Gill, thanks for the info. Are there any signs of calcium deposits (brownish) on top of the soil and/or on the trees just above soil level?

I'm curious too. One of my seedlings is putting out the same yellow margins. It's in a deep water culture set up and is treated the same as 6 others but still has a yellow margin. I keep the ph between 5.6 and 5.9. I give it micro and macro nutes. I'm wondering if it may be some type of virus... I posted a pic as well.

Gill sorry, not trying to high jack your head. I just wanted to add a pic to show what I'm talking about.

Could not find other thread Gill. So making comment here.

I believe this may be a cause of leaf chlorosis due to iron or magnesium, although it is usually noted with dark veining and tissue of leaf yellowing. Definitely from root issues not necessarily attributed to that cause. I think this tree needs to be potted up into a larger pot and allowed to grow as it is predisposed to. Wide and not deep.

Yellowing with this appearance at tip or edges w slight brown area is generally root problems. Soil, root bound or impacted.

Rick

Gill, I get the same white stuff on my terra cotts pots that are in my grow tent. I thought it was some kind of mold issue so I wiped them down with an anti fungal this helped for a day and then it came back, but not as bad. I have hard water as well. it's really calcium/mineral build up? I wonder why only one of my plants Freaked out. I up potted a few plants today and am about to post about it on my thread. I'm starting to phase out the terra cotta. I wonder if I am going to see build up on my smart pots...?

Gill, yes, the deposits shown in your photos are without doubt limescale. I think, your tree has some sort of deficiency problem.

Some adeniums will do just fine being watered with hard water. Well, only for a while. Others can be quite touchy and respond accordingly. Like this one:

The light-green/yellowish colour of the leaves (and leaf drop and stunted growth) is a lime-induced deficiency problem. The same issue is seen in nature, on for instance beech in areas with soils naturally high in lime.

Rick, Bob & Martin, hello and thanks for commenting.

Rick the thread this was first mentioned on was the 'grotesque' one....one of Martin's threads a few days back.

OK, those that show this lime scale deposit on the trunks and crusted on their terracotta pots are my 3 Obesums, these are the ones that still have all their lush vibrant green leaves and show no signs whatsoever of chlorosis or leaf drop in any way, even at this time of the year. In fact they have had the best foliage and leaf retention in their lives this season which I find odd especially as they have been in that mix for 2 seasons now. So any hard water does not seem to be affecting them, maybe apart from any marked increase in overall size, but if I can alter my watering, then they would obviously benefit further.

Hopefully the 3 smaller Arabicums with their corky patches/yellow/brown leaf issues (as shown on the 'grotesque' thread) that you attributed to the hard water causing their bad Fe and Mg intake, will also be able to grow better as well. I'll get it right at some point guys!

Rick, heres a pic of the pots my 'big 3' are currently in. I know I do need to re-pot them this season, missed it last year : ( how much bigger should I go do you reckon?

I'm looking forward to a fresh start this year, in many ways, so maybe my plants will gain a bit more of my attention in 2016....? Thanks adenium ppl :)

That right hand one looks odd doesn't it, pls ignore my pollarded oak tree at the bottom of the garden poking out behind it!!!

Gill UK

martin, I have a plant that is doing that exact same thing with the leaves,as the pic you just posted..I even recently posted it's pic on the forum. I didn't know if it was sun burn or not... do you know how to correct the problem? I'm working on changing all the media for my plants, how would you correct a lime deficiency in adeniums?
I need help with a couple of plants probably.

should I flush my plants with distilled water?

Gill, trying to understand your water report. Your water isn't perfect but isn't awful either, if I understand it correctly.

Small amounts of chlorine and flouride (not enough to do that to your leaves by themselves..), and EC of 265 us/cm, which you'd multiply by a number between .5 and .72 to get TDS in ppm, and so thats 100-200 ppm total dissolved salts, which isn't great but shouldn't cause problems if you flush well when watering - though this is definitely something to suspect for sensitive plants.

I also notice your fertilizer looks like 15-30-15 if I read the label right? The high P (twice as high as N) is not doing your roots any favors. If you flush regularly it might not be an issue, though I'd recommend using for something with closer to 3-1-2 for N-P-K, and certainly nothing with P or K higher than N as too much of one nutrient can cause the plant an inability to make use of others which often manifests with foliage like you have.

Also, just a note about the white deposits on outside of terracotta - that isn't necessarily from hard water per-say, you could add fertilizer to distilled water and still have that happen, if the plant isn't absorbing/using everything you put in.

Daniel

Bob, yes, you could flush your plants with distilled or demineralized water and then repot them using fresh soil. This procedure would probably be cheaper than just watering your plants (in the old soil) with distilled water 2-3 times a week over a period of, say, 2 weeks to wash out lime etc.

Daniel, I disagree. For adeniums and succulents, I would generally use half as much N as P and K and water daily with a low concentration. Using more N could result in etiolated weak growth and even suppress flowering. Been there, done that. We are not growing cucumbers here. ;-)

Thanks Martin, I watered them today with distilled water and let it run through real good. I'm slowly starting to repot them. I hope to see some better progress in my Somalense my multiflorum and my an arabicum yearlings I just managed to transfer out.
thanks for all the info everyone.

Bob, very good. Let us know how they are doing!

Btw, you have an actual true multiflorum? I have never seen multiflorums for sale. Well, yes, labelled multiflorum, but they are never true forms, often just an obesum hybrid.

Martin, I respectfully disagree. You have much more adenium experience than me, so please consider this a friendly debate in an effort to spread and share knowledge...

I do agree that too much nitrogen can cause the symptoms you mention - "etiolated weak growth and even suppress flowering". The grower controls how much N any plant gets, regardless of fertilizer NPK ratio. You can feed a plant the exact same small amounts of N using 3-1-2, 9-3-6, or 15-30-15, 1-1-1 or any other ratio.

