Tan. fantastic, it is already working. thank you for the tutorial

Thanks for sharing, i like the concept to train feom seedling stage:) the cascades look awesome, what i have seen on the net

Hello and welcome to the forum. Looks like we have another experiment going on here! Several have tried the conjoining, we could do with them updating as we've not heard from them lately. The spiral guy should be interesting too. Regular update pics are mandatory you realise!

Where in the tropics are you, could you add it after your name? Makes it all the more interesting :-)

Sounds like you have other DR plants, please do show and tell.

Gill

Tried to edit my above post but couldnt do it. This is another seedling undergoing the spiral training.

Hi Stuart, they seems working at the moment. No idea will they continue to grow to the forms that I trying to achieve :)

Hi Shimolee, yes I guess its easier to train them from young. The bonsai cascading form is beautiful indeed... planning to that for the seedling in first photo.

Hi Gill, thanks for the welcome. I am located in hot and wet Singapore. My other DR plants are just plain looking adenium, unlike the many beautiful plants posted here. I am more excited by their forms, guess you probably know by now :)

Ahhhhh, Singapore...my favourite SEAsia country as I've been fortunate to visit Singapore city and surrounds on several occasions and am always blown away by your tropical flowers, mainly the orchids and travellers palms that grow there....it's a fantastic place! I thought the Gardens by the Bay with the bio domes and tree sculptures, can't recall their proper name, was amazing.

You should get some good growth with the constant year round temp of around 30c. We still like to see ordinary Adeniums as you describe them! I've only just got flowers to get to the stage where they actually open after 8 years of growth from seeds, so I too like them for their interesting shapes.

I guess you are able to buy them easily in your country, as plants.? Ive had to grow mine from seed as they're not often available in the UK as a plant, and I've only ever seen two here. I saw my first DR in Bangkok in 2005 but wasn't aware at the time what it was. I got an ID online and have been growing them ever since....and an addict too!

What is your growing mix consist of in the pics you've posted please? It looks interesting.......

Gill

I started my first adenium obesum seedlings this summer and recently re-potted them from soil to gritty mix. 9 out of 10 seeds germinated, so I took 5 of the smallest / least-developed seedlings and (after sterilizing) used a razor to remove the outer skin and super glued all 5 seedlings together. They are definitely stress from the procedure and at no point in the experiment was I confident they would survive, but I don't want 9 DRs in my apartment, so I figured this experiment would either thin the heard or leave me with 1 really cool plant instead of 5 runts.

....and how are they doing today please?

Gill

Gill, haha I am feeling the opposite. Love very much the UK cool weather and the beautiful countryside greenery when I stayed one month in Cambridge in early 90s for some work training. We would gladly give up all the tropical plants if we have an opportunity to live there :)

Yes, we can buy them easily as plant. But growing from seeds, kept me busy and make the hobby more interesting and challenging. With 4 batches of seedlings of various age, I am now an addict too!

The seedlings are grown in 100% coarse volcanic sand . Was thinking I need a mix that allows "free" movement of the seedlings for the caudex training without breaking too many of the tiny roots.

Jweingarden, lol... we had the same thought and space concern. After giving away seeds and seedlings, I still have 15 seedlings left and just had to do something. I bind 2, then 3 and but had to stop at 3 as they get very slimy and slippery with so much saps! So its amazing that you were able to hold and superglue 5 seedlings!

Yes, do show how they are doing now :)

Wow!! I am surprised that you guys are able to stick so many babies together.

Jweingarden... I am very interested how you managed to do it, Pls adv and show us a pic if available.

Thanks

bmbalbert

I'll post a pic if frankenstein survives / spruces up (I'm not all that confident). This is my first experience with adenium, and thus also first experiment of the sort (I am also experimenting with 3 ficus benjamina cuttings, and that is going much better).

Hi bmbalbert, I only manage to join 2 together. Need to improve my handicraft skill to fuse at least 3, so that I may get a huge caudex faster instead of waiting for my arabicum seedling which is growing so slowly :)

Tan

Gill said update is mandatory... lol... here is the one month update of my diy conjoined twins vs the real stuff. Which is real, which is diy... easy guess :)

Very impressive, I hope they continue to grow stronger for you but from what I can see, they're doing very well at the moment. So the left hand pair are the ones you joined together and the right hand set are the naturally occurring ones, you can barely tell the difference. I guess with age, the graft will become even less obvious as the 'wound' smooths out. Thanks for the update Tan, I will await the next instalment with anticipation!

So, with your even temperatures and the amount of sun you get during the full 12 months, which is around 30C I would imagine, do your plants ever show any signs of dormancy or do you find they continue to grow and hold their leaves?

I miss Singapore :-/

Gill

Thanks Gill... and a prize for the first correct answer... I will slice and make a pair for you when you visit here :).

I hope the joint remain strong and their scars smoothen eventually. Most plants here seems growing all the time with our tropical climate. But my plants get only 3 hours morning sun and adeniums are just so slow especially the arabicum seedlings... maybe I watching them too much :)

Tan

Found the 2 seedlings under caudex training dying (photo taken yesterday). The caudex are mushy, have yellowish & blackish spots from the inside, leaf yellow/brown and root rotten. Could it be the continuous rain last week or my over watering (but they were in gritty mix) or over twisting... Luckily the twin, triplet and the rest are still ok.

