Good luck Maria. Tomorow i will do an airlayering on a tripple flower adenium

Thank you, Stewart...I hope yours is a success as well.

Tripple meaning three different flowers? Can you post a photo beforehand? I would like to see that.

No, Triple petal

Oh, I see. I have so much to learn...Gorgeous flower! Much success, my friend.

April 15th is just around the corner and marks one month since I air layered this plant ... I will be unveiling one of the air layerings to check for roots. I decided not to wait the full 2 months because that proved to be too long on my roses.

Keep your fingers crossed and stay tuned.

Yeah. I can't wait!!!

I didn't airlayer the tripple DR. This morning i did my first grafting with the tripple DR on five plants. One is a cutting, one is a piece of a root and the others are plants from seeds.

Can anyone ID the flower name?

Stuart, I can't believe you chickened out on the air layering but jumped right into grafting this gorgeous flower! That rootstock is so beautiful and it looks like you did a good job there. I'm really hoping for success on this one I would love to see it angain in one year.

You are officially a mad scientist! Did you actually tie a knot in a stem? I wonder how that's going to grow!

Check Mr. K.O.'s (Taiwan) eBay listings ... I think I saw the seed for this flower among his offerings.

By the way, my air layered adenium looks great, is still actively producing leaves, and hadn't dropped one leaf ... The air layering didn't bother it at all. It's such an incredibly resilient plant!

I'll report back on the 15th of April. Have a super week.

Yes Maria, i tie 2 plant with knots. It is a good sign that your airlayers are succesfull.

I found the name on Adenium Rose Company website. Or is it not the same?

A better pic of my tripple a few months ago.

I've seen plaited plants, but not knotted ones. That's really cool, Stuart.

Mine that just recently dies had a natural knot! Can't wait to see how everything turns out!

Stuart, Mr. Ko is now shipping out of Hong Kong. He's only selling seeds (seeds don't always produce flowers true to their parent trees) and only lists the seed by number, not by flower name.

http://m.ebay.com/sch/i.html?isRefine=true&_pgn=2&_nkw=seller%3Aadenium_ko&_sasl=adenium_ko&LH_ItemCondition=0

Sigh! I uncovered three of the air-layerings this morning. The tissue is very healthy (not dry or soft) but there are no roots at all yet...not one! We'll have to try again on May 15th. In the meantime, I'll leave her in full sun, water weekly, and feed every other week.

Try with coconut fiber

Stuart,

I've already resealed all of the areas with the original material, sphagnum moss against the cut surface and cactus soil over that. Do you really believe it will make a difference if I put coco coir over the cut surface? I'd rather not reopen them. Be honest and let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

- Maria Elena

Yes. Try one of the air layering with coco coir

OK ... Do I just replace what's already there with dry Coco coir or do I have to re-lance the area and wet the coco coir? Thanks.

Maria. Replace it and let the coir sit in water and squeeze the water out before putting it to the wound.

Aye, captain! Thank you.

SUCCESS!!!!!

It's spring and this adenium knows it! Last week she began to bud at both branch terminals. When I uncovered the air layering this morning, SURPRISE! .... Roooooots everywhere! Well, one of them had a single root, which disappeared in the separation process ... but I still planted it and 3 out of 4 ain't bad at all ... and the 2 flowering branches are fully rooted. What more could a girl want 6 days after her birthday and the day before Mother's Day?

Now I know it isn't advisable to prune during flowering, but this one was ready to go under the knife now ... in time for future summer flowering. I saw myself obligated to make an executive decision and will live with the results. Who knows? Maybe those buds will hold on since the trees are rooted.

Here are photos of the budding branches. The smaller of the 2 budding branches actually developed a new stem during the air layering process. It's that tiny stem that has developed buds. I didn't do a good job of capturing it here but I think you'll see what I mean by the photo.

I dipped all unrooted pieces in a honey water and placed cinnamon on all cut ends. Here's a picture of everything potted up, awaiting watering & feeding.

