Hopefully some of the most experience will chime in shortly

with father's day coming up, it would be a good time to repot. it looks like it needs a pruning too, but don't do both at once, it will stress it too much. my gritty mix is just floor dry and no. 2 chicken grit, with just a handful of soil.

Here she is after the repot.. How long should I wait to prune it? A month or so?

It's beautiful. nice looking mix, too. I am waiting a while longer to prune, up here in Iowa. My target date is father's day. Did you find anything strange with the roots when you repotted?

Roots actually looked good. No rot at all. If anything it was lacking roots. My mix is turface or Napa #8822 (sometimes both), perlite, granite (chicken scratch), small amount of pine bark fines and red stuff is SeaChem Flourite. I usually top with the flourite. I get the it from chewy.com.. it's a little expensive but the whole 15lbs is perfect. Barely any fines. It's just a pain to wash but other than that it's awesome.

Napa oil dry or turface, perlite, SeaChem fluorite and granite (chicken scratch) some times I use pine bark fines.

Where do you find all that stuff?

Napa oil dry is only sold at Napa Auto parts. It's DE- diacrematious earth. Make sure you wear a mask when sifting it.. Perlite can be found at Home Depot or most garden centers. Granite is hardest to find for me but can be found at tractor supply stores. I get SeaChem Fluorite from Chewy.com. Turface is also found at places that do landscaping and such. It's made to suck up moisture on baseball fields.

Glad you got it worked out. Just wanted to chime in and say that it may be in the eye of the beholder but I would hardly call that large. While not tiny it certainly is on the smaller side of things considering how big they get. I have 6 of them and only one is smaller than that. No biggie, still a nice plant. When I hear large I think 40 or 50 pounds of plant.

I meant large for me.. I should of clarified. All the ones I have are much smaller than that since I grow all mine from seed..

Hi Paulie, as for when to prune your plant.....I would be waiting a few weeks or so for the plant to recover from the stress of repotting. You want some time to pass for your plant to grow new feeder roots. Look for signs of growth (new leaves) on most of the branches first, this will let you know that new roots are growing. You also want nice sunny warm to hot weather for pruning. Once pruned it will take another couple of weeks for new branches (growth) to start. Be aware, if you prune all the branches, you will be taking all the new growth with it and the plant will need a little less water until the new branches start to grow. :)

Thanks Rachael! Great info!

not saying there is a right or wrong but it seems like one can do no wrong with these plants. Besides watering them. If you watch some of the videos from thailand, they root train their plants. So they pull them, clean the roots and repot, then prune all the branches right after. I agree, with most plants I would not do both within months of each other but they do. I've always dont mine on alternating years. Repot one year and prune the next, but I am now aware that I should repot and prune more often. I usually repot every 3 or 4 years. I have had my first two plants for 27 years now and they are thriving so it works for me but I also know not to water to much. I believe thats where most folks go wrong. I always tell new owners that they hate water and love sun. I water mine about 3 times a year. while in for the winter I water once every 6 or 8 weeks and in the summer I put them outside and dont water at all. In fact here in MI they get too much water in the summer. I sometimes put up little umbrellas for them when it rains every day for days. Growing from seed is how to get big plants fast. They grow fast the first 2 or 3 years of life. The 2 I grew from seed are my largest. One just over 5 feet tall after about 5 years.

new feeder roots take about 2 months to start. However I dont believe new growth is a sign of new roots(again, that is usually the case with most plants but not these). Someone I know pulls these plants and lets them dry for 4 weeks when fixing root rot. They continue to have new growth and even flower when just sitting there on the floor in no soil. She has lots of videos on youtube. Cant think tropical with these plants, just the opposite.

I water mine every other day.. they grow like weeds. I do live in the tropics though. I repot mine once a year and the roots are always amazing. Never had root rot.

Abrahamx, I am a little confused as to the advice that you’ve given. You said you tell new owners that these plants hate water, but then you say that your plants get rainwater for days on end sometimes?

