I second everything Gill has said above.

As for the neem oil: I use a mix of water, dish soap, rubbing alcohol and neem oil in a spray bottle, and have had very good results, no negatives.

By the way: welcome to the forum! There are extremely knowledgeable and experienced people on here (I'm still fairly new to adeniums myself) that will help you through. Post pictures and as many details as you can to get the right advice for your plants.

Thank you thank you for the warm welcoming ..both of you. Since I last posted I checked my plants closer and discovered one has root rot. :(

It appears to have affected only one root area which when I pulled came off as a slimy mess. I started scraping away the affected parts knowing I had seen videos of amputation of rot on you tube and how they cut till the see white areas only.

I also learned that cinnamon would help heal and stop fungus on this site so I moved my two plants to an area where my aero garden is. I thought more light might make them happy since they were struggling. I placed only the light of the areo garden on a platform so that it was taller than the plants and placed them close to the light. ( I even thought about enclosing them with an aluminum wall for light and warmth) saw that on you tube too.

I dusted cinnamon on the area that I removed rot from. Both plants are in identical clay grazed pots with drainage holes. As for the soil I used a mixture of perlite (sp) ? Compost and the soil the company recommended when I purchased them.

Being busy today I haven't had time to thoroughly inspect the plant a third time where I actually take the plant out of the pot to ensure that all of the rot was removed. As far as the rest of body of the two plants they aren't rock hard but they aren't squishy either. Depending on whether or not the wet rot area seems to be drying or spreading will determine if I take the plant out of the pot to cut additional rot out. I was hoping I caught it already.

They say a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Lol. I am trying my best to get them back on the mend. I will take pictures and post maybe tomorrow. Thank you again for your guidance and support.

Oh I forgot. When I trimmed the branches and roots I didn't dry them off. I just repotted them.

Photo #1 is a close up of where the root rot was spotted. In photo #2 you see the plant with the rot on the right. I had paper towels inserted to dry up the slimy juices. Also I had dusted the affected area with cinnamon. You can also see my light bright idea. lol. The plant on the left is the one that had begun to bloom as I was transitioning them inside. The one flower never opened up and kinda just dropped off.

Not sure if you've got round to taking the plant right out of the old soil, to get rid of every ounce of old mix and check every part of the plant yet? I suspect not from how I'm reading your further posts? You must do that in order to stop it rotting. Every inch of brown tissue needs to be cut away, no good just scraping at it I'm afraid, you need to cut it away till you reach clean white/cream tissue with no brown/soft/discoloured areas otherwise there's little hope that it will halt the rotting process. If the first pic is what it looks like after your initial surgery, then it needs to go back to theatre as much more needs to be done as there is still lots of dead and dying tissue in that pic so it needs to be unpotted and cleaned....and ASAP.

The mix in the pots looks way to organic. Lots of nurseries don't know what type of soil to grow Adeniums in I'm afraid, as some are only after a plant sale! Lots of info if you type an appropriate question into the search box at the top and tick the Adenium option that pops up. At a minimum, the most basic and easily made Adenium mix is half cactus mix half perlite...and folks can still rot plants in that! Whichever recipe you use, it really needs to be repotted in a much more inorganic type for the mix to drain properly...as that's why you have the rot issue in the first place.

But you need to address the rotting tissue first, and fully by cutting it all away, drying for a few days, then placing cinnamon lightly over the cut areas, then planting in a proper mix. No use missing anything out I'm afraid, or the plants demise will be inevitable.

If in doubt post more pics of what you find once unpotted, but be prepared for more cutting out.

Gill

I did more surgery today and let it dry out after taking the plant out altogether. But once finished I put it back in the same pot. After reading your comments Gill, I guess I will go shopping tomorrow to buy new soil. I removed another root that was soft upon inspection today. I felt confident I removed it all. Hubby took it upon himself to supervise. He is also a plant lover. He simply said toss it out and buy a new one. I said no I am going to try to save it if it's not too late.

Then hubby said repot it in a clay pot that isn't glazed.

The other plant thank goodness hasn't shown any evidence of rot at this time.

Zsara, please post a pic of the plant before you replant it in the new mix. It will be OK in a plastic one, lots of members here use them. Clay brings a different watering strategy into the game, especially if you're not used to them as the pot itself absorbs lots of water, which I know is what Adeniums need...I.e. No standing water, but don't think you have to go with clay just yet, that can be a progression once you master the Adenium growing first.