I only used spagnum moss & pre-packaged cactus soil with a little added perlite for this air layering. I did not want to uncover the packets to add Coco coir and did not follow Stewart's advice to use it ... Will certainly do so in the future.

Thanks everyone for all your input. I will certainly post an update & photo for all of these around mid-summer.

Wow Maria congratulations with your new plants. HBD and a happy mothers day too. The big secret was time, one month wasn't enough. I am so happy for you.

Gracias! You have been very helpful, my friend. I'm really happy with the results. Let's see how things progress during the summer.

I don't think I'll be tenting these. It's extremely hot & humid here and I don't want them to cook. The sun is a real scorcher, as well. I have been keeping these under full sun, which completely dries out the soil within 3 days, and watering weekly. I'll have to be careful about not letting these dry out while the roots are so tender.

STUART........Please explain just how you are able to tie a knot in the stems of Adenium? Do you withhold water until the stems become desiccated and limp, and then tie the knot. I have seen photos of braided Adenium, but the braided portions of the stems are not bent so severely. If watering is stopped until the plant stems go limp and soft, does this set the plant back?

Using this bending technique might help those who want to train Adenium "bonsai".... The grower could just wait until the branches go limp, then wire, and bend the branches into new, more artistic, positions.....etc.

I am just curious....and, thanks for the interesting pics, and sharing too.

Frank

Frank. I was lucky i guess. I did notting special with the plants. As you can see on the pic that one was broken a bit and the other didn't. Every day i water my plants. Maybe some over fertilization did the trick.

I did a graft on this one but it didn't took. I decided to cut tke knot because it was too tight. If the knot is too tight and the plant grow older i think that the knot will become one part like a anaconda has swollowed a deer. It's better to make the knot big so that after 10+ years you still can see the knot on the plant.

I made the loop bigger in the knot

Thanks for the details, Stuart. Keep up the good work, and good luck with your plants.

Frank

Stuart, you got so many cute tricks. Thank you for sharing those pictures.

Marie

Stuart, will be interesting to see what the bigger knot does. I just think it would crack as it grows. Keep us updated thanks

Thanks to this forum i have learned a lot.

Marica. I don't think it would crack. I am sure It will fuse together.

Update:

10 days later, the bare stems are beginning to grow nubs, so they're branching. Here's a picture of the branch terminals that were budding.

Stuart, I noticed all the air layered pieces need more water than usual. I would never have known this if it were not for the flowers ... The flower goes limp if I don't water at least 3x per week. This is likely due to a lack of caudex & large enough root system to sustain the cuttings. This is possibly the reason why so many air layerings fail. I'll continue to adapt watering to its needs while the root systems continue to develop.

LL did your mom remember the blooms. See you saved it for her

Maria you are caring for your new children like a mother does.

Stuart, you know that's right! ... Except I don't have to pay for a Princeton education!

Marica, unfortunately not. Mom thinks these are my adenium. She loves the flowers though, and that's what's important to me ... that my Margarita (Spanish for Daisy) is surrounded by flowers as lovely as she! Oh, my! I wax poetic! Now, if only I could get her to stop putting melon seeds in my plants!

Thank you for sharing your experiment Stuart. I will try this after our winter is over.

My coddled babies ...

Marlene. It is not my experiment. I never did airlayering on adeniums, you have to thank Maria.

Maria. how old are the seedlings?

Hi, Stuart -

The 3 in 4" pots were sown Feb 2016 from mixed seeds. They are the same age yet the one on the right is visibly smaller. The two taller ones are now tapering at the top.

In the smaller pots, 5 were sown in mid March 2016 (from same seed). The one pictured front left in this group was sown April 2016.

.

The 6 in the two front rows are newly sown (May 2016) from mixed seed.

As you recommended a few months ago, I have been keeping my little group of Adenium in full sun. I even found that I have better germination of seeds in direct sun. I use rain water 2 - 3 x per week & feed weekly with a slightly higher potassium N-P-K formulation (tomato food), which is best for flowering/fruiting plants/trees ... I use it on all my C&S. They all look strong & healthy.

