. Hopefully he will see this and chime in and provide some better detail.

Tracy

Yes. Warm water sprayed on the growth tip seems to dissolve this sticky glue and keep the new leaves coming. I wonder what it is.

Except for the leaf discoloration, I actually like the growth habit, Gill. The proportions are unusual. I hope the change in fertilizer eventually corrects the rest of it.

Thanks for the replies peeps.

Tracy/Dain, I will certainly try the spraying technique. I have tried that before one one plant that had those terrible crispy tips, this does seem different, but it's worth a try, anything is. I will have to try and remember to do it on a regular basis once the new leaves emerge...if they do go dormant that is.

Pagan, thanks, they are very different in appearance to any obesums that I've grown, and yes, I hope if I can find some better fertiliser all my dr's will benefit.

Rick, as we are swiftly heading towards winter here, I'm thinking that it will be better to wait till spring for a re-pot into those wider pots you suggest or do you advise me to do it now? I can also now realise that as you rightly point out, leaf issues can be caused by root problems, never thought of it that way, duh! BTW, did you get any results from your Bouquet seeds Rick as these are from your gifted seeds?

Thanks for your input, GWeb is keeping me sane at the moment, I'm checking in errrr, what must be several times a day, I know, I know! Am off work all November as the heritage railway where I work is closed all this month...need all my energy and motivation to get through December's hectic schedule. Sadly my first Christmas in 40yrs without my d/h is going to be tough to say the least........

Gill UK :(

Gill, Might be best to keep in these pots for now, but I think it is worth a try in the spring. I usually do not pot up at this time either.

Funny you ask about the Arabicum 'bouquet' from Ken Wall. I think I have one left. Gave some to C&S Nursery friend. I am going to have to double check now.

Yes, I am sure it will be difficult this Christmas and I hope you have your family close by, Gill. Your memories of Christmas will help you make it through. Memories are a good thing. Take care.

Rick