Update: I cut off the mushy parts and put Cinnamon on the wounds. It's now in the shade drying for a day. I'll then repot it and hold any water for a while and go from there.

Good plan, Stephane. I know with myself here. I need to be cautious not to get to anxious to water more, until they really start to push out new growth and temperatures are warm both AM/PM. Made this error and I need to hold back the Reins.

You weather will be different then mine.

Rick

I agree Rick. Here it's really warm during the day. 80's but at night, we're still getting some 50s. Though most of the times, I take them all back in the greenhouse when it gets too low. I need to be careful not to water too much too fast. I'm still glad it's happening because I need to learn how to take care of root rot.
I'll see how this one goes hehe

Stephane

Hi Rachel,
Thanks for the tip :) I actually have some around so I'll add that once I repot it in a small pot. I'll update this thread to let you guys know if it survived or not :)

Stephane

Hi, Stephane!

At first I said, "Rot? What rot ... where?" LOL!!

Mushy is never good and it's a good thing you caught it. Just as Rachel recommends, a light dusting of rooting hormone will encourage root growth and help the plant recover quickly.

You didn't lose too significant portion of your roots and plants scream for water in your climate. You can water about a week after repotting, but sparingly. Keep out of direct sunlight. Just begin slowly and check for new growth before returning to your usual routine.

Maria Elena

I have to admit my aging and ever larger specimen , after suffering rot on just one of four large tap roots attached to the caudex , has never flowered the same since though the caudex itself never did get soft or mushy or unhealthy looking , but sometimes I am somewhat tempted to take it from the pot to see how healthy the base and roots are looking since . Must not be to big a problem however , since the caudex continues to enlarge year after year . I'd guess it's going on about fifteen years old now .

Thanks Maria Elena. If I didn't know better, I would have never noticed the root rot when I took the plant out of the pot but after seeing pictures of root rots in this message board, that's when I noticed the sick part on my plant.

I cut out the bad part, let is dry for a couple of days, dusted the roots with hormone, and re-potted the plant. I checked today and the caudex is still the same but I'm sure I need to be patient. I'm even tempted to just cut open the caudex to see how it looks inside but I'd feel bad for the plants so I'll just leave it as it is and if I see it's getting worse, then I'll cut it open just out of curiosity.

Stephane

Update: I put all my Adenium in my greenhouse a couple of days ago because we're getting a lot of rain here in Dallas. And today, I had some time to thoroughly go through all 900 adenium to make sure everything was fine and what do i find, 2 completed rotted plants :( If there are 2, I'm sure more are to come so time to let them all dry for a while. I know that I've been watering like crazy lately and I should have known better. It's my fault. Lesson learned.

It's not because winter is over,

And the sun is out,

That I need to water,

Like it's summer '85.

lol
Stephane

Hi guys,

Today I saw another one of my adenium with a very soft/mushy caudex and because I'm not one to sit around and wait to see if it heals or not, I decided to just cut it off and see how it looks inside. I dipped the rest of the plant in neem oil and will dry it for 10 days as I read somewhere on this message board. Hopefully new roots show up.

I noticed the white and green colors which match to hard and soft caudex. Is this what I think it means? Green=good, White=Bad?

I just noticed something about all those dead Adenium. They are all the ones that I chopped off last month. I just threw 4 more. Same thing, mushy caudex. So it looks like when I chopped those Adenium off, I didn't do it correctly.

When I chopped them off, I usually put glue on the wounds, but this time I didn't. I also kept watering like I always do. So maybe I didn't leave them alone enough for them to rest and heal?

Sorry about all the messages, but I figured that if it can help someone here then it's all worth it.

Stephane

Wait ... So, you cut the root / base off all of these, potted up, continued watering, and they rotted? Of course ... Makes sense, Stephane. Zero roots = no way for the plant to uptake water = rot. Is this what actually happened? Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding.

To fix the equation, a rootless plant must be set atop dry soil and out of direct sunlight to root. Also, remove all but the uppermost 2-3 sets of leaves on each branch. This will direct growth to the root area. You can lightly mist it every 2-3 weeks, but it's going to wrinkle anyway until new roots appear. Rooting can take 2 months.

The rule is never water a rootless plant until you see new growth, and then only sparingly, along the rim of the pot until it's recovered and you officially have a root mass. Repot, wait a week, then begin acclimating to sun, water. fertilizers ... very slowly.

Maria Elena

Hi Maria Elena,

Sorry I probably wasn't clear in my last post. When I said I chopped them off, I meant i chopped the top of the plants because they were too tall, not the roots. And now half of those I chopped off have a mushy caudex. So I probably didn't do it right either.

Stephane

Ahh, OK ... I knew it just couldn't be!

No, you didn't cut them wrong! Perhaps a bigger angle is better. I never use glue and we get lots of rain. White is good, clean tissue. Black / brown / waterlogged is BAD. I wonder what happened? When I prune a seedling, I just treat it like any other plant. It stays in full sun and gets watered and fed normally. After a week or two, they are branching.

