Hey everyone, I bought this desert rose (Adenium obesum) a week or two back, and a few of the leaves are yellowing and/or have a spot on them. I am not so familiar with growing them.

What could be causing these problems? Images attached; sorry for the poor quality photos!

CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO ENLARGE :)

My first guess would be over watering. Your soil doesn't look gritty enough. Besides that, your Adenium should be dormant now, and not able to use water. WHEN GROWING ACTIVELY, they need gritty/ fast draining soil, and lots of sun and heat. Then they need water. No food and minimal water during dormant period. If you scroll through the forums list you will find an Adeniums forum.

Your plant should be going dormant in the near future and may drop all or most of its leaves. Totally normal. As Carol pointed out, it needs a gritty soil (maybe change that in spring), and different treatment during dormancy. Be cautious with the water in winter. These plants have marked differences in needs and behavior depending on the season.

It is heading to dormancy, and those leaves will just drop off naturally. Do not water for now, just let it go dormant.
It will show you it is awake already once it starts producing new leaves. It may also produce blooms first, but that is not the indication it is awake already.

Your soil looks heavy and dense, later on towards mid Spring change the media and make it much grittier and porous.
Also I hope your container has drain holes. This plant really needs faster dry out time, and during the dry and warm months, slowly position it outdoors to acclimate to your area, and then as it grows newer leaves, position to full sun. It can take frequent watering once temps are going very hot, the hotter the better and may also bloom. It is the queen of my garden during the peak summer months when our temps go soaring into a very dry, triple digit range.

Yes - as the others have said, the plant is on the verge of dormancy ....
leaves falling off & yellowing is normal -

With-hold water for 3 months - mark the day on a calendar & resist the urge to water -
watering now can kill the plant

Since Colorado is still in the 30's to low 40's .... place your adenium indoors near a south facing window
(east or west facing window okay)

Never let your adenium freeze -

In the meantime ....here is a tried and true adenium potting mix ... but wait until spring to re-pot

Mix together:

2 Part: Coconut Coir -
1 Part: Poultry Grit (chicken grit) /or Pea Gravel
1 Part: Sand - coarse Builder's Sand, or Leveling Sand, or Horticultural Sand
1 Part:: Lump Charcoal - Break-up (crush larger pieces)
1 Part: Lava-rock – (volcanic cinders or pumice) (crush larger pieces)

Optional: mix with above

1 Part: Redwood Bark / Orchid (Phalaenopsis) Mix - Break-up, cut or crush larger stems & bark
1 Part: Perlite - coarse

In a Adenium re-potting mix pinch?
Can substitute regular Soil Mix for Coconut Coir

Can safely substitute a half and half mixture of Orchid / Phalaenopsis Soil Mix (mostly bark and rocks)
mixed with Cactus / Palm Mix
(both available in bags at most Big Box Building Stores)

Since James has gotten into specifics in a good way, here is the recipe that I have used for years:

50% pumice
25% potting soil (locally made, mostly compost)
25% cocofiber

The recommendation I was given was half aggregate, half organic. There are a lot of ways to make that happen. You can substitute perlite (or various other things) for pumice if the latter is not available. And you can used bagged potting mix instead of the organics that I prefer, and that will probably work fine too. The mix has to hold a reasonable amount of water, but it also has to have excellent drainage, so that water exits in a timely manner.

I have the same problem...





I am an avid gardener..But i dont really know anything about them..despite everything i have read on them idk where i am going wrong lol.. I live in central Texas our temps are still in the upper 80s an 90s.. No Rain in over 2 months lol.. I bought this Dbl hybrid on Ebay an a branch was broke but is still bloomed 2x this year..I have had it about 3 months.. I bought Miracle grow cactus soil an thats all it has in it.. Is it still going dormant even though the temps are still high ? or am I watering it to much or not enough ? It gets about 9-10 hours of FULL sun.. I water about every 3 days.. I do want more than 2 branches lol But now is not really the time to trim it.. i guess lol

Hi Wayne at this time of the year, if it is indeed heading to dormancy, I will just let it be. Though temps seems warm enough, light level duration is decreasing gradually.

Maybe the buds were latent buds of the previous season. Good thing it still managed to bloom, but it still begs to see the condition of the roots, if it managed to develop. As long as that caudex is not feeling soft and mushy, then it should be okay.

It will probably drop the remaining leaves, but you know I find in mine, when they dropped all the leaves in late summer, they made an active leaf regrowth this Fall. I just maintained its position in full sun, adjusting watering intervals though since I know there were no new leaves forming yet. But I did see it continue to firm up its caudex, just rock hard solid. Eventually new leaves formed. We had 4 to 5 months of no rain as well before we finally saw some rain in late September.

I usually do my pruning during late winter here while my plant is dormant. Gives me good opportunity to check with ease the root zone.

Hi Yes the caudex is solid.. I will bring it in when the temps get to 50s at night.. Should i trim it then or wait til later ? can I plant the cuttings ?

You can cut the cuttings, but it really won't do much this time, it is already cooling down. Also cuttings will just stay slim, no caudex formation. If you really want to make cuttings, wait for next Spring.