Jeannie,

The color of the lower and upper portion look normal in some seedlings. Pots look a bit small and soil looks to need to be more free draining and of coarser material in mix. Pot size about 1/2" - 3/4" larger.

I'm pretty new to growing Adeniums....I just received them from Ebay....Planning on re-potting them this weekend. That was the only one that had that bronze bottom, so I was wondering if it's was ok.

Thanks for responding, Jeannie :)

Is it firm?

Rob

Yes it is. I finally heard from the Seller and he said it was normal for some of the Adeniums to have a reddish/bronze caudex. Thanks, Jeannie :)

I have a few like that, as well, Jeannie. It looks fine and healthy. I do recommend you get some perlite and mix it into the soil ... 1/3 - 1/2 perlite. This will provide better drainage and much needed aeration for the roots. You can begin doing that for all of them after they reach 1-3 months old.

All the very best on this new journey.

Maria Elena

I've read where some people use very small lava rock in their soils....What are your thoughts on that? Thanks, Jeannie :)

Yes, you can use lava rock if it's something you readily have on hand. The idea is to create a quick draining substrate that doesn't remain soggy and aerates the roots.

Reach out to others in Texas, like Roger (katiedolittle), Marie (Marie Tran), and Jerry (jedobaTX). They will be better equipped to advise you on substrate.

Maria Elena

Jeannies - I've been using the Gritty Mix for the past few years with my Bonsai trees, and it has worked great! Once I started growing Adeniums however, they didn't seem to care much for it. In fact; I made several different mixes, and it had the poorest performance.

I was using a lot of Lava Rock in my cacti mix though, so I started fooling around with mixes where Lava Rock was the main ingredient. I haven't quite got it dialed in yet, but here's what I'm currently using.

I can get 1 cu ft bags of LR, so I screen it into 2 sizes, large and small. I use the smallest size in my mix, and use the larger size as a top dressing.

(Small)

Lava Rock is one of my favorite materials to use in soils. For my next Adenium mix; I'm going to go completely soilless; like the Gritty Mix. (No fungus gnats that way.)

I'm working with:

Lava Rock, coarse Perlite, Pine Bark, Fir Bark, grit (insoluble crushed Granite), and 3mm (.125') Turface MVP.

I haven't figured out the ratios yet.

Rob

nice rob!

Thanks for the info.....I take it your in south Texas? Maria Elena was trying to help me with the right type of soil for my area.

I have been using the cactus/succulent potting mix and adding perlite to it. So far, it's been doing great. When I water, it goes through really fast and now I'm thinking I need to re-pot my original ones that I've had for a few years. They have been in my greenhouse and still in the same soil I planted them in when I won/purchased off ebay. I didn't feed them any, watered them sparingly and I use earthworm tea for watering all my plants. I did have one bloom last summer and it was a beautiful color....but I didn't think to take pictures. Thanks, Jeannie :)

Hi Jeannie live in west Texas ( San Angelo) just be careful with anything that has dirt the fines is what will get you

Roger