Some symptoms

Candice,

Sorry to hear about the virus, I went thru something similar with my ebay purchases from Thailand that were from inexpensive and expensive purchases one of which was from Adenium Center or King Adenium.. This all happened when our temperatures hit 117 so I would say that was 90% that I pitched. So far I have not seen anything on my Orient orders or seed grown and cuttings from local nurseries and plant shows. I have read that extreme temperatures will stress plants to mimic disease/micro deficiencies issues.

Thanks for sharing your story. I'm sorry you lost yours too. I'm staring at the orient adenium website right now and thinking of replacing some. Maybe that will cure some sadness. I found a few that were similar to mine, but have never seen "yellow gift" on any site. Maybe I'll just grow growing from seed more often, I think. They seem to be hardier.

Candice I am so sorry to hear this. What would happen if you just let them be? Would they eventually die? I know our plants came from the same place. :( I also have a vanda line.

Thanks. I dont think it will kill the plant. It stunts their growth ALOT. It took ages to grow new leaves and the new ones are stunted and warped. Blooms aren't as healthy either. I'm mostly afraid that it will contaminate my healthy ones. How do your Vanda line leaves look?

Oh gotcha! Well I think my Vanda Line has always looked a little off to be honest. It does have a ton of blooms about to open so I will watch them really closely now that I know you are having this problem. Did you notice this just this growing season or has it always had stunted growth?

Also I sent you a PM!

Hi Candice you said the place you bought them had the same problem?

roger

Angela, when I brought them all back out from winter, Vanda was the only one that refused to grow leaves for a super long time. I was worried it had rot. No rot found. It took a good extra month to come out of dormancy, but one branch was not growing right. Later on, I noticed the tumor like bumps on the branching. I looked back at pictures I took last hear and noticed a little mottling on arrow last year, and I think Vanda. I need to look again. i must not have noticed it last year.

Roger, all of theirs had the same mottled leaves. I didnt see that issue last summer. I read an article (cant find it now) that said many thai growers are not properly sanitizing tools during grafting. cucumber mosaic has recently been proven to infect adenium obesum.

candice I read the same article. Now where do we get adeniums I had a plant do the same thing yours are doing I pored the plant food to it ( jacks 20/20/20) with ever watering and set it off to its self it’s doing grate now but it’s always the last one to leaf out ever year I have 15 plants from where you got yours so they are off to there self now and being watched real close

roger

Roger, orient adenium is out of Taiwan. I've heard people says hers are healthy. I've thought of ordering from them.

Yeah, keep any suspects away from others and sanitize all cutting tools with a bleach soak. I think most of mine were healthy last year and contracted it from the one that wasnt. Yours might be ok. I also know that they can appear healthier and lose the mottling, but are still carrying it. A couple of mine appear to have lost the mottling, but the leaves are much smaller than last years and more curled.

I'm having great difficulty trashing these plants. I keep putting it off. I need strength!

Hi Candice I have a 10 or 12 from orient and several from Taiwan

roger

This is the proof of a Taiwan seller spread virus worldwide, if you just use a knife to cut the withe, then this virus will cause other plants infect and influence seeds to become the virus carrier. We would like to remind all Adenium lovers note the severity that this virus spread worldwide! https://www.facebook.com/tw.adenium.seeds/videos/323820378560762/

Ko, I'm glad you know about this. so many growers sell virused plants and don't even realize it. Today, I saw someone on a Facebook adenium page selling grafts that were very obviously infected with mosaic virus. My local nursery is selling virused plants too. He thought it was mites. Mosaic looks much different than mites or nutritional issues. I want to start educating people on this so we can stop the spread. I have stopped purchasing grafts now, because of this.

Just purchased this Mission Fig today and I'm afraid it has Mosaic Virus, confirming with local ag office. Lead person at Lowe's nursery said it just needed fertilizer and water, I'm not so sure after researching online.

Ko, I'm glad you know about this. so many growers sell virused plants and don't even realize it. Today, I saw someone on a Facebook adenium page selling grafts that were very obviously infected with mosaic virus.

Muzammal I see adenium sellers selling grafts with virus all of the time. It's crazy.

I have no doubt that there are unscrupulous plant sellers out there. I would like to comment about the misshapen and broken pattern leaf color (i.e. looks like a virus. Many of my home-grown plants grown from seeds have on occasion produced unsightly leaves with this look BUT after adjusting the fertilizing to include Fish fertilizer, along with slow-release fertilizer granules, my plants have recovered to produce large, even-colored glossy leaves. Note the difference in the pics of one my larger plants. Second pic shows the stunted discolored leaves.

Candice, I have some plants with similar looking leaves and leaf loss. They were all healthy last year, with big beautiful green shiny leaves. I don't think my issue is mosaic virus. I moved very close to the beach and have three waterways surrounding me plus a waterfall. Between the salt air and strong ocean breeze, all my adeniums are suffering. Where previously several were always in bloom, now I only see the occasional bloom. Bud loss is a real problem, too. I hope to see them acclimate soon. Living near the beach brings the expression 'growing hard' to another level. I may have to consider a greenhouse.