Paulie, I think you are doing the right thing with your watering. I have been growing desert roses exclusively for over 16yrs now. All our plants are grown from seed. Our plants are repotted every Spring and are watered 2 - 3 times a week in the growing season. Our plants grow fast, fat and healthy and flower almost continuously from Spring till Autumn. Our weather here is hot and humid. (Australia) As you are in Florida keys, I would think the weather there is somewhat similar to mine and as such you should look for advice from those with similar weather and growing conditions to yours for best results. Here’s a photo of one of our 3yr old plants...the pink flowering triple on the left. (Note - the blue lighter is to give idea of size.)

Just a note: it takes about one day for my soil to completely dry out since I don't really use organics. I use more potting mix, 50% / 50% for my seedlings and then after about 2 months I re-pot them into straight "inorganics". I have tons of new growth on all my adeniums, from my seedling to my 2 year olds. I've only started growing adeniums 2 years ago. I lost a bunch of them in hurricane Irma. Only had two left. I have over 50 seedling though now. Hopefully this time I won't lose any. I'm not expert by any means, as a matter of fact, just the opposite but I grow a lot of them from seed so I can experiment on what they like down here. I think I have it pretty much figured out for my zone.

Rachel, those are beautiful!and thanks for the vote of confidence. I rarely have any problems with any of
my plants, at least the ones I've grown. I have yet to get any of my seedlings to flower though. At least the 2 two year olds that I have left. Do you get any to actually seed?

Paulie, I also lost most of my collection, but from the winter in 2016. I totally understand those hurricanes. We just got through Harvey over here. Terrible stuff. Anyway, I had two seedlings survive. Out of the two survivors, one bloomed at age two. My other one did on the third year. I know some take longer than others. I'm very jealous when I see yearlings bloom! I never have that luck. I have a bunch of yearlings now but no flowers.

Rachel, those are beautiful!

Me too.. I do t have that luck.. LOL. I guess I got one more year!

Hi Paulie, yes we get plenty of seedpods. We hand pollinate our plants when we want specific crosses, but we also get lots of seedpods pollinated from nature. Our native (stingless) tiny bush bees pollinate a lot for us.

As for flowering, we grow all our plants in a barky succulent/cacti mix + perlite and a little slow release fertiliser. This mix seems to provide most nutrients that our plants need for the growing season. We also use a liquid fertilser about once a month. (A complete fertiliser that includes macro and micronutrients + trace elements is best.) Almost all of our seedlings flower before 12mths of age....Maybe you could try waiting until your seedlings are a year old before switching to a gritty mix. Good luck with your plants and I hope they flower for you soon :)

Rachel, for the mix you were talking about.. the barky succulent mix - do you mean something like this mixed with Perlite and pine bark? (See image)

Paulie, I don’t know that product as we have different mixes here in Australia, but that’s the sort of product to look for. I buy a bagged mix that says for cacti and succulents. It is a soil mixture with different sizes of bark included. I prefer to add a little perlite and some small bark nuggets to the bagged mix to make it better. Here’s a photo of the small bark nuggets I buy.

Please click on the photos to enlarge.

(This product above I get from an orchid nursery. It is specially treated 5-8mm size radiata pine bark nuggets. It is used straight from the bag and does not need to be prewashed.) I really like this product and also add it to all my indoor plants. It keeps the mix loose and helps with drainage while still holding some moisture. Alot of bonsai growers here in Australia buy this to add to their bonsai mix.

This photo above shows what the pre-bagged cacti mix looks like Without the small bark nuggets or perlite. (Note, the different sizes of bark) I usually add about 25% of the small bark nuggets and some perlite to this. (I didn’t have any left when I potted this one)

This photo above shows a seedling i repotted late in the season. I used about 50% of the small bark nuggets and 50% of the cacti bagged mix (with the largest pieces of bark removed) + perlite. It’s Winter here now, so I needed a more free draining mix for the cold season. You can see that this mix is a very loose mix and my seedling is loving it. It’s even trying to flower, even though our morning temps have been around 10c this week with daytime temps of 24c. Hopefully this gives you some idea of what to look for.