I bring this particular tray in when there's a torrential downpour ... We've just entered rainy season.

Good job Maria. They are all looking healthy and happy. I am using rain water too.

Update to May 7, 2016 entry to show new leafing & branching:

The blue styro in the 1st pot is used to separate the two main branches because what you see on top are not just leaves, but actually about 10 new branches coming in.

The blue styro in the 2nd pot is being used as cushioning as I pull down the original terminal tip to accommodate a new branch that developed on the side.

You may recall the last pot developed blooms down towards the center of the branch, as shown in May 20 photo. This area dropped its last flower over a week ago and I'm hoping it, too, will branch out. It hasn't done so yet.

Observations: Buds of cut air-layered terminal tips bloomed normally, as pictured in May 20 entry, and lasted the normal amount of time. As originally reported, this tree blooms about every two months. New buds are coming in on the tips of the same two original terminal branches as of last week.

What an interesting thread this is. I'm really enjoying reading what you've all been doing to your plants and seeng the results!

Maria, I'm so pleased you have been able to save your mums plant and make many more from the original.

Gill

They look great. We know that your mom's plant was saved.

I now have hope that a clone from Demmitt will do well with the air layering I am trying . The clone just was not branching for me. pics soon

Thanks!

Gill, this one blooms frequently and was worth the effort. I love learning about these little trees and will soon turn towards the roots & grafting. Great hobby! So satisfying.

Marica, are you cloning to graft? My air-layering took 2 months and was kept in direct sunlight. I eventually had to tie the branches together to support them. Because there were four on the one spindly tree, they were heavy & threatening to pull apart at the main V of the trunk.

Good luck with yours.

Bumping thread because there's been recent mention of air layering.

I gave away two of the air-layered cuttings. Finally getting new blooms on the main original plant from cutting ... Haven't seen any since May. Will share 6-month update photos when the blooms come in.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3731682/please-help-me-save-moms-sorry-plant?n=33

Helooooo friends! Here’s my total failure in air layering:

I don’t know why, but all 8 branches failed. I applied rooting hormones on cuts, wrapped them with sphagnum moss and coco coir, I kept media moist with some rooting hormones as well, and.... nothing. Nada. Not even one scrawny root! To stay on a positive note, I’m glad that I didn’t kill those branches. Well, I have to take it back... I killed them other way. When I tried to root them as a cuttings, lol. 90% of those crocked, and a few still hanging in there, but again, no roots or signs of new growth. I’m kinda blaming it on weather, our April and May was cooler than winter! So I’m thinking I should try it again when weather will be warmer. All this torture was done indoors, and I’m thinking of taking my cuttings outside at least during a day. Nights are still 48-51 here. Forgot to mention, some of them in perlite/coir mix, some in perlite. And one in water with root hormone. I did water them tho.... didn’t know till yesterday that cuttings needs to be in dry media. Ugh.... Probably will kill the rest of them soon, lol.

Experience ... the best teacher! Yes, you must try again in warmer weather. Your air layering lances look scarred. I don't think you got the entire green outer bark off ... It should peel off in one piece. The area should be smooth right up to the day you get roots in about 6-8 weeks. I did the one above on March 15 and had roots on May 7.

I used moistened sphagnum moss, with all the water squeezed out as the 1st layer around the cut, then added a ball of dry soil inside the plastic. Squeeze the ball tight and tie off then tape to seal shut on both ends. The twist tie is not enough ... I learned with air layering roses that the seal has to be tight or the cut will dry out. You never touch it again until you see roots inside the plastic. Treat the plant like any other plant until you remove the rooted branches.

Note: Rooted branches may need more water while they acclimate. Watch the leaves for signs of thirst.

Good luck the next time you try, Elena. Please let us know how it goes.

Stuart, how did those knots do? Did they hold up to create something interesting or did they meld into each other?

Maria Elena