Did you change anything in the soil, like add fertilizer pellets? I'm convinced the issue is in the soil.

Maria Elena

I did fertilize a lot this past month and a half... With all types of different fertilizer too. The odd part is only the Adenium that I chopped off are dying. Out of 25, so far 6 died. The other 19 are actually doing good with new growth.
Maybe it was just their time to go lol
Stephane

OK, I just reviewed your pictures up close. The soil is incredibly wet. This soil looks fine for seedlings up to 2/3 months old. After that, they need super fast draining soil that's not so water retentive.

If anything, I would add perlite to your mix at a ratio of 1:1 ... 1 part soil, one part perlite. Then I would add pine bark at about 1/4 part. This will give you the drainage you need.

Before you water, stick you finger in the soil. It should be completely dry 1-2" down, depending upon the size of the pot. You only have to check once in awhile as the seasons change, just to detetmine water need "right now." You'll find what works in spring will not work in winter. This is the case whether in Texas, China, or in the tropics. The water needs of plants change.

Jerry (Jedoba), Marie Tran, and Roger (KatieDoLittle) live in Texas and can provide best practices for your region.

Maria Elena

Too much fertilizer can burn roots and create excessive (weak) growth. The ideal is slow, compact growth.

You can use different fertilizers, but alternate from week to week and only feed at 1/4 strength. Do not feed more than that. Less is really more here, Stephane. I also alternate between different fertilizers so my plants have a more diverse diet and don't get tired of the same casserole every week.

Thanks Maria Elena,

I've actually been doing good but this is my first real spring with Adenium and I guess I saw the warm weather coming and figured it was time to water like it's summer which was my mistake. I divided my adenium, wet ones and dry ones. The dry ones are in the greenhouse, and the wet ones are outside right now, trying to dry them up fast before the rain.

My soil is 1:1 soil and perlite, so I might add some pine park like you said.
Thank you very much for taking the care to answer, I greatly appreciate it :)

Stephane

My pleasure. Add the bark gradually as you repot. I see you have 900!!! That's officially a nursery!

My goodness, you caught the adenium bug really bad. Rehab for you, my good man!!

haha I only have 894 now lol I totally got the adenium bug! But I stopped sowing seeds even though I'm really tempted. I want to make sure that all the ones I have right now survive :)

I have 1 question if you don't mind. It's been cloudy and rainy for a few days now and I made the mistake to water my adenium right before that weather and I see that the soil in half of them is still wet and takes time to dry. I put them outside today hoping the soil dries but it's so cloudy still. What do you suggest I do to dry them faster? A hair dryer? hehe
I have to take them in to the greenhouse tonight as rain is coming. Maybe crank up the heater in the greenhouse tonight?
Stephane

Hi Stephane, I think Maria Elena has given you lots of good advice. Can I say, with 900/894 seedlings, some losses to rot would be expected. I would assume even a commercial nursery would have some losses with that many. It would be too hard to check each one individually before watering, so I assume you water them all at the same time.

Can I also say - it is important to recognise, when your plants have come out of dormancy. Once Spring has arrived, many of us make the mistake of watering too early/quickly.... A few things to note: A dormant plant may flower, but that does not signal it's actively growing. You need to look for new growth (new leaves on branches) to signal that your plants have come out of dormancy. Once you see new growth/new leaves, water lightly to begin with & increase watering needs as more leaves are formed. This is what we look for in Spring to help us decide how much to water & when. We use this method & we also make sure that our minimum temperatures are not still too low.

As for the seedlings you pruned - if when you pruned your plants they had little or no leaves left on top, then their watering requirements would be lower until they'd grown new leaves. As a general rule/More leaves = more water. Less leaves = less water. I hope this helps... I think you're doing really well & are learning alot along the way. Happy growing :)

Excellent, Rachel! And Stephane should crank up the heat a little in the greenhouse to dry those plants back a little, right?

Hi Maria Elena & Stephane, we don't use heaters in our greenhouses in Brisbane, Australia, so I didn't comment on whether to use or not. :) I think our greenhouses are different, we use shade cloth on what is commonly called a greenhouse here. Our greenhouses are usually used to provide filtered light to protect against too much sun, for plants such as orchids, seedlings & shade loving plants etc. But, I would think using a heater is an excellent idea for Stephane to help dry his plants out more.

Maria Elena, you always give great advice for people who are learning.

Rachel :)

Thank you, Rachel. That's so sweet of you to say. I'm learning about adeniums, too. I have about 40 years' experience with cactus & succulents. Adenium are just one more temperamental (actually, prissy) succulent. We're all learning so much from each other. I'm very grateful for this forum.

I agree with you both. I've learned so much and I like the fact that whenever I have a problem, I can just come here to get help ;)

Last night, I had to throw more due to root rot, so the total is now 20 lost ones. I turned up the heater last night and it was about 80 degrees in the greenhouse and 65 outside. Today was a nice day so I put all of them outside and they are all dry now and I'll wait before starting watering again.

