Fascinating!

Yes, it is fascinating and amazing!!!

Any update on Alberto and the sibling???

This was fascinating to read!
Go Alberto Go!
Did he make it?
Did his sister?
I gotta know!

Me, too, me, too!

You are so kind to ask, and I've just been tending to them :D ... Sugar Baby (the sister) decided, like many early variegated seedlings, to turn mostly-green after her sugar diet. I've put her back in the shady area of the porch with her siblings, and though she remains much lighter yellow-green for now, I'll wait to see if she reverts to variegated or fills in with more color while she begins taking nourishment just from the soil. The albino kid is back (on her right), but so far is regular green (as he was initially the first time around, too). I'll wait to see if he goes albino again, and this time will be ready if he does. His sister did fine on the sugar diet, so now I'm ready if he needs it!


Sugar Baby on the left; see how long and thin she got from no sun and the sugar diet; the 'feeding leaf' is the pointed-cut end closest to the camera ... Albino is to the right; I know to keep an eye on him. Last time, he turned albino almost overnight.

Oh, and they have a third sibling that is looking interesting, too! LOL I think this batch of seeds must have gotten hit by gamma rays, or solar magnetic bursts, or something otherworldly, because they are at least 50% 'unusual'. He's decided, at just 1-2 inch height, that he is not growing any bigger now, thanks very much, but will just start putting out lots and lots of leaves like the much older seedlings do, and make them kind of whirl around each other. While even my oldest (3 months) seedlings have only 5-6 leaves, he routinely has 8 of them, but ranging from just 1/2 inch to 1.5 inches long to their 7-8 inches. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was a prolif (seedling sprouted from a scape, instead of from a seed, like he was).



They give me such joy, just watching and wondering at their very individual traits!

I just loved your update!
I was so intrigued with the story...you actually kept them both alive! Good for you! What a heartwarming story!
And I just love their names too!

If they grow up and make babies, you just might be able to sell them along with the story no matter what they look like!!

I want to be first on the list for Alberto and Sugar Baby...and I better have one of third sibling too just for his individuality....He must have been jealous of the attention being lavished on the other two and he decided to "show off" for you so you would pay attention to him too!

Thank you so much for the story....I hope you will keep us updated...I told my family the story at dinner and we were all saying...Go Alberto Go! They are waiting for the update! I just love it! I was so afraid it would be a simple cryptic...um...they died....But the Didn't die!! They will love this story!
You are amazing!

....every once in a while when times get tough....
I find myself saying to myself....
"Go Alberto Go!"

Dare I ask about Alberto's health and welfare??
Would love an update!

I'd like to know, as well.

Me too! Me too!!!

I have been reading the whole thing and would also love to know, I just discover I have abino Adenium and would love to know that i can raise him to a healthy plant

You guys are awesome! :D You prompted me to go out in the garden and see how everyone was doing, and its helped me learn more about the new cultivars I have. Alberto, whose pod-mother is a dormant (Bama Music) is hiding under his blanket of soil like the other dormants - I'm finding that they do need the "winter-rest" in my zone. Hopefully he'll shoot up his leaves again when spring coaxes the other dormants back out. Seeing the others go into dormancy makes me think he might/must be okay, and i'll have to update again when the sun gets back higher in the sky. :}

I hope everyone is having a great winter and enjoying all the preparations for spring!

Hope Alberto survives the winter!

We ALL do!

Did Alberto and sibs make it through the winter? I have some seedlings that I purchased on the LA and one cross is throwing 25% albinos so I am hoping to hear how Alberto and friends did long-term.

I don't have any albinos, but I am also cheering for Alberto!
How's he doin?

Would love to know what happened. This has been amazing & fascinating to read. I'm hanging on the edge of my seat to know if they broke dormancy & what happened next.

Alberto must be sending out vibes to you all to say "hi" because he has been very much trying to grow again, though it is a painstakingly slow and arduous process until he is mature enough to maintain leaves on his very young root system. I would love to hear if OldGardener is still getting 25% albinos! Would be awesome to have so many to work with to increase the odds of success (my ratio has been only 1 in 300 seedlings *yikes!*). Have you got any of them going? :D And, special thanks to crittergarden for letting me know there was still interest ... i get so deep into the ATP database that i miss most of what is happening on the forums ... a kindly, helpful tree-mail link from crittergarden helps me get back in the groove!

It is all a hit-or-miss adventure, and each choice to do - or not do - something to keep him developing is always a risk. But, so far, he is developing! I have a friendly near-albino seedling with him to help me track his progress (for example, I was sure Alberto had croaked a few weeks back because of no visible growth to his one developed leaf and no new forming leaf, when his seedling-mate shot out some new foliage and made we wait a few days just to see - sure enough, Alberto began forming a tiny new leaf).

Here are some pictures - you will see he is still very tiny after two months of growth this year. But as one picture shows, he is indeed developing a root, which means he is on his way to hopefully being able to feed himself, rather than needing sugar-water to develop further. He was on sugar for a month after appearing this spring and was able to send out multiple leaf blades, but after I switched him to water-only for a few weeks he subsequently dropped down to just one viable leaf, so now I'm giving him some added sugar feedings to see if it will help this single blade send out more shoots again (it seems to be working).

I must admit, I love checking on him every day and seeing if there is any progress. The color is enchanting to me - just the tiniest hint of green aura in all that translucent white. And, no matter his outcome, a pleasure to watch as he reaches out those new, if rare, leaves.

This is April 2013 with new foliage - the blunt-cut end is the blade that was taking the sugar feedings. At this point, his root system was pretty non-existent - just a couple of nubbins, and all growth was due to the sugar-carb diet.



Just this week I started him back on supplemental sugar, and caught a photo of his developing root (foliage leaf is to the right, long root to the left). I adjusted his pot to accommodate a small feeding "bowl" of the sugar water and dropped in a slow-release fertilizer pellet to help round out his nutrient needs and hopefully get him going stronger again.



Shown sipping on his sugar-smoothie next to his leggy lighter-green-than-usual companion seedling (who also needed some sugar supplement early on).



Thanks so much for asking after Alberto! ... it is quite an adventure even if progress is so very slow and the outcome so unsure. Having people cheer him on is so encouraging in the face of so much uncertainty!!