Sorry about the long post :)

Rachel, thank you so much. Thank you for taking the time to share all of your information with me. I don't min the long post at all.

I use pine bark pines for all my bonsai and I put pine bark in all of my adeniums too but they are smaller sized pieces.

I'm definitely going to try the cacti mix and do exactly what you suggest. I'm always scared to use any kind of soil (dirt). Always worried about root rot so I use that gritty mix and I just water every day religiously. Makes it easy. We don't get any kind of cold here. It's pretty much 80 degrees (Fahrenheit) all year long.. We get a lot of rain too the gritty mix dries out quickly and I never have to worry about them being waterlogged.

Thanks again, Rachel! So grateful for all your help and all the great information you provided.

Paulie, No worries, I’m glad I could help. If you’re a little nervous about trying the new mix, why not select a small amount of seedlings/adeniums to try first. That way you can compare growth rates/health/flowering etc between your mix and mine. It will give you a better idea of what works best for your area.

Btw, I usually water my adeniums and then wait until they’re just dry before watering again. My mix usually drys out fully within 2days. Happy growing :)

That's definitely my plan.. I already have all these new seedlings so I'm definitely going to try it. I have no doubt what you say is best so I'm definitely going to go that route.

Paulie, when trying the new mix, just play around with how much pine bark, perlite etc to add until you’re happy with what you think is best. The main thing is to create a loose mix that doesn’t become compacted. (Don’t use any sand) Your seedlings above look nice and healthy, but I think switching some of these seedlings to the looser, barky mix will help them to grow better. (I just think the gritty style mix is just to heavy for young seedlings)

*With seedlings of this size, I remove any of the larger bark chunks from my pre-bagged mix, because I think seedlings do better with more of the smaller bark chunks instead.* Slowly acclimatize them to extra sun over a couple of weeks too :). Enjoy!

Thanks Rachel, I will do that as soon as I can. I will experiment on the percentages of each medium.. you think this size of pine bark is good?

Where do you guys buy your pine bark? I saw some pine mulch materials at Lowes and Home Depot.

Candice, I buy a big bag of Miracle Grow potting mix and sift it out. You'll get tons. I use the left over "soil" for plants and seedlings.. I sift it over a double sifter.. 1/4" on top and an 1/8" on the bottom. I get big fines and tiny fines. Downside is that the big bag is $14.. but I wait for it to go on sale.

Candice, These are the sifters I use. They snap together. They are awesome as heck..

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008B0T5Z2?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

Paulie, Yes...that size pine bark looks good :)

I just made that soil you suggested and re-potted a few little ones into it. It really looks and feels great....

Paulie, that looks great. I like the small terracotta pots too as they will absorb any excess water, so your soil doesn’t stay wet too long. At this size I would probably give them morning sun only until they’re a little bigger, slowly increasing the amount of sun as they grow more leaves. You can fertilise lightly as needed, although the new mix should have sufficient nutrients for awhile....and just water according to your weather. I hope this mix works well for you....let me know how it goes :)

All the little seedlings get about 3 to 4 hours of sun a day. They sit under my deck so they only get the first few hours of the day. I've always done that with the little guys. It works well. I put some slow release kelp and bonemeal pellets in the soil mixture. I think they are good for at least 3 months.. ill keep you posted! Thanks for the education!

Rachel, I moved all my seedlings to the soil you recommended. Some of the seedlings are getting soft caudexs. I'm watering once a day in the evening. I'm not sure if I need to water less or more. I know for larger adeniums a soft caudex means it needs more water most of the time. What do you suggest I do? The caudex(s) were pretty hard before I transplanted them. Two of them have almost shrunk to nothing but they were runts to begin with. Is this a problem or do you think its just because I transplanted them, maybe getting used to the new soil?