That's a lot of work lol I should have thought about it before I went all crazy sowing hehe
Stephane

Don't water any of them an entire week, Stephane. The roots may still be soaked.

Maria Elena

Thank you, I will wait for a week before I water them.
Have you guys ever had Adenium where the Caudex is very soft but when you look at the roots, you don't see any rot?
I have 2 where I don't see any apparent rot but the caudices are extremely soft.

So weird and not sure what it means.

Stephane

Yes, the caudex can get spongy. This happens with both overwatering and underwatering. I take the seedling out of the soil to determine which it is. It will usually recover within a week or two, once you've corrected the problem.

If the soil is very wet, I wash off the roots, allow them to dry a day or two, remove any dead or rotting roots, sprinkle the roots lightly with fungicide (or turmeric, nutmeg, or cinnamon), and repot in relatively dry soil. Do not water for at least 4 days.

If the roots and soil are dry, the plant just needs water. You can allow the roots to sit in a small pail of water for 15 minutes to drink (add a "root drench" if you have), then repot and water thoroughly.

I have found that a few plants can be genetically more "problematic" than others, i.e., require more or less water than the general collective lot, continually have browning or yellowing leaves or leaf tips, etc. I separate these out as "weaklings" that require special care, try to figure them out and give them what they need.

Maria Elena

Yes, this is common and with these plants you want to keep in a filtered sunlight situation. Water them with small amounts of water more frequently, than saturating the soil. They will begin to plump up after 3-4 days. It is slow, but they need to start taking up the water through fine feeder roots.

This happens to mine, especially when I treat them all the same, larger plants and juveniles for their watering schedule.

Rick

Thanks guys, I followed your advice. I "unpotted" all the Adenium that had a problem. Even though the top of the soil was dry, soil around the roots was still moist so washed off the roots and now they are drying till tomorrow. I'm not seeing any rots anywhere so I didn't cut off anything. I'll then repot them in new soil/perlite/bark and wait about 4 days before I water them. Do they need to dry in the sun or in the shade?

Can you please check those pictures? Maybe you'll see something I don't like rots... I put the pictures on my own server because GardenWeb tends to resize the pictures too small.

I agree with you also about watering. With so many plants, I water them all at the same time but I must realize that some of them might need different watering style so I'll just have to pay attention and not water adenium that are still wet.

Photo 1 - Photo 2 - Photo 3 - Photo 4 - Photo 5 - Photo 6

Stephane

Dry in shade. I was relieved to see you unstacked the plants in the last photo. They will be fine.

To eliminate the issue of overwatering, I keep everything under 3 months separate from the older ones. The younger ons get watered daily. The older ones get watered 1-2x a week in my hot & humid climate. Sometimes I lightly mist them to refresh them.

Maria Elena

Thank you Maria Elena,

That's what I will do from now on, separate them by age and by foliage. It makes more sense. When you say you mist them, what do you mean by that? You mist the whole plant or just the soil?

Stephane

I use the "mist" setting on the hose to spray a light cooling mist on hot days. Never mist in full sun; mist before 11am or between 4 - 6 pm only. This refreshes the plants after a brutally hot day yet gives them time to dry off before sunset. Adeniums can actually wilt under very hot sun. Didn't you experience that last summer?

Actually yeah, I remember making a thread about it. All my adenium were wilted. This year, I'll try to mist before sunset to refresh them. It can get very hot here in Texas.

Hello everyone.
Just a little update on what's going on which is not much hehe
As I mentioned last weekafter your advice, I dried all the adenium for 2 days, and then repotted them in new soil/perlite/bark. It's now been 3 days since I did and so far, I'm not seeing anything different. Caudices still feel soft.

Today I took one and scraped the big root, and the caudex and from my point of view, everything is looking good, no rot at all. They're still going to dry for a few days or do you think I should let them dry longer?

I have a total of 30 adenium affected with the "soft" caudex symdrom so I'm trying to stay on top of it hehe

PS: I applied some cinnanom on the scraped area.
Stephane

Stephane, why are you scarring your poor plants ... You big bully! :O

Let that dry a few days, then just repot. Don't water right away ... Let their roots settle in.

Haha Maria Elena. I know but i just had to take a look. It is resting now and i promise to give it some extra loving :)

Coconut Husk chunks.

GrowStones (Home Depot)

Hello everyone,
Just to give you an update on my Adenium. It's been 10 days now that I repotted those adenium, 10 days without water and the caudices are still soft, though they didn't get worse, pretty much the same. I see new growth too. I also haven't had to throw any due to advanced rots. What do you think I should do? Wait longer without watering them?

On another note, I'm seeing little buds on a couple of healthy adenium so I'm very excited :)
Stephane

Would be worth giving them a some water. The soil should be dry by now, if they have been out of rain.

Rick

Yes, definitely time to water. Water only once a week (unless it rains) until you see they need more. They should firm up now.

Good vibes your way for healthy, blooming plants this summer. One of my 11-month olds is in bud, so I definitely share in your excitement.

Maria Elena