Hello friends,

I purchased the seeds on Ebay and germinated them in sand.
Out of 14, 10 seedlings emerged. I spray them with water twice daily. They looked great in the beginning but now the stems are shriveled on some of them and the leaves look sickly and some start to get yellow.

I did add a small amount of baking soda to the water to prevent fungus also I pinched off some sickly leaves. Now as I write this I am suddenly sure the baking soda is a bad idea. Can I save them?
Do they need food and what kind?
Somewhere I read a mix of banana and carrot peel with eggshell makes great home made Adenium food.

If I replant them can I use pots which are glazed inside so they wont take the water?
My location is Israel, the climate should be ideal.

I think your plants will make it - but you will need to act fast

that shriveling appearance of the main stem (caudex) means the plant(s) are not getting water ...spraying twice a day is not nearly enough .....

for now - saturate the sand - be certain there is ample drainage to allow excess water to flow out of pot

try to repot the plants - as soon as possible - in a half and half mixture of regular potting mix and sand ....

keep that mixture damp but not dripping wet ....

as the plants get a little taller, added few more leaves and the caudex has filled out more - repot each plant into its own pot

a glazed pot is fine - an unglazed pot is better ....what-ever you decide - make sure there are at least one hole at the bottom of pot

adenium have absolutely no respect for expensive pots - as roots expand - pots break

In the meantime - gather together

1 Part: Coconut Coir -
1 Part: Redwood Bark (or) Orchid / Phalaenopsis Mix - Break-up, cut or crush larger stems & bark
1 Part: Poultry Grit (or) Pea Gravel
1 Part: Perlite - coarse -
1 Part: Sand - coarse / large grain sand = Leveling, Horticultural, Builder's Sand > screen out fine sand & dust
1 Part: Lump charcoal - Break-up, Crush to 1/4" to ½" sized pieces > screen out dust
1 Part: Lava-rock – (volcanic cinders or pumice)

mix together - the resulting mix is a chunky - gritty mix that is fast draining

I believe the yellowing leaves is from lack of water

wait a couple of weeks on the fertilizer - start off with a liquid fertilizer made for cactus / succulents in the NPK range of 2-7-7 or 5-10-5

Thank you so much for the advise.

I'll do everything as you wrote and show pictures of my recovered seedlings soon.

you are most

and to the adenium forums

oh yeah - some of the items on that list may be hard to find, or not available ... feel free to improvise

If you can't lay your hands on all those ingredients, just go for a cactus mix, and add perlite or pumice or course sand to make it fast draining, and treat it like a cactus. You don't give a location, but basically water when in active growth, then back off when going dormant. They love heat and sun, but need to be adapted to it slowly.