Hello,

I live in Phoenix, AZ. My adenium is placed where it gets about 4-6 hours of full sun daily and I've been watering it about once per week. Lately, I've noticed the leaves are curling on the edges and growing upward. I left the plant on my patio for about a week during some rainy weather and the leaves relaxed and straightened out. It was only getting about 2 hours of late afternoon sun then. It looked better, but it's my understanding that these plants require and thrive with A LOT of full sun. So I'm confused about why more sun = upward growth and curling leaves. Any guesses? I've tried doing some online research without much success. I've attached photos for reference. These were taken on 9/3/18. Ten days later, it looks about the same. It's continuing to get new leaves though and nothing is turning yellow.

Thanks for the help!

-Sarah

Hello Sarahbean19, they do like lots of full sun, the more heat and direct sun the better. However, you will have to treat them like tropical plants during those conditions. You have to water them frequently, I have to water mine daily when we are hitting 90F and higher. We got very, very dry conditions here too, humidity so lousy.

I looked at your area's weather forecast and your conditions they are still very, very hot, so it is okay to water them daily. Just make sure you remove the excess water if any in the drip tray you have, though I seriously doubt it will accumulate any with the excessive heat conditions you have, unless of course you get occasional downpours.

I start doing watering intervals again, when temperatures starts to go down, like right now, we are back into the high 70F's for our daytime high, Usually in summer we were peaking at 100F to 105F and humidity at 20% to 0%. I also monitor our overnight temps, so like this time, we are getting early Fall like conditions, getting low 50F's overnight. I am just bidding time a bit, would surely start bringing my Adeniums indoors, it is already showing me leaf drop, as it gets ready for dormancy. So I have been doing watering intervals now.

Pretty much observe your ambient conditions, your daytime highs and lows. If you are still hitting 100F, it can take daily watering gladly.

Thank you! I've been hesitant to water it that much because I know it retains water in the caudex and stem but I will give it a try. It makes sense to think of it as a tropical plant.

if the plant is getting sufficient water, and sunlight, the upright leaves are normal ..... especially at, or near the ends of stems ....lower down the stem, leaves tend to become horizontal

if the plant does not get sufficient water, or sunlight - leaves tend to droop

not sure what is causing the leaves to "curl" or cause the "wavy" like leaf margins ....a guess, think it is due to a lack of one or more of the many micro-nutrients - in no specific order - those are:

iron (Fe), boron (B), chlorine (Cl), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), molybdenum (Mo), nickel (Ni)

look on the fertilizer you have been using ....does it include all or any of the above ??

I've had Adeniums in Phx and I did have to water them every day during the summer. Don't forget to take yours inside somewhere for winter. I froze mine one year when an early freeze hit it outside.

James, thank you for the advice on fertilizer. I am using a 13-13-13 fertilizer by Carl Pool. It does not contain chlorine (but our water does) or nickel.

Hello Sarahbean19, I actually spritz the entire caudex and branches, next to really drenching the media. Humidity is so low anyways during the peak of summer, I can even see that within a minute it has dried off from the surface of the plant. Do your watering early in the day, before the hot sun hits it. I know my media is very coarse and gritty so I am not afraid of having root rot here when I do my daily watering in summer.

It will be concerning for the caudex if your media is not well draining, and I can see it looks well draining. Just be careful that it does not sit in water, got to let that excess water out.

Hi I also have the same problem with my leaves curling upwards. I was wondering if any of the things above worked to help straighten your leaves ? It's rather strange I have 5 plants and only one of them is doing this they all are grown indoors under full spectrum lighting.

@ BigislandBonsai
If you can update your State/Country and the zone some members may be able to give you a better advice.

If the caudex looks slimmer not full, it could be that root is not taking in water and resulting to leaf curling.

@deepsouth @kaktus any idea?

@BigislandBonsai

as in Big island, Hawaii ?

adenium know only 2 seasons - wet and dry

wet is the *hot* summer growing season -
dry is the *cooler* winter dormancy period -

in summer - treat / water adenium like a tropical plant
in winter - treat / water adenium like a cacti plant

summer watering should be to saturation
during dormancy water 30 to 60 days apart - but less than the volume of pot

most references list adenium as evergreen ....but no mater where they are grown - adenium do enter dormancy - even in the Islands

when dormancy happens, the plants needs are reduced ....less water, no fertilizer -

a few adeniums will loose leaves, other adeniums loose all leaves - yet others retain all leaves ....

during dormancy - growth at stem tips usually comes to a full stop ...sometimes sporadic growth will occur ...and sometimes plants will flower ....dormancy breaks with new growth

curling and drooping leaves is related to too little watering .... too little sunlight and / or a nutritional deficiency - too little or none at all

adenium will grow better (and fuller) outside, under full sun (at least 6 hours) .... assuming plants never freeze - they can stay outside year round

never allow adenium to sit in water ...EVER

once the growing season returns .... start watering (at least once every 7 days) and fertilizing .....

if plant has entered dormancy - everything appears okay .... as the "signs" droopy & curled leaves are what you want this time of year

just to be sure - I would pull the "curled leaves" adenium from its pot ....insure the drainage holes are not clogged-up ....knock off all old potting media - make certain the roots are healthy ....

repot with a fresh fast draining / sandy / gritty / chunky potting media ....

As a newbie to growing this gorgeous plant, and having questions, I found this thread and found exactly the answers I was looking for! Thank you SOOO much, @deepsouth

@terrafirma for the