That is great feedback, Rick. Thank you very much. I knew when I ordered my seed it was very late in the year and I should have held off, but I wanted a fresh, new, interesting project to piddle around with over the winter and get the experience of trying to nurse them through. So I did learn from it. Many useful things. I don't regret doing it at all.

I agree with you that generally I will begin seeds in the late spring in the future and then compare the results. Save me having to over winter them while tiny. If seedlings started in the spring end up leggier and thin necked with fewer branches however, then I'll learn something from that as well.

I really like that compact growth. Everything I read and all of the feedback said to not allow them to go dormant so young, but to keep them growing. Very interesting and not so delicate after all at such a young age.

I can't wait to see that itty bitty one with flowers! Going to be awesome!

Tyler

Ha, I'm sure that Nature doesn't care what the memo says about an easy first over wintering. It's probably done to help get as much growth as possible in the first two years. As I have hardly lost any of my 400 seedlings, and I barely watered them for months, they are a lot sturdier than tender, to be sure.

I have a few I started in early summer this year that I'll compare next year for overall growth. Then I can decide if starting them late and over wintering them dry really is a benefit I'd like to explore further.

They are gorgeous :) so healthy and happy babies

What an interesting topic, Hyn. Everything I've ever read said not to allow seedlings to go dormant because they did not have the reserves to support dormancy. The questions for me have always been: What constitutes a seedling? Under 6 months, a year, or three? From what I have read, a seedling is any adenium under age 1 year. After 1 year, they are referred to as 'yearlings,' then 'young trees,' and finally 'fully mature' at age 3 years +. The other obvious question is: What does true dormancy mean? I understand it s a state of hibernation, evidenced by fallen leaves, zero growth, and scant to no water uptake.

From what I have observed, there is a huge difference between a semi dormant state and true dormancy. In semi dormancy, growth is significantly stalled but continues. Leaves are not shed and any new growth is painfully slow, compact, and small. I believe what you experienced with your seedlings was semi dormancy. I also experienced the same. It would be interesting to learn the details of how you overwintered these seedlings.

In my climate, daytime temps remain in the mid to upper 80s year-round and nighttime lows just barely fall to 68/70 during Jan/Feb. There is a cold, clammy morning dew during those months that subsides as the sun warms into the high 70s by 10am. My seedlings remained outdoors during this period, and experienced these drastic temp changes, from 84 to 68, every day. Watering was reduced to once every two weeks. I observed the same growth stalls you did.

However, in March, most of my seedlings began growing at an accelerated rate, very suddenly putting out leaves that were visibly 4x the size of their Jan/Feb output. They looked odd! There were giant (normal) leaves above tiny infantile leaves. As the summer progressed, all the small growth was aborted and they just "caught up." Note that I said most ... some of my seedlings never "caught up." They remain stalled as of today and are in 4" pots, barely 6" tall at age 1 year. They are the size of some of my 6 month olds. I wonder how this growth stall effects blooming, as none of the stalled plants have bloomed yet.

All this to say, Hyn, did your seedlings actually experience full dormancy or semi dormancy? You say you barely watered them during this period. Can you share the entire growth culture during this period? We know seedlings can survive semi dormancy with stalled growth. However, does the fact remain that they cannot / do not have the reserves to survive true dormancy?

Maria Elena

I personally agree with your first paragraph. But not your second, Maria. There was zero growth with my seedlings over winter and most of them lost all or most of their leaves, and at most only retained their tips. They also shriveled their caudex stems notably which is why my very slight watering once a week (one eye dropper each) came into question whether it was enough to keep them alive. I did loose a few - maybe 3 in total I think that just dried up and croaked on me. Which is why I had posted seeking advice and everyone told me to water more. Once I was, they fattened back up but didn't start making any more leaves until April when they started going back outside.

Temperatures while over wintering in my art studio were up to about 60 degrees in the daytime, and down into the mid to higher 40's at night. They were under nominal indoor lighting with some brief sunlight coming in through the windows in the afternoon for a couple of hours a day, if it wasn't cloudy. They were indoors from October until April, with some spotty outdoor time earlier as weather permitted in March.

If I recall there was no new leaf production from September until April, they only lost leaves during that time and showed zero growth. What they did was actually get smaller as they became thinner. But I would have to go back and check my old posts, notes, and photos to be absolutely certain my recollection is spot on. I do remember that I was seriously concerned that they wouldn't make it until spring and that is what prompted me to post (around late February I think it was?) to ask for input. By March they were getting watered more and fattening up, but didn't start making new leaves right away. What few leaves they had left (many of them went entirely bald) were yellowed with brown tips.

I'm definitely not saying this is the way to go. I normally over winter cacti /entirely/ dry from autumn until late spring with zero watering. So that was what I intended to do with the adeniums as well, but everyone said I should keep watering them minimally, but to be very, very careful not to over water lest they rot. Looking at my low temps at night in the studio, I was very keen to be cautious and not worried about them being dormant. What I was worried about was rotting roots!

So if this treatment made them more compact and branching, it was not intentional. Completely an accident from my lack of knowing how to care for them over the winter months, despite my heavy reading/research and many questions. This winter I will /try/ to keep them warmer, more watered, and under much brighter lights but as I am in a transitional housing situation while our house sells, there is no telling where I will be able to put them, atm. I seriously hope to be out of my MiL's house before winter because I have no where in doors to bring them so I must make some arrangement, somehow.

Love your collection, Hyn! My first batch of seeds were started in November 2015, and grew nicely under lights through the winter, then really took off when I brought them outdoors the following spring. Oddly enough, my second batch, planted at exactly the same time one year later (from Mr. Ko) took their sweet time. I only recently had to transfer them from their communal starting trays to individual pots. So you never can tell - also I find that seedlings are individuals, even if all from the same grower and lot.

How do you guy mixed the soil for desert rose ? they are looking so healthy . In the pic I see lot of pearl lite +soil.

How to keep seedling alive , my seedlings are looking so unhealthy and small .

Thank you, Laurie H. I hope yours do well too! Talencat, I'm still experimenting with my soil mix but it's about 1/2 perlite and 1/2 potting soil for my seedlings, with some charcoal and worm castings mixed in and a touch of lime. I also add a systematic insecticide granule. For the larger, more mature plants I'm using a coarser, chunky perlite at about a 2/3 ratio to the above because the larger, deeper pots do not dry out as fast as the smaller seedling pots. So far this works well for me.

Others prefer gritty mixes using a variety of leca, or lava rock, etc for their bases with or without chor, bark, chunky charcoal, and I'm sure they can chime in here or you can do a search for potting mixes in the adenium forum to pull up all sorts of posts on that topic. The real key is that every location has differences in temperatures and rainfall, as well as what is easily available in your area, so there is not a set answer to the question.

Also whether you want to grow your adeniums slow and lean (dry) or whether you want a richer, faster growing mix. Mine is a leaner mix than I really wanted so I have to feed more and occasionally give them manure tea as the seedlings really need to put on growth, but not get leggy. So you will find there can easily be 100 or more different answers to what you should use for a mix - but make sure it drains very well and doesn't stay wet for long. I had a heck of a drought last summer but this year it's rained very nearly every day this summer. Literally. So, quite an adjustment.

Talencat, hi there! Perhaps, maybe start a separate thread with your specific questions as that often gets far better results and the answers you seek rather than tagging onto a thread which is really on a different topic :-) Add some pics of your plants then we can help you better as pics can often convey the exact reason forplant problems. Tell us as much as you can...where you keep them, in sun or shade, type of mix they're planted in, their age, etc etc. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Gill