I wanted to share a technique that I learned from a You Tube video produced by The Bonsai Supply Co.
It's an easy way to address sunburn or surface damage left from a broken branch using Limestone Powder

In the past when I wanted to seal a damaged area I used wood glue. It works, but the glue remains forever leaving an ugly site.
This is an adenium that arrived with caudex damage in June of 2019 that I treated with wood glue.

















Alive, but not very pretty!

Today I addressed two of my plants that had surface damage by scrapping off the scab or damaged skin and applying a layer of Limestone Paste or powder.


Sunburn from me rotating the plants acclamation to the Western Sun.





Partially scraped caudex




Freshly coated with White Limestone Paste. The paste is supposed to aid in drying out the treatment area and will fall away over time leaving a scare that will fade over a few years.

Here is another adenium that had branch damage because it tumbled off a cart and landed on it's head!
The result was an area that healed, but left an area that rot could invade in the future.



Scraped



Treated

Here is a picture of the product. It's a food product from Thailand and a little hard to find. I was given this White Limestone Paste from a friend who owns a Vietnamese restaurant.





I hope that this is helpful.

Interesting! I looked and the paste is available on Etsy and Ebay. I might give it a try. I'd never heard about that one.

Thanks for that ...

am familiar with a clay based bonsai paste ... works great on minor cuts - and eventually "falls off" when wound is healed over

also familiar with sealing cuts and wounds with melted Paraffin Wax ..... but using this technique on adenium may not work because of the heat of the wax over a cooler wet sap surface

more often than not .....will let the plant heal itself ....

James,
I've also used the grey bonsai paste and clear wax. The wax stays forever and becomes a substitute for a callous. My worst experiment was using cinnamon with wax permanently highlighting a horrid brown scar! Like you I favor letting a healthy plant heal itself.

The sunburn on the base of my plant was a pretty good size area so I felt better giving it some cover while it heals. It's a very shallow area.
The plant that fell and broke a branch off last year healed itself but left an area that looked like it could easily develop rot in a rainy environment (like now).

I've watched dozens of YouTube videos on adeniums. The Bonsai Supply guy out of Ft Lauderdale appears credible to me. He applied this paste to a really expensive mature adenium.
He stated that he learned this technique from a Bonsai Master in Thailand, so I gave it a shot. The paste is used to harden frosting / icing. The power/ paste helps dry the tissue and falls off relatively soon.

I'll let everyone know how these two treatments work out. So far I like it.

I've got another Thai Soco caudex with several scars from cutting off undesirable roots (above the soil line) that for some reason never calloused over well. They look grey like they are fighting rot. It's subtle. I'll take a picture when it stops raining. I think that I'm going to work on these spots using this white limestone powder to attempt to dry it out and reduce the visibility of the scars.

I'll keep y'all posted.

Here's a few pics of my Thai Soco that failed to callous the way I expected.
The plant is health and just now in bud for the first time since I've owned it.

Will give the Limestone Paste a try too ....

wonder if agricultural limestone would work ??

@2ManyPlants Love that Thai Soco ....

I just let the plant heal itself too when it has similar caudex issues...but it is good to know about the limestone paste. Thanks for sharing!

for sharing! I haven't look at my adeniums that closely! I am
Just glad that I have not killed them yet.

But I did use cinnamon and the Waterproof "glue" that was recommended in one of the YouTube videos for the cut. So the tip now looked like I sealed the cinnamon forever but I am hoping when leaves grow they won't be visible anymore. But you are right about the possibility that they wound will be an area where rot could start.

When you root prune like I did? I applied cinnamon on the cut, do I just leave it unsealed?

tarev said:I just let the plant heal itself too when it has similar caudex issues...but it is good to know about the limestone paste. Thanks for sharing!

Great to see you posting again @Tarev! I remember your post when you root trimmed your adenium the one with a huge beautiful caudex.

GigiPlumeria said: for sharing! I haven't look at my adeniums that closely! I am
Just glad that I have not killed them yet.

But I did use cinnamon and the Waterproof "glue" that was recommended in one of the YouTube videos for the cut. So the tip now looked like I sealed the cinnamon forever but I am hoping when leaves grow they won't be visible anymore. But you are right about the possibility that they wound will be an area where rot could start.

When you root prune like I did? I applied cinnamon on the cut, do I just leave it unsealed?

I've never tried to seal the roots. I try to let them dry out.
I like to use cinnamon and a little rooting powder when I root prune heathy roots larger than 1 mm. I let them callous on my kitchen counter or under my patio out of the direct sun for 2 to 10 days (larger roots longer duration).

If there was root rot I don't mess around. I let the plant base soak in Cosan 20 diluted in water for 15 to 40 minutes and then apply a fungicide power and let it callous before I repot

yes, the hardest part for me is waiting days for the cut to callous and not be tempted to repot early. And once repotted, waiting patiently to water.

I am afraid of rot so i do not water the base directly when it is okay to repot but rather just mist around it. My goal was to keep the soil mixture moist to encourage new roots but not too wet that will encourage fungus growth. If I have rain water I also use rain water diluted a little bit with hydrogen peroxide. If not, just water and hydrogen peroxide.

Well I felt ambitious today so I preformed plastic surgery on my Thai Soco.


Pic of shaved off tissue before I cleaned out the dark material in the margins




Applied fungicide powder to the darker areas




Covered the entire areas with White Limestone Paste/Powder





The tools that I used:
#6 readers
Small razor sharp knife
A tool to scrape out material in the margin

I feel like this is going to work well.
I'll keep you posted

Wow ...what a difference

Tools needed.... #6 readers

I will need a magnifying lens keep us posted. We have a Thai temple here and some oriental stores. I will look for this lime paste. If this the same that they use for Thai cooking? Then I can find it locally!

Yes. I believe that it's used in hardening frosting.
Not sure, but it is a food product.

So much good info here. I grow my adeniums in full sun and although they are close together which should mitigate the effect of blazing sun they still sometimes get sunburned. Too many of them to turn regularly and sometimes during weeding or pest control a plant will get set down with a tender side toward the brightest direction. I can't wait to try this out.

Never give up! Even horribly abused plants can be saved. These things are tremendously resilient.

Wildbloomers said:Never give up! Even horribly abused plants can be saved. These things are tremendously resilient.

Wow