Jedoba please tell us more about your experience with cutting the taproot on your seedlings.

Tracy

They just grow a new one, Trace. That is, one or several of the new roots will get elected to become a new fat root eventually. As far as a have seen, it's a crap shoot which one becomes the water reservoir, I wasn't paying that much attention.

In bonsai, with non-succulent trees, it is customary to remove the taproot at the soonest opportunity, when growing from seed. Adenium are a bit different, but, at some level, plants are plants so it isn't surprising that this can work with Adenium as well. In bonsai the motivation for removal of the tap root is to start development of nebari, big exposed roots around the circumference of the trunk that are considered the hardest part of a bonsai to change as the tree grows.

Daniel

Ok Tracy. You asked for it, here it is.

It is my opinion that most people grow adenium obesum for their large caudex, and that the preferred growth pattern is compact. Although I am fairly new to growing from seed, I am an avid reader, and have a bit of mad scientist in me as well. Although I must admit to having a bit less mad scientist than Pagan or Phil. ;)

I want to get something out of the way right now; I don't often follow the 'conventional' wisdom. I prefer to blaze my own path, with my own base of knowledge. Therefore, I don't wait for a week for the cut to heal after cutting the tap root. I water the plant as soon as it's repotted, too.

The process is easy: Remove ~2 month old seedling from its media, and remove the tap root at the highest point that you can safely remove it. Be careful not to cut any of the few roots along the outside edge of the caudex. There is no need to cut the entire bottom off of the plant. All I did was cut the root high, then replanted immediately on a slight 'mound' of soil in the center of the pot, then cover with a bit more soil. Results pictured are after about 2 months of growth.

They were the same size when I removed the tap root from the plant on the left. This is two months after.

Side view of roots. They are not trained out, just allowing them to grow now.

Good looking seedling, Jedoba. Nicely documented, thank you very much. I received a new box of scalpels today to cut some fine roots off of Thong Tonnam. I think I will do some experimenting with the taproots on some of my spare seedlings.

Tracy

Thank you Tracy. I should add that these sat in their new pots with miracle gro media, completely saturated with water all summer long. I had them in a large 2 inch deep tray that I kept filled with water. The wicking effect never allowed the pots to dry at all. Just my way of saying don't worry so much about rot..

Here are my 10 days old Golden Bell / S1 seedlings. I removed the seeds that didn't germinate and resituated the 2 in the pot.

My Golden Bells don't look like ANY of the ones that have been posted. I have two seedlings, both of which look similar. My GB's are staying stout with small dark green leaves and dark caudices.

Dain I would say that this is going to be a nice compact seedling. So cool to see the variation amongst the growers.

Tracy

After a bit of rain a few weeks ago and then very hot and humid days my GB's have fattened up a lot. Now in week 10 I am so thrilled with their progress. the second one still has silver/grey leaves and the darkest stem. The tallest is 7cm and the fattest is 3cm. Excuse my fingers, just wanted to give u an idea of size.

Christine, Wow are they ever fantastic. Good growing. The one one the far left is sure going to be a wide and one to watch.

I am still really taken with the one having the silver/grey leaves. Love the differences between them.

Rick

Thanks Rick, yes 1 and 2 are my favourites. This is my first time growing a Soco and really enjoying seeing how differently they grow. I have some Black Pearl Arabicums that I started at the same time and they would have to be the slowest growers ever and no where near as exciting cause nothing much changes from week to week.

Also, I just logged in and did an update on the spreadsheet and noticed hardly any entries from others. I know many had problems with first batchs and had to start again or weren't going to worry about it but I'm pretty sure there were still some who had babies approx the same age as me. Are we still doing the spreadsheet data or did I miss that conversation and not worrying about the data anymore?

Hi Christine, your plants seem to be doing great but my seven seem to be going into hibernation for the winter.They are under LEDs but no heating to speak of as its not possible unless I keep them indoors. I have covered the entire area with transparent plastic,in an effort to reduce the cold but still i am sure they are not as warm as they need to be. Our spare room is busy with the parents so they(plants) have to live in my balcony and weather the cold of Delhi. Hopefully will be able to keep these alive until spring sets in Jan end. I have not updated the spreadsheet coz there isn't any change in my seedlings vital stats except leaf shedding....!! :)

Yours seem to have responded well to the rain &sunshine in your part of the earth!! Keep it up!! Thanks for the pics..few of mine below

Christine we are still using the spreadsheet. I think you are leading with progress, mine are just 2 weeks now. Hope to catch up with you soon!

That's great. I just wanted to check just in case.

While we are all growing in different seasons right now, but it will be very interesting to see results in 12 months time.