Thank you!

Paul

Paulie, I think you’ve definitely watered too much. You probably only needed to water maybe once a week with the size of your babies and the pot size. The new soil will hold moisture longer then your gritty mix and should only be watered when you notice the soil has almost dried out....this is important even with baby seedlings. The babies need time to grow more roots and get fatter before they will have a higher water need...also always better to water in the mornings rather then the evening.

I think some of your babies have probably lost their little roots from being wet all the time, and you may lose some of them. They would have done better if they had been bigger (abit thicker then a pencil) before transplanting.....Unfortunately this is part of how we all learn what the needs of our adeniums babies are.

This is what I would do now - let the soil dry out and then mist the top of the soil with a spray bottle, mist again when the top is almost dry.....feel the soil with your finger before misting again. Do not wet the soil all the way through. I would then place them in a mini greenhouse to keep them warm and humid, while they are trying to grow new roots....mist the top of soil as needed.

Here’s a few photos I found on the internet for examples of diy mini greenhouses. The last photo is the type of mini greenhouse we have used. We just lift the lid once a day to refresh the air. Still give them a little bit of sun, but not too much. I hope this helps and I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you :)

They seemed really dry every day when I get home from work. That's why I watered them each day but I won't water them again for a while. The humidity here is about 90% now and the temps are close to 85 degrees every day so do I still need to put them in a green house?

Hopefully most of them will survive. If not I've learned a valuable lesson. I think I just transplanted them too early. I just started soaking more seeds for planting, just in case I lose these.

Paul, if the soil was dry all the way down to the bottom when you came home from work then maybe you were right to water daily. It’s hard to advise without being there to see myself.

The main thing is for the babies to be moist but not left saturated when watered. Then check for dampness with your finger halfway down the pot/soil. If it’s still damp then wait to water until it’s dried out abit more. If your temps are around 85F daily then they may be drying out quicker....Maybe they’re getting too much sun/heat???

It could be as simple as too much heat while they were recovering and settling from the repot and the sun may have been drying the soil up before the babies have had a chance to take up the water. Filtered sunlight might be better for a couple of weeks while they recover. As for a mini greenhouse that’s up to you...you could still use one, but if you do I would put this in a filtered sun position and not in full sunlight, otherwise it could heat up too much and cook them. Do what you think is best and I hope you don’t lose your babies from following my advice :(

I would never ever blame you. Whatever I did I did myself. You've given me excellent advice and I know it's right. I'm just so used to a different type of mix so this is new to me. What I'm going to do this next time is start the seedlings in your mix and I won't re-pot for a while. I think going from a grittier mix to the soil based mix is probably where the problem lies. And I guess until I figure out how often to water, it will be a challenge. Also when I repotted, some of the seedlings had much better roots than others. Some still only had just a tap root and some of the larger ones has more feeder roots. The runts are doing the worst. I think most will be fine. I might lose a few but it's no big deal. I still have like 60 seeds left even after this latest batch that I'm soaking. Thanks for taking the time to help me! You are awesome!

Thanks Paul, I didn’t think you blamed me, I just didn’t want you losing any. It really is trial and error with Adeniums, what works for some doesn’t always work the same for others. Trust your instincts when it comes to your babies. If they feel dry, please do water them. I think they may have done better if left in a warm shady place for the first week to recover. Anyway, for every thing that goes wrong, we learn and adapt our techniques until we find the right way :)

I think with your new seeds you should start them however you normally would, in the way that usually works well for you. Seedlings can be a little tricky, and it’s normal that some will have bigger/better roots then others and we all get a few runts that just don’t always do well. I look forward to seeing your plants as they grow and I’m happy to help, if you need anymore advice. Good luck with these and your new seeds too!