I don't believe that adenium (or any plant) can make use of twice as much P as N - which means that the extra P sits in the soil until flushed. This extra P can cause salt buildup in the soil, and often excess salts in the soil manifest issues like seen here. Toxicity (too much) of one nutrient can also cause the roots to become unable to absorb another nutrient - often the cause of chlorosis.

I mentioned the fertilizer as a potential cause, since excess salts often causes problems like Gills, and based on what she posted the fertilizer is a potential cause of excess salts. Not saying it's at the root of her yellow leaves - just a potential factor. I am saying high P fertilizers at best just get washed down the drain, and at worst can cause problems.

Daniel

Martin, I bought it labelled as a A. Multiflorum but honestly I have no clue. The leaves are different, wider at the tip. I bought it over the summer from out of africa, it was $3.50. It behaves differently than all my other plants as well. I had it under LED lights all winter and only got a few leaves. It has several branches two toward the base and one up closer to the top of the axillary stem. Being that it's from out of africa, and the information I just gave you,what do you think it is? I will email Mike and Maureen today to see if I can get any 411 on its genetics. They were able to tell me that the somalense tanzania I got from them was from mother stock of a plants they got out of tanzania in the 90s. I'm sure they might be able to tell me more about my multiflorum.

I am going to but another one soon, I want to dice it up. I want to see if I can get a good root spread on one but incase it kills it I want a back up. :)

Arid lands has a multiflorum for sale right now too I believe I may get one of theirs to compare them.

The A. Multiflorum does definitely have a obligate dormancy period of 4-5 months, unlike that of the obesums no matter what zone they are grown. Will remain leafless during this time and have a somewhat shrubby or mutistemmed form. The flowers on a friends in Africa are so pure and very prolific.

Rick

Bob, does it have large leaves broadest at the tips? The one for sale at OoA (with the weak caudex) looks like a multiflorum: http://www.out-of-africa-plants.com/product/adenium-multiflorum/.

Take good care of it. And make it flower. ;-) The particular flower is one of my favourites.

The local botanical garden once had a stunning specimen. After seeing this wonderful display of flowers on a caudex plant, I fell in love with adeniums: ;-)

Gill, sorry for hijacking your thread!

Martin , yes it is a very broad leaf at the end and the tip looks obovate to emarginate like that picture yiu posted only a little fatter at the bottom but still tall like that one. I only have leaves on one of the small branches right now, the other two fell off when I repotted the plant they were on the main stem. I want a new one so I can chop it on top and bottom to try and get new roots and a fatter plant. the one I have right now I don't want to hurt. here's a current pic. it's only been in this pot for 3 days. unfortunately I did not get a picture of the root system when I repotted it. It is a nice swollen root system and I probably could have raised it more but I want it to bounce back as fast as possible and didn't want to damage any feeder roots more than I had to.

Today I am going to get a few gallons of distilled water and bottled water I am going to flush all my plants in terracotta. I am realizing my dorstenia gigas is probably suffering from buildup. I haven't done a good, all the way through watering with it since the winter started and leaves are turning yellow toward the bottom and falling off, almost like a nitrogen deficient plant. it's in terra cotta and a perlite soil mix. after I flush it real good would it be okay for me to go ahead and add a little 14-14-14 slow release fert on top for the watering thereafter just incase it's nitrogen deficient?

thanks again for all your help. not having them outside this winter made it hard for me to water my plants thoroughly.

Daniel, yes, you can (of course) cause a build-up of salts in the soil by using even a deluted fertilizer. I occasionally do flush my plants with more or less pure water and/or repot them. ;-)

Whatever causes the leaf issue, I think we can agree, that the mineral build-up/excess needs to removed either by thorough watering or simply by repotting the plant into fresh soil.

Ok folks, thanks to you all for commenting and trying to sort this issue out for me and my plants, as I really do appreciate your input. It will be interesting to see what happens this coming season, so watch this space.

I now know what I need to get...

Some bigger pots.

A fertiliser with a better NPK ratio, so, definitely a lower ratio of P than my current one.

Distilled/demineralised water to use in the meantime till it's re-potting time but see my ? below. I don't give them much water at the moment as they're not actively growing, nor do I really want to keep flushing them as it's none to warm.

...and finally, some more sun and lots of heat.

I already have the ingredients for my re-potting mix ready to go, and I'm eager to get them re-potted, so I have one final question if I may based on the following...

Ko Miracle x45 has dropped it's leaves and is slowly pushing out new ones

Dang Siri has dropped half with its remainder looking tatty, no new ones sprouting yet

the 3 obesums are all in full leaf, not even a hint of leaf drop/browning, no really obvious signs of new growth, if there is, it's too slow to notice

the 3 arabicums are still in leaf despite their yellow/dry leaf issues, no apparent growth here

......which (if any) can I re-pot now or is it best to wait till spring hopefully arrives?

Thanks yet again,

Gill UK

Gill, you're welcome.

Always repot adeniums during the growing season. The earlier the better. Never repot when they are dormant (not actively growing new leaves). But remember, adeniums in leaf while dormant are actually still growing. Caudex growth, that is. I would not mess with the root system, then.

EDIT: I think that you should treat your dormant adeniums like you normally do. But do not repot them now. Wait until spring. You have done a amazing job keeping them growing and alive the past years in your cold adenium unfriendly climate. IMHO, this is one of the biggest achievements here on the forum so far. Adeniums are quite easy to grow in warmer climates (or in climates with warm/hot summers). This is certainly not the case in Britain (or Denmark for that matter).

Thank you Martin! I will do as you say :)

Gill UK