When researching, I found out that virus can often go dormant in plants, much like it can with us. it can show itself in stressful conditions. Hopefully that isn't the case for any of you folks above :). After seeing how grafts are mass produced in some areas we are sourcing, I have very little trust in them nowdays. I just seed grow now. I'm getting some really cool seedlings lately!

Hi Maria have you tried dyna- gro. Grow i had some plants doing that last year and I used dyna gro 1/2 dose evertime I watered for about 2 mo and mine came Back and look grate now also stoped blooms from splitting when they opened only thing they grew fast and I had to cut back

roger

Candace, I'm pretty certain my issue is simple salt air and wind. My plants are all seed grown by me. I have never liked grafts and don't even own one. I prefer to air layer for roots and forego the caudex in order to clone a specific bloom. In time, the roots thicken up pretty impressively and you don't even miss the caudex.

Roger, no I haven't used DynaGrow, but will try it. Maybe a little more concentrated so they don't overgrow. I do use earthworm castings in the soil. I switch up between half concentration SuperBloom, whole fertilizer, tomato food, and my own concoction of boiled banana peels, epsom salt, and fish emulsion. These were very vigorous at the house but at this location, it's difficult to grow. My plumerias are bigger but no blooms yet. They get the same diet.

Oh you have the right idea. Seed growing is so exciting. New blooms are like opening a gift on Christmas.

My sick ones were all grafted and imported from Thailand.

Air layering is my favorite :)

Just recently started to post and to become marginally active on this forum once again. My interest in attempting to grow Adenium, comes and goes. My attention span is very short, these days. However, this thread caught my eye and confirmed what I had suspected for a very long time. Mosai virus also presents, on Adenium....and, is spreading.

I have many plant failures over the years. I've learned to deal with it. Growing Tropicals, and desert-evolved caudex plants, in NYC, Zone-7b is not easy. Short, hot, rainy summers.... and the very long dormancy periods, stress plants. If I'm lucky, my growing season lasts from mid-May thru mid Sept. My "desert" is my back deck. Full sun, broiling heat, and lots of rain. I've been growing plants for years, and it takes some efforts to give the plants what they demand culturally. Adenium have been, so far, the biggest PITA. New York City sure ain't the deserts of Namibia. So, some Adenium plants rot, collapse, and fail, while my other caudex plants- growing in the same conditions- thrive. For me...they just aren't worth the efforts and the expense. 90% of my failures involve Adenium. I'll buy no more when the last is gone. My thumb is black for Adenium.

Too many times I have ordered grafted, named plants, from major suppliers...and the plants that arrived were soft, shriveled. A few times, the plants were mislabeled. After long periods of nurturing the plants out of stressful dormancy, they didn't bloom with the expected color, nor expected blossom. I notified the retailers. Though sorry for my troubles, none offered to replace the plants. I'm done.

Mosaic virus infects many plants, not just Adenium. I gave up growing containerized figs for this very reason. I couldn't find any clean figs to buy. Most figs, at the retail level, display symptoms of Fig Mosaic Virus...and the weakened plants eventually fail. Large wholesalers are distributing virus-infected plants instead of destroying plant stock. Many figs are cutting-propagated in the hot, western states. Many wholesalers are selling cheap, virus-infected propagating wood, to eastern nurseries. Nurseries are selling infected plants that were propagated from virused wood. All of them know what they are doing. We buy the compromised plants. It sucks.

Adenium growers in China, Thailand, India, etc. are wholesaling virus-infected plants to retailers...then, in the end, we buy them. ALL these virused Adenium plants need to be destroyed. Destroyed before they get to the retailers. Will wholesalers destrou thousands of seedlings, etc? Fat chance. BTW....there is no cure, and the rest of you collection can be easily infected by insects, by contaminated fingers, tools, etc. All it takes is one plant....and it might be possible for the virus to jump to other non-Adenium plants.

I have grown plants.... Adenium that were bare branch, dormant plants when I bought them....that eventually sprouted virus-infected leaves. The plants went right into the garbage, without any hesitation. No nursing, no fertilizers, no magic elixirs, no vitamin B-12 shots, will help. It spreads like Wuhan-Flu. Dump the plants....or, you'll regret it, Don't do it, and you'll get to dump many more plants, eventually.

While going thru the many thousands of past-postings, I see many photos of Adeniums with mosaic virus showing on their leaves. Unsuspecting growers are clueless, or, unaware of what lurks inside their plants.

Many thanks to the OP for alerting this forum to the dangers of Mosaic Virus, and sounding the alarm bells.

Good luck and happy growing.

Caveat emptor.

bronxfigs, thank you for sharing. Well said! It definitely needs more awareness. Most dismiss it as nutritional, but it's so so different.

Frank, do you believe seed grown plants may be infected? Does MV transfer to the embryon? I think they can but in much lower numbers and we have to be vigilant of seed growing plants, as well. I had seeds that I later found out came from a parent known to have MV. I destroyed those 6 seedlings. With well over 100 adeniuns in my collection I cannot afford to take that risk.

How does Mosaic spread?

@Maria Elena (Caribbean - USDA Zone 13a) I’m so glad that you commented on this thread & that it has been brought back to the top! I have some plants that look like @Candice (Houston)’s pics & I started to ge worried. But your comment about salt air makes sense. I also have only seed-grown plants. The ocean is only a half-block from me, so it might just be my conditions.