Hey Christine, I'll go ahead and forward my plants to you, just pack yours up and send to me. ok?? Hello? Hey, where'd you go? ;)

I LOVE your plants!

Ok, perhaps you could just send me the one on the left... no?

Awww, can't blame me for trying. ;)

Sinha sorry to hear that your babes are taking a break. The second picture looks like the seedling is putting on new growth. I don't know if you have a plethora of plastic bottles with lids but if so you could fill them with water and store them in a warm place during the day and place them next to the Adeniums at night. An method that Rick uses to heat his small greenhouse.

Tracy

Haha Jed, I'm all for sharing but not these babies. Being my first time growing Soco's this is really exciting for me. Gees I sound like I don't have a life when I say that I'm excited by a plant haha. The difference between growing these and obesiums is amazing. These little fellows have more personality.

I understand fully Christine. The small yellow one I have still hasn't done much, and I don't believe it will make it, but I'd never let it go. They're our babies now.

Two Month Update! (sown 10/3)

Here is an updated close up of my yellow baby. As you can see she is TINY and is still a bit less than 1/2 inch or about 12.7 mm at almost 2 months. She is now starting to grow a tiny third set of real leaves. If it is like the last set, it was only one leaf... This is the clearest I could get, but you may be able to see slight green veining in the topmost leaf. I am hopeful for this plant yet.

The next plant was the first to come up, and was the largest for the first two weeks or so. It is now 2 inches ( 5 cm) to top of stem. It does not seem to grow much at all.

And last, but certainly not least, the largest of them all; it is four inches ( 10 cm) tall to top of stem. It has branching occurring at each leaf, and those leaves are large. There is one larger branch at this point that can be seen in the picture below, and more very small ones in the close-up picture below that.

The "retry" Soco seeds all sprouted and they are almost one month old. There really isn't much to say about any characteristics yet, except that they are larger than the Diamond King, Diamond Queen, and Obesum X Crispum that I planted at the same time (thank you again Rick!!). But I must say, Pagan is right about Dimmit seeds, because one of those OXC Dimmits sprouted 4 leaves on the first "set" of true leaves. I will update log when they get to one month.

The obesum x crispum are super early bloomers too, Jed. I can't wait to see what you'll get!

And they get very stout even with minimal feeding after 5 months. As in monthly. Maybe not even.

I am home after two weeks away and all my DRs are good. It doesn't look like it rained at all. my one golden bell (10/5) looks stunted, but the Flames (10/3) are good. Ready to start the replacement seeds Jerry sent.

Golden bells 20 days old.

I finally started my new order of golden bells last weekend, in paper towels. One seed has germinated out of five. I put the seedling and seeds into a pot of perlite, coir, miracle Gro yesterday, and they are out in the 80 degree Florida sunshine.

I,lost a couple of my October Flame seedlings over my two week vacation, but all my adeniums are doing well. My original plant is still in full bloom, and that poor plant that bounced back from severe root rot has several sets of buds. I hope they will have time to actually bloom before winter finally sets in here.

The last batch of seeds germinated within about 5-7 days for me. I'll post pictures of my one month seedlings soon. I hope the rest pop up for you, Cynthia.

Cindi I hope the others come up for you.

Here are my 3 gb as of just now

WOWSERS Phil! They are terrific looking. Please remind me of the age?

Lol Cheers tracy. These were part of my birthday sowing day, sown on 20th September 2015, so pretty much 3 months old now :-) seems like I sowed them an age ago.

Also I will apologise in advance to the people responsible for the grow out spreadsheet etc as I have been pretty poor at keeping upto date with information in it, so please accept my apologies as it's appreciated that you went outta your way to create it :-)

Thank you, Jerry, and Tracy. One other was popping this morning. The one from October is small but growing.

Phil, your 3 are looking good. Especially love the end one on the right. A lot shorter than the other 2 but looks like it's got lots of branching happening. I love plants with lots of branching. I have pinchy fingers and can't help myself if I see one getting too tall I give it a pinch.

Cynthia, hope u get a few more surprises in the next few days.

I tried to add my info to the spreadsheet, it asked me to ask for permission...which I've done. Hopefully I can add my notes soon.

A quick update on mine. I have four - one from the first five seeds I put in, and three from the second lot. The first one is slimmer than the others. I think I may have some branches starting to develop on the three later ones. They are all still small, and not as fat as everyone elses...but they are getting there. I don't have a tent or anything like that, but I have recently added a couple of those horrible coloured lights...mostly to benefit my other seedlings. Just a couple of led spotlights, but the Socos are getting some of the benefit too.

