Yea, Martin has a mean setup. I´ve seen the things that he is doing. Martin - if your listening - I´m going to read all your posts and suck all the info out of them. I think your plants look great! I´ll be happy if I get one through the coming winter.

Your little ones will need more water than the gritty mix can provide. You'll need something organic. I use coir mixed with diatomaceous earth for starting seeds in.

Steffen,

I think that Martin could assist you very much and make getting these underway in your conditions available well. Seems like artificial light source during low light times of year will help with this.

Rick

Hi Steffen,

These are good lights; at a good price. They run a bit hot, but cost efficient.

http://www.amazon.com/8lamps-DL828S-Fluorescent-Hydroponic-Fixture/dp/B00NMX5EGC?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00

I would also buy a heat mat, propagation tray w/ tall lid.

Rob

Thanks,

halocline, those lights would probably suit my needs well.

Dain, I will probably try to start them something like that. Choir isn´t availabale. I´ll have to replace it with something else. I have the following crushed LECA pebbles, volcano rocks aswell as calcined clay, bark, river rocks, granite, fresh sphagnum and cactus soil mix. I´ll figure something out.

I haven´t gotten the seeds yet but they should be comeing pretty soon.

Hi there, Steffen. And welcome to the forum.

Growing adeniums up here north can be a challenge but fortunately not impossible. For indoor growing I suggest that you buy a heating mat and an artificial light source (heat is as important as high light intensity and adeniums love bottom heat). For instance, LED or T5HO as suggested. Use the setup - both mat and light - even in the spring and summer, on overcast cold days to prevent your plants from going (semi-)dormant. In my experience, changeable weather (with longer periods of cold overcast weather) during the growing season will dramatically stunt the growth of adeniums. It can take weeks before they wake up again. You want to prevent that.

During the fall and winter months, I suggest that you use the artificial light as well.

The past year I have been growing adeniums in heated closed grow tents (30C/86F) under 17 hours of LED light. Using this setup, I prefer a growing medium, coir/cocos ground, with 40-50% inorganic materials (it does not really matter what you use - as long as it prevents water logging). The ratio you want to use depends on your growing conditions and watering regime. Without a heated tent, I would probably change the ratio myself and increase the percentage of inorganic materials. Say, to 60/40.

Cheers,

Martin

Hej Martin, tack ska du ha!

I´ve been readyingy our posts and finding them very helpfull. Nice of you to give me help with the ratios, I´ve been thinking about that for a bit - now I have a starting point and I´ll take it from there. Hopefully I wont cause an Adenium hollocaust with my skills.

One more thing. I´ve learned that the most extreme growth will take place in the first 3-4 years. Is that why you use the growing tent? To optimize the most extreme period in the plants life?

Do you treat mature plants with heating mats too? Or do you just let them go dormant in the winter months?

Thanks again for all the help,

Steff

You are welcome, Steff.

I basically use grow tents and LED light for fast consistent growth. Years ago I started growing many different (way over 50 species) caudiciform plants (e.g. adeniums) inside on windowsills and outside in the summer. With some or little success. After two-three growing seasons in a row with few warm sunny days, I decided to take a break from it all. Last year I returned - with a new plan for growing primarily adeniums (and only from seeds myself). Artificial light, T5HO, and later LED and grow tents. ;-)

So far results have been good. I even managed to sell about 60-70 seedlings. In May I will move most of my adeniums from the tents and try growing them outside in a quite large propagator and inside on windowsills. I plan to shut down one of my two tents. The remaining one will be stuffed with new seedlings for sale. ;-)