Hello everyone. I was doing some research on Adenium's and came across this forum. It's great to see that there are so many other Adenium lovers out there. There's a lot of great info here so I decided to join. I wanted to share my first experience with cuttings. My mom has an Adenium that's, from her estimate, over ten years old. It was originally in a small pot but was eventually planted in the ground and has been growing unattended for 8+ years. I have been doing a great deal of research on these beautiful plants and decided to take the plunge and uproot/repot. As part of this project, I also decided to take a few cuttings from the plant to see if I had any luck in propagating from cuttings. Below is what I did with some pictures at the end showing progress so far...

1. Carefully uprooted the plant from the ground (Tap root was enormous)
2. Removed entire root system and cut the base of the Caudex (to make it flat)
3. Heavily pruned back the plant (this is where I got my cuttings)...

Five cuttings were used of different lengths and girths. I placed the cuttings in my garage to dry for 7 days. Once the cuts had healed I proceeded to the planting phase.

Potting Mix: Equal Parts of All purpose potting soil, Perlite, Coarse Silica Sand (I believe it was 6-20)
Rooting Hormone was used. I wet the ends of the cuttings and dipped them in the powder.

Pictures: Only showing the three that survived

March 4, 2019 (day I took cuttings)

March 11, 2019 (Dried out cuttings)

March 11, 2019 Rooting Hormone

March 11, 2019 (in their new home)


Progress:

4/5/19 (first growth observed)


Repot took place on 7/24/19.

7/30/19 (WOW)


I'm pretty proud of the progress thus far. They are super healthy. If you guys have any questions or comments about my first post, please let me know. I am no expert but I learn something new every day. I will be posting my "extraction" steps and progress as well as some hand pollination that I am currently working on.

kidglovs said:Hello everyone. I was doing some research on Adenium's and came across this forum. It's great to see that there are so many other Adenium lovers out there. There's a lot of great info here so I decided to join. I wanted to share my first experience with cuttings. My mom has an Adenium that's, from her estimate, over ten years old. It was originally in a small pot but was eventually planted in the ground and has been growing unattended for 8+ years. I have been doing a great deal of research on these beautiful plants and decided to take the plunge and uproot/repot. As part of this project, I also decided to take a few cuttings from the plant to see if I had any luck in propagating from cuttings. Below is what I did with some pictures at the end showing progress so far...

1. Carefully uprooted the plant from the ground (Tap root was enormous)
2. Removed entire root system and cut the base of the Caudex (to make it flat)
3. Heavily pruned back the plant (this is where I got my cuttings)...

Five cuttings were used of different lengths and girths. I placed the cuttings in my garage to dry for 7 days. Once the cuts had healed I proceeded to the planting phase.

Potting Mix: Equal Parts of All purpose potting soil, Perlite, Coarse Silica Sand (I believe it was 6-20)
Rooting Hormone was used. I wet the ends of the cuttings and dipped them in the powder.

Pictures: Only showing the three that survived

March 4, 2019 (day I took cuttings)

March 11, 2019 (Dried out cuttings)

March 11, 2019 Rooting Hormone

March 11, 2019 (in their new home)


Progress:

4/5/19 (first growth observed)


Repot took place on 7/24/19.

7/30/19 (WOW)


I'm pretty proud of the progress thus far. They are super healthy. If you guys have any questions or comments about my first post, please let me know. I am no expert but I learn something new every day. I will be posting my "extraction" steps and progress as well as some hand pollination that I am currently working on.

Hi Interested in Knowing the fate of Mother plant with Caudex, would appreciate to watch an image of the Mother plant.
Prabhi S

I will be posting all the steps that I took with the mother plant this week.

Hi Kidglovs.
It looks as if you've independently done what I tried to do. I didn't
cut the caudex of the mother. I don't know how things are going underground.
I initially put the caudex and the scions into earth and perlite. Then someone here
warned that I needed more perlite or pumice. I mixed soil with perlite and bonsai
mix next.I'm not happy with that mixture. Yours looks much coarser than mine.
Do you think that your scions will develop caudices like the mother?
David

BigAppleRoseGuy said: I mixed soil with perlite and bonsai
mix next.I'm not happy with that mixture. Yours looks much coarser than mine.
David

My Soil mixture consists of the following: Equal Parts of All purpose potting soil, Perlite, and coarse Silica Sand (6-20). I like the silica sand because it helps with drainage and it is readily available down here in South Florida (very fine to very coarse). I will probable cut back a bit on the perlite next time as it tends to float to the top of the pot and is annoying to look at. This mixture works well for cuttings, seed starting and mature plants. You just need to ensure that the pot being used has enough holes for proper drainage.

BigAppleRoseGuy said:Do you think that your scions will develop caudices like the mother?
David

Although the "trunk" will swell with age, it will never have a FAT caudice. This only happens when plant is grown from the seed. The main reason I grew the cuttings is to have more of the same plant since the mother had been pruned. In the future, those cuttings will produce flowers as well as seeds.

Cheers!

That's the answer. I'll never get caudices from the scions.
I'll continue with them, hoping they will root.
That's because...well, because I could never throw out a plant that
has pretty, glossy leaves.
David

Nice job Kidglovs -
Some other things that will help improve cutting viability include heat and frequent water misting until rooting. People in Tucson have some elaborate setups, but in my experience as long as the weather is warm (arizona warm), the cutting isn't in direct sun and it's getting adequate water at least daily in a fast draining medium like perlite - your success rate will dramatically improve.

Three month's on...

I'm not happy with the scions (background) that I rescued from my 12+ year-old desert rose after it's haircut. They
are not performing well. I think there's too much soil and not enough hard stuff.



But, I'm very happy with Mom after her haircut, and that was my primary concern.
David

Hi Guys
Took 5 cuttings From Adenium Thai Silk plant dried them for 10 days, saw the callus on the ends
then dipped cut ends in Rooting hormone planted in well drained medium and left them in a shaded place. Did not wet the plants for 3 weeks, by the end of 3 weeks,noticed first cutting had rotten from the top followed by remaining 4 rotted from the base.
my conclusion is that it is not that easy to grow them by cuttings, everything has to perfect from medium to donor plants.
I would try to propagate may be later.
Prabhi S

@prabhisetty don't lose faith and don't give up. My mother's adenium where the cuttings came from was not doing too well because I failed to plant the caudex deep enough to produce viable roots. I once again pulled the plant, cut back the branches and planted the additional cuttings as described in my original post. The only difference is that I used straight cocopeat as the potting medium and the drying time was 5 days instead of 7. Everything else was the same. It has only been 8 days since they were potted and I already have one with a bunch of leaves.

From your post, it looks like you have not provided any water to the cuttings for about 30 days?

prabhisetty said:Hi Guys
Took 5 cuttings From Adenium Thai Silk plant dried them for 10 days...
Did not wet the plants for 3 weeks...

I think your cuttings may have dehydrated and died off. Try again and provide your cuttings with some water every 3-4 days depending on how hot your climate is. It's about 90-95f here in Florida right now so I water on that schedule sparingly with a mister/spray bottle at the base of the cutting. Just enough for it to make its way down to the roots.

Cutting 8/13/19 - Planted 8/18/19 (5 Days drying)


8/26/19


9/2/19