I just got 5 adeniums, bare-root. When or how should I water? What mix of soil????

- Adenium Soil Mix -

Mix 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 = 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)


- Watering -

keep track of local temperatures ~

saturate to at least the volume of pot

70's water once every 10 days or so
80's water once every 7 days or so
90's water once every 5 days or so
100's water once every 3 days or so

cut back watering if night temps dip into 50's / 40's

Do i water during winter?

Do I wait to water when they have leaves or just do it now? THey just look like green bottle-looking stumps with a roots

sedumzz said:Do i water during winter?

Winter - I water "sparingly" once every 30 days

adenium grow better outside under full sun .... but as summer changes to autumn and night time lows drop to 50° it is time to bring adenium inside and cut back watering .....other than over-watering, watering in cool temps will kill plants

sedumzz said:Do I wait to water when they have leaves or just do it now? THey just look like green bottle-looking stumps with a roots

water asap ....especially if they have just been shipped

you will need to pot-up asap in a very fast draining potting media ...chunky, gritty & sandy ......

you should be geting leaves soon ...within maybe a month ...and maybe even flowers

ooh, ok! They are still very very plumpm and look full, just making sure

@sedumzz would love to see your desert roses when they are repotted and when they bloom.

...and may I add had I asked advice before repotting my adeniums instead of putting them in miracle gro in a pot 5x the size it was supposed to be, I could have saved myself a lot of headache.

What should the size of the pot be???? as in porportion to the root length or caudex/trunk diameter?

depends on the overall size of the plant .... if entire plant is 6-9" tall and perhaps 5-7" wide ....a 6" diameter pot should be adequate (for now) ...allow a little extra room for caudex to grow

root length wont matter because adeniums are one plant you can plant much higher in the pot (more root exposed)

use an unglazed Terra-cota pot .....(unglazed allows water evaporation through the pot)
shallow azalea pots, or shallow dish like pots work very well ....
what-ever-you-do - don't buy an expensive pot or have one custom made - adeniums will break the best pots

I was able to buy shallow terracotta pots from Home Depot and Lowe's. They are a fraction of the price of my fancy once and I totally agree with James, they seem to respond better with terracotta pots.

Ok.

Now, we will have to see what happens!

Terracotta bowls

that'll work ....

diameter ?

oops.... wrong user

Tag says 8.25" I transferred this, the only one that has no buds at this time but I forgot to take a photo of the finished product.

The only downside is this desert rose is top heavy so I might have to trim the leaves. Then maybe in spring prune the branches, to encourage more branching.

@Ursula, is it possible to make this sticky? Not sure if there is a rule on what can be made into a sticky.

@deepsouth James made such a detailed instructions based on Alex query. This might help other members who are new to adeniums.

that will work

from plastic pot ...knock off some of the bottom & top dirt ...then raise the plant about an inch higher in Terra-cotta pot exposing more of the caudex ....

@deepsouth, what do you do with the desert rose feet I really do not like cutting them off if they are healthy. But I am afraid that my desert rose will walk away

feet ? ...

from seed, adenium grow a characteristic bottleneck shape .... everything below the bottleneck is considered the caudex

expose more and more of caudex (over years) ....the caudex will continue to grow fatter and fatter ....its how adeniums got another name: "fat-plants"