The other seeds I put in at the same time have germinated with varying success. I have an unexpected forest of Commiphora, more Boswellia than I thought would be possible and quite a few others too. Hopefully they will all do ok and continue to grow !

A few photos...

One of the Socos - this is one of the three from the second germination.

A forest...

Really pleased to get a few Pachycormus discolor...

Boswellias...

The smallest one in the pot germinated after the pot had been out of my propagator for over a week !

I've had a slight disaster as the boiler broke (and is still not functioning properly - engineer back again tomorrow) and I had over a week of no heating and no hot water. Luckily I have a small heater, so averted most of the disaster. A few brown leaves on several of my seedlings and maybe a couple of Adansonias that won't make it. The Adeniums didn't seem to notice the change in temperature or humidity.

Looking great Dragonadeniums! Fingers crossed that the heat gets fixed soon.

Tracy

S1 / Golden Bells are 32 days old and fattening up.

I am so excited I finally stumbled across the thread of the grow out. I was recently wondering what became of this project! I am so glad to see that so many of you have baby thai socotranums! Unfortunately I wasn't able to get GB seeds when everyone else did for the grow out. I was kind working on a side project with Arabicums that some of you have been following *the hydroponics growing of them* I definitely would like to be part of the next grow out! Tracy, Martin, Rick/ anyone if you hear of one coming up in spring will you let me know, so I can prepare to get my seeds. I have a wish list of seeds I want to try and start come spring! If a new grow out is planned I will definitely make sure that, that variety is included on my list!

Good luck with your Thai socotranums everyone!

S1 / Golden Bells 40 days old

I pulled some of my seedlings out for some photos. Here's the current state of my GB. I can see some new growth nodes forming. I've been holding back from pinching the primary growth tip.

Looks like it is about to branch out, Dain. The color is really nice too.

Golden Bell seedlings 50 days old. I stopped updating the spread sheet. Figured a picture every 10 days is cutting it.

I've been wondering how this grow out was progressing so I was pleased to see the thread pop back up again with good news. Everyone seems to be doing well with their GB's don't they? If there's another grow out later on I would like to have a go again as this one failed miserably for me, lol!

Gill UK

We will plan on another one, Gill. Sure that there are others up for it. Would be nice to find some good Arabicum/Thai Soco seeds. It is nice when we use the same hybrid, then we get to see a variation in growth between each of us.

Rick

Count me in Rick :-)

Here is an update on my first batch of "Golden Bell" seeds sown Oct 7, 2015.

Seedlings 11 wks.

Ended up w 5 seeds germinate and thrive.

The second batch of seeds from Adeniumcenter did germinate better, but only 6 from it. Will post a photo of them at a later date.

I will not be posting within the spread sheet. This is enough.

Rick

That's a posh photo montage Rick, I like it :-)

They look great Rick.

Bumping this thread - and showing one of my runts, the biggest. I have 4 in total (the 5th did not survive), seeds from UK Phil germinated around the 15th of November 2015. So they are 7 months old...

The seedling has branched out from the top but I did not prune it. I suspect that the growth tip dried up 4-5 months ago.

The seedling does not grow new leaves and have been dormant for two month or so, even under lights. I have been keeping it moist, though.

It is no darling of mine (might change!). The nodes are not tight probably due to my excessive watering regime in an attempt to accelerate growth. I failed. ;-) And yes, it needs a bigger container...

I wonder why the tips sometimes dry up. I have one or two seedlings that did this last winter. One of them is an Arabicum too. The only positive thing that I noticed was crazy branching.

My largest Thai Soco is possibly a bit larger than yours now, and a month older as well, but I have it in a 10 inch pot now!

I blame the intense LED light... The past ten years, my adeniums grown under natural light have never had such problems.

Looking great Martin. The GB/S1 cultivar whether we decide it is or isn't a cultivar is known to have large internodes. So it could be genetics rather than the watering schedule. I am bewildered by your dormant plants in the tent, I haven't seen this in mine yet. I will get a picture update in this week too. Would love to see everyone's updates!
Tracy

Tracy, thanks.

Yes, it could be related to genes. Hopefully it resumes growth soon and we will find out. :-)

Are you sure that all of your seedlings are growing (stem elongation and leaf growth)? If kept varm during dormancy, some (most?) arabicums will retain the leaves. I have a few arabicum seedlings ('RCN') in full leaf in the tent but they have been dormant for at least two months. And I removed my oldest somalense from the tent. It had shut down completely.

This is perfectly fine. If I recall correctly, Dimmitt has stated that this is a built-in dormancy which cannot be reversed by horticultural practices.