DIY adenium rescue

9 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

I've whinged enough my spring die-off last year so you all know about that. The final victim was this one, whose problems I did not notice until around July. So I dug it out. Let's just do this with pictures.

July 2016:

Rotting and rooting at the same time!

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User
Original Author

9 years ago

Useful benchmarks:

1. Cold damage took 4 months to manifest on this specific plant. Because it was mid-July by the time it was noticed, the heat had already stopped the rot and triggered new roots to form.

2. air dried for a month. I found that the recovery and drying time between a plant already suffering from rot and a root-pruned healthy plant is different. The healthy plant heals over from the cut and bounces back in nearly half the time.

3. from #1 above, heat is the key.

4. it is easier to rehab a plant like this in gritty mix without soil. it can be watered and therefore will not dehydrate while also letting it dry faster.

Random notes: a bigger plant will need longer drying time before being potted. If you guys remember, I had two yearlings out of the pot for about 7 months and when potted up, they just resumed growth. in other words, don't worry about having to keep them out of the pot for the amount of time it takes to form a firm and mature callous over the cuts you made.

IN my experience, gluing things to an open cut only works well on healthy plants. Adeniums already stressed from root rot will not fare as well or fail altogether.

From the other victims of my spring die-off episode, I found that plants that had to be cut above the soil line do not survive. They just take a long time to finally die. You're better off grafting pieces to a healthy plant if you want to save the stock.

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Comments (7)

User
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Underneath:

After clean-up:

I hung it up in my shop for...let's say a month (I forgot it was there). I now think this was key to its survival.

Today:

I haven't decided how to pot it back up.
Halfway There
9 years ago
Awww poor baby! I sure hope it thrives. Great job though. I have about 9 trees and recently decided to pot them up in giant ceramic forever pots and get them all into a gritty mix. I've collected these over the years so they were in a mish-mosh of pots and mixes. It was a lot of work. I unpotted a big beauty today that has a great looking caudex but was not leafing out. I discovered extensive rotting under the surface just like you. It pays to unpot them even if the caudex looks fine. This one had been in the same position for over a year in a 1/2 gritty mix, 1/2 soil. I did some surgery today but it doesn't look good. The twisted roots had so much rot that it looks like a hack job. We'll see. Fingers crossed. I'll leave it hanging for a few weeks then into a soilless mix it goes. These trees are so high maintenance! But we love them :)
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Halfway There
9 years ago
Thanks for the tips! It's in the 80s here in S Fl so I'm going to let it heal for a few weeks and repot it in gritty mix. I wish I would have caught it sooner. I should have noticed sooner because every other tree was leafing out nicely and this wasn't doing anything. Lesson learned. Do you think I can shorten the healing time or should I wait a month, given my temps?
User
Original Author
9 years ago
You can pot it up after a couple of weeks, if only to get that out of the way. Just use soil-free substrate and don't water it for a few weeks more. I hung mine in the end of July last year and did not pot it until late August. temps here would be in the low to mid 30s Celsius...Um..86 to 90F, thereabout. The anachronism is driving me nuts.

You know, if it's out of the pot, you can at least keep an eye on it as it heals and hardens off.
bragu_DSM 5
9 years ago
P.

I need F degrees to cope ...

ackkk … in a digital world and that makes my head spin counter clockwise …
jedobaTX9b
9 years ago
Tough plant. Of course, to still be alive under the care of Doctor Frankenstein, it had to be strong!! ;)