They look great! I like that last one as well!

Welcome to Adeniums. Love the last two pics. I have not invested in LED lights yet and I know that many are using T5, Which is what my fish tank light is . Someone should come along soon to help out with your lighting questions.

Hello Francesco and welcome to the forum. We have a great group of folks on here all willing to share tips and info on our favourite plants. Hope to see you here often with news and pics of your plants.

Pinching the growing point will hopefully induce branches, more branches = more chance of flowers.

Don't think we have anyone else from Switzerland! What are your temps like in your different seasons?

Your mix looks good...what does it consist of please? Also what do you feed your plants with?

Gill

They look amazing:) and branching also very well:)

Thank you all for the warmth welcome. :-)

@Marica: I never thought about using my old fish tank light, it might be a possibility. So fare I have just used my new fish tank to germinate my seedlings. The heat on the top works marvelous for Adenium seeds.

@Gill: So fare I could not pinch any of my new plants, but I might be willing to do it next spring if they just grow tall and skinny.

During Summer, temps can be around 28-31 C°. Unfortunately we had a strange summer. August was quite hot but it rained a lot. However right now it appears that we have a prolonged summer as temps are still quite hot (23-28C°) which is unusual for September. But I don't mind it at all as all of my plants love the sun! During Winter 1-6C° but it depends and ca. 10C° around autumn and spring. All those informations count just for Zürich as temps are much colder in de north or warmer in the south.

Thx. My mix contains just seramis (its a granulate) and in some pots I mixed it up with coconut coir. When they get bigger I use the granulate and good compost soil which I bought in a gardening store. I almost forgot to mention that I use foamed clay on the bottom to provide a good drainage.

To Feed them I use a cacti fertilizer (NPK 5+5+7) once a week. Do you think it is ok or should I try another one? What are you using?

Francesco

Welcome to the forum, Francesco.

Be careful watering that medium you're using. It retains a lot of water and holds it for quite a while. Winter watering will be tricky, though not impossible. You'll have to use measured doses instead of drenching as we normally do in summer.

I use T5HO fluorescent lights as well and they work well, as long as you do not push growth too much. This means fertilizing at half or less than half your summer routine. But under T5HOs, the plants can be very close to the bulbs. I prefer this because it doesn't require a lot of vertical space and the bulbs give out just enough heat to keep them slightly warm. For instance when my basement is 10°C, it's about 16°C right under the lights on the plant shelf.

Have fun!

Pagan

Welcome Francesco to the adenium forum and thanks for sharing the pics of your plants. Must say that they seem healthy and growing well...and hope that they will flower for you soon enough. Yes being in a cold country you will definitely need to shelter them in the winters and lights if you want them to keep growing. You will get great advice here dont worry...please continue to share your adenium stories with us here..

Francesco, welcome to this forum of adenium enthusiasts. And great looking seedlings! Just follow Pagan's advice on winter growing and they will be just fine.

Thank you Pagan and Martin for the useful informations, I will keep an eye on it! And you are right Pagan, the soil holds water quiet for a while if the weather is colder. And for winter, I hope my plants will show me if they need a drop of water so i don't habe to do the work all alone. ;-)

Willkommen , Francesco!

Danke LatinLady! :-) So have I found someone to speak german with?! No I'm just kidding. But if you are willing to learn it I can help. ^^

I once lived in Germany, for 4-5 years. And yes, I speak the language. ;-)

That's the extent of my German. My one trip to Germany was compliments of the US military.

Everything I know about Deutsch came in three books. Problem is, the third book -which contained all the verbs - was lost. ^_^

Hi Francesco. Regarding my fertiliser, after having used different ferts for several years and subjecting my small collection to the effects of not using better ones I was directed to Try Chempak8 by another UK grower who sang its praises.

Since being converted from Tomorite, Phostrogen and several other regular types, this one has improved my plants in leaps and bounds. In this current season it appears to have solved the unsightly corky midribs and thick, small leathery leaves on my arabicums whilst (I will also accredit this next fact to it) causing me to see flowers mature and open fully on two plants. Nothing else has changed so I assume it's the fert switch that's altered them. One had never had flowers before, the other had buds three years in succession, but always aborted them in the bud stage.Growth on all plants has been good with more branch extension and lush healthy leaves.

I'll continue with the Chempak8 from now on. It's NPk ratio is 12.5:25:25+ trace elements. Lots of our US counterparts advocate the use of a Dynagro product which has a similar ratio as far as I'm aware? Hopefully others will confirm info regarding the Dynagro. I'll post a pic so you can see the makeup of the fert I'm using.

In lots of the ferts that I was using over the years, the Nitrogen content was too high and that combined with the fact that other essential TE's were absent, the imbalance was causing my plants to not do their best overall.

Gill

Here's the ingredients :-)

Good to know Martin! So if I don't understand something I can ask you in German. So far I'm glad to use my "school english" again so that I don't forget everything.

@LatinLady: I'm sure you could say more in German as you are thinking.

@bragu: You should be happy that the book with the verbs was lost. It's a lot of work to learn them and all the tenses.

@Gill: I remember that product! I have already read about it in one of your posts if I remember well. I have already checked it on amazon uk and I could order it to Switzerland so I will definitely try it next season. :-) Thank you very much for your support!

You're welcome! I could have ordered the Dynagro from the US but shipping doubled the price of a small bottle at that time. It admittedly goes along way as you literally measure it in drops, but the already pricey £16 then became £32....which is out of my league. Kind growers here offered to mail it to me to help reduce costs, but knowing my luck, it would either get smashed (it's liquid btw) or confiscated :-/ So Chempak8 is my choice, it's an 800 gm box, sadly no price sticker on it...maybe £4.99?

Gill