They were curving and growing nicely. Very disappointing after 3 months of effort...

Noooooooooo! Well I wasn't expecting to read that... what a disappointment. The mix looks super gritty and I would have thought ideal, but maybe with being constantly in the rain it just had no time to actually dry out even if it was draining rapidly? That is such a shame, if the caudex and roots on both are mushy then perhaps they've gone too far down the dreaded 'Road to Rot'. How about if you unpot them and let them air dry for a day or so and see what happens, you sadly have nothing to loose by giving that a try?? Fingers crossed for you.

Gill

They are mushy and goner. True, nothing to loose at this stage. Thanks Gill.

Great post from last year. Try, try again! I like the spiral seedling idea. I am going to try that. I /love/ semi and cascade bonsai so thanks for the photos and tips. Nice.

Hi Patty, look forward to see your twisting seedlings soon :). I didnt have any chance to abuse any baby seedling recently lol. Had zero germination for my balance seeds kept in the fridge and seeds from a thai ebayer. Just received some seeds from a good friend yesterday. Hope to get some naturally curvy babies to start with :)

Good luck to you also! I'll try to update my own progress later but obviously it'll take a while.

Hello Tan, from a cloudy and dull Middle England. Could we have an update on the two pairs of twins please when you ave a spare moment as I'm hoping they have survived since we last got to see them?

Hi Gill, nice weather over there :). The monsoon season here is finally ending... we had pots toppling few times and some rotting casualties from the continuous and heavy storms. The twins are alive but growing very slowly (probably stunted by the surgeries). Here they are... the bigger pairs 9 mths old and the smaller pairs 6 months old.

Hi Gill, thanks. Both are of the same seed type. Will be nice to have different flower types on them.

Wow! Those are really gorgeous countryside sceneries and two huge beautiful gardens. We definitely hope to visit England one day.

It is good looking Tan.

Marie

Your homemade twins are looking great!

Hi Steffen, thanks. In case you are not aware, only the smaller pair is homemade. The bigger pair is a naturally conjoined twins.

Tan, have you tried the spiral caudex training this way? You inspired me to do it. Instead of using wire or paper clips to pin them down, I grow them in a bottle. After they germinate and before they fully stand up, I transplant them to a bottle. By manipulate the bottle, I think it will turns the way I wanted. So far my experiment is going well. Below is a 3 days after transplant. It used to look like a letter L and now it looks like a letter C. It also has grown about .5 inch.

Hi Shang, thanks for sharing your experiment too. Congrats, your way is working too :). The wires are just to hold the tiny seedlings in place and then turning the pot when needed (in various directions) for them to grow towards the light source. In this old photo, I was trying to form another turn. (This seedling has died due to root rots)

Looking forward to see how your cute seedling develop and to your success :)

Hey Shang and Tan I am interested in growing adenium in bonsai style too. I wanted to experiment with a cascade and had this seedling growing thin and long so decided to repot at a lean and wire it. It has been a few weeks now and I decided to cut of the growing point but still doing good. I will post some update photos if anything interesting happens. John

Thanks Tan. I like how you used the nesting to hold the soil. It sad to know the seedling died of root rot. I am wodering if we water the plant with anti fungus one or twice a month prevent the root rot problem.

John, your experiment looks promising. Plz keep us posted on the progress. I will do the same :)

p.s Long time ago I did an experiment and the plant turn out more than what I expected it. I am afraid that if I post it; it might offend some growers. I will post it if everyone okay with it. At the end of the day, only the one with dirty mind see it as an offensive plant.

Hi John, thanks for sharing and its looking good :). Sometimes they can suddenly grow fast, so we gotta be careful with the wires or nets that are holding them. Good luck :)

Hi Shang, yes rather disappointing after 3 months of effort. Yes, guess using antifungal is one way to reduce root rots. Hope to try again soon.

Thanks for the encouragement. yes Tan I agree I keep a very close eye on the wire the caudex has already grown lol I look at it 100 times a day lol.

And Ok Shang now you have me wondering what your experiment looks like.

John, since this is Tan's post. If Tan gives me permission I will upload it tomorrow.

Shang, you are free to post. Looking forward to see your artistic experiment :)

Here is the plant I am talking about. The tap root was never been cut. What I did was placing a drinking plastic cup under it when it about 2 months old. Eventually, it grows four legs. The recent repot I discovered his manhood. There are no feeder roots growing from it. He is telling me, he is ready to spread his pollens.

His right hide leg used to be closer to the left. It regrow after recovered from leg fungus. Lol

A closer look at his bloom.

Hi Shang, its nice looking! Especially from the top view in second photo, he is like running away :)

Hey Shang looks really nice so much movement very nice flower too.

Thanks Tan & John. I am still waiting for my orders to arrive so I can graft the multi layers flower on him. The I can truly call him beauty and the beast :)

If anyone has an update on any of these, I would love to see it.