Gill

ps. Just checked your pots above.....could be an issue later on when you get good root expansion which can happen in a couple of seasons given the right circumstances as if the roots grow to a girth greater than the diameter of the opening, you won't get the plant out. Pots with fat bellies and narrow tops are usually best avoided for Adeniums.....you may need to smash the pot to extract the plant! As mentioned a pic of the roots may prompt suggestions for a better style pot from us, it won't hurt to leave it unpotted as you need to make sure the cuts are dry...and not just for an hour or two I mean.

Ok I will take some mor pictures today.

The top photo is the plant that had root rot. Not very much left. But I got it all! The second photo is the plant without rot it had a softer area I checked out but no rot was discovered. Yesterday I repotted both plants after dusting with cinnamon in two plain clay pots that are shorter and wider. (NO Glaze)

I still have them under a plant light with a aluminum car sun shield wrapped around it to reflect warmth and light. It's in the plant angel's hands now. ;) Thanks again everyone. I will keep you posted.

Oh one more thing. The glazed pots had a built in tray w/o drainage holes! I had rocks and crushed plastic water bottles in the bottom for drainage. DUH!

Hi Zsara. I'm new to the forum. I had a few plants that had dreaded root rot. :-( They have been drying out for about 10 days now. The small one is fairly dry but the big one needs a few more days. The darkness is cinnamon. Will replant in better grow special orchid mix and coarse perlite with foam in bottom of pot. Kept very warm and watered once. Saved two plants this way. I like the cuts very dry before repot because I read on this forum they should be very dry. Sorry about other plants in background. I'm not a pro but this worked for me thanks to the advice here. I hope this helps.

Wispy

Small one

Wow I thought I needed to save some of the roots! Well if this does not work I will cut again. Also I let mine dry for a day if that.....might of messed up there too. Oh well. Thanks

You are learning like me. I messed up a few times too. :-) If the roots are not rotted you can save them. The roots on my plants were all dark so I had to cut them all off.

Wispy

Wispy you were right. Checked my plant today and sure enough the rot was still spreading so I removed the entire bottom like you did sprinkled cinnamon on it and left it out of the soil to dry. I will keep it our for a while but my question is how will it develop roots again?

I have two that have small feeder roots from this summer when I unpotted them to check for rot. That was over a few months so I may take a few years for them to grow larger because it's like a plant cutting and it was warm then. It took a while to grow new leaves also. I don't know the answer to this truly because I hope my plants live through this winter! Is seems ok now. Hopefully someone who has cropped plants that have lived to be a few years old can share pointers with us. :-)

Wispy

Fingers crossed

Zsara, you need to let it dry hanged for a week or more, then you can pot it, in a gritty mix, in a warm place, don't water until you see new grow, the plant will need warm to develop new roots. This can take a while, I wish you luck!!

Tell me or describe hanging the plant. I have it on its side right now. Thanks

Hello! I took a pic from google images to describe it, my English isn't so good, sorry...

let it dry like this, I don't know how long will take, it depends on the weather in your zone, in my zone will take a week, since we are on spring now and it's a hot country. I hope it helps!

I was checking on my dormant plants today and one fell over. I'd almost say as a warning: one of the big roots of the plants was rotting like crazy!

I cut the rot, applied cinnamon powder and now it's hanging where it was standing before. Because of the climate zone I'm in, I will leave it hanging until spring (March/April).

I wonder why plants rot when dry? I know this may be a crazy question but I'm still learning and wonder this. I know cold is death to Adenium. I wonder this.

I don't know Wispy. I had not watered it for 2 weeks when I moved it to its "dormancy room", where the temperature has not been below 17C. Some of the soil still felt a bit wet though.

When I bought this plant last August I repotted it, and all roots were okay back then. Even now, the caudex part above the soil line is still very firm, yet that one root was literally black and just fell to pieces. I would never have known if it hadn't fallen over today...

One of the pictures of hanging the plants looks like the stems had rot more so than the roots. Ok it seems like I need to hang until spring am I Right?

Plants update. Both seem to have slowed down in regards to either loosing leaves and or having signs of root rot. Both are under a plant light with a alumi car accordion type sun reflector wrapped around to reflect the light and warmth back towards both plants. The plant that had serious rot now is very dry and has a prunish indent where it was once moist and soft. I have it still out of soul and hanging.

Here is my question. Should I be withholding water for both plants until spring? I have ceased all watering.... And when it is safe to move them back outdoors will the plant which had serious rot germinate a new rot system?