Will cuttings form a caudex?

8 years ago

last modified: 8 years ago

I'm really not an Adenium grower but am just starting to learn about them. Have ordered a couple of plants and some seed to see what I can do and have been reading lots of on-line stuff both here and elsewhere.

I've seen several videos on YouTube of various air-layering methods to root Adenium. I was wondering if these rooted cuttings would form a caudex like seed grown plants, and if so, could a cutting from a grafted plant be rooted and grown on it's own to avoid having an unsightly graft union?

George

Featured Answer

rcharles_gw (Canada)

8 years ago

George, Starting Adeniums from cuttings, whether it be through Air-Layering or Soil started are definitely possible.

When we speak of their caudex it can be somewhat confusing in regard to whether we speak of Natural caudex growth where a particular plant produces a very wide girth of trunk w/o raising it. Most people raise their plants as they become older to expose the large root system (now being called it's caudex). This is what I mean about Natural (not raising) and root developed.

Cuttings of any method will and can develop a caudex from the enlargement of roots over many years. Unless very old, they will not look as the Arabicum or Thai Soco's look at a very young age.

Mush of it with the obesum species is genetic characteristics and one seedling from the same pod/pollen parent can look totally different than others from same seed pod.

So, with taking a cutting from a Grafted plant. You could root it, but the likely hood of it having a caudex similar or alike the one the grafted plant may have, is slim.

The graft union can look very coarse or ugly, but most times this is due to a poor grafting job. The flat scion grafts are usually much more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. The "V" grafts can look particularly bad, if graft scion and root stock are of to great a difference in size.

Hope this answers some questions you may have.

Rick

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Comments (8)

dbarron
8 years ago
An opinion, in a year or two, a good graft is fairly non-obvious. Perhaps in five years, you can't tell it at all?
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dragonstone
8 years ago
Reminds me of the thread where it was shared on how to make cuttings have gnarly roots: [Adenium Cutting: "Octopus" type roots[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/adenium-cutting-octopus-type-roots-dsvw-vd~4231760)
geoforce thanked dragonstone
geoforce
Original Author
8 years ago
@dragonstone: Very interesting link. Still those appear to be just grosly enlarged roots like those from repeated raising of plant rather than a 'caudex' in what I have begun thinking of it as. Looks as if you could get a similar effect using the plastic disk under the cutting like those videos showing severe cutting of the main roots without the crosscut .

Anyway, this is all in future for me yet. I planted my first Adenium seeds today (Generic mixed singles) and have a couple of plants on order, 1 grafted (#2 Good Luck a double picotee baby pink), and 1 a seedling to play with, and also some more seeds from selected plants. I may be getting hooked. LOL
rcharles_gw (Canada)
8 years ago
I find that most grafts that I have are not unappealing to the eye. It is the Caudex (Root Stock) that they graft onto which can make a difference. The graft union would always be found if you where looking for it.

The difficulty will be buying grafted plants, sight unseen and getting what you desire as a nice root stock. You do not have the option with many out of country sellers. Fortunately there are a few that seem to send out very nice plants.

Unfortunately cutting off the base of a plant and growing for Centipede Roots, if the plant in question does not have a good caudex on it or atleast the genetic make up to grow a wide caudex, it will not gain it from cutting to form roots around the circumference of it's base.

I have seen some wonderful older plants which are just 'obesum' and when raised over the years showing off their roots. They can look very interesting and quite beautiful.

There are many people that believe leaving plants with their roots under the soil line for longer periods w/o raising encourages the root development to become larger as opposed to raising it. Then years later, raising to expose root system.

Comes down to what each of us likes and that is what is great about these plants.

Rick
Stuart( Paramaribo, Suriname) Hofwijks
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
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Stuart( Paramaribo, Suriname) Hofwijks
7 years ago
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abrahamx
7 years ago
So yea, cuttings do not form caudex's and even a plant grown from seed will just produce a fairly small caudex. We all confuse caudex for exposed roots. The only other thing I can offer here is that I never buy a grafted plant. Just not right to me but thats just my thoughts not yours.