@kyle_fl Wow, that is an impressive caudex!

Thank you for all your answers. They're most helpful!

@kyle_fl That caudex reminds me of a Dalek from Doctor Who!

@GigiAdeniumPlumeria Thanks for the welcome 😊
The mix is equal parts garden soil, composted steer manure, sakrete multi purpose sand, perlite and paver base. The big fibers you see in there are from the 2 inches or so of cypress mulch I put at the bottom of the large pots, it helps the water drain out completely and keeps the soil mix from leaking out the drain holes in the big containers. It's all stuff I can get from the local home depot that they keep in stock year round.

Here's what the paver base looks like:




I add enough cypress mulch to cover the bottom drain holes on the gallon or larger pots:

Murky said: @kyle_fl That caudex reminds me of a Dalek from Doctor Who!

Great, now I'm gonna have dreams about un-potted arabicums flying around the back yard screaming EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! 😂

And it can wave its arms around at the same time!

That is a great looking caudex though, I'm looking forward to when mine get that big.

@kyle_fl I sent you 10 acorns for sharing your potting mix secret. So now you can get an Adenium badge. I have used mulch as a base too and the paver sand because it is cheaper mix in addition to perlite.

GigiAdeniumPlumeria said: @kyle_fl I sent you 10 acorns for sharing your potting mix secret. So now you can get an Adenium badge.

Thanks, I figured out how to get that added and then realized I had a whole bunch of system messages I didn't know about. I'm still finding my way around here😉

If you click the "Adenium Forum" you will find interesting other chats.

Normally when I buy a new desert rose, especially when they have blooms I don't touch them until they are done blooming. But what I discovered buying these, some are newly repotted and there are no dirt in the bottom of the plastic pots exposing the roots against the hot plastic pots in our hot summer days. So I learned to just take time to check them and this is what I usually find; roots are exposed:



I would normally repot to bigger pots, expose the caudex slightly but if caudex is too small, I would use the same pot until it is done blooming.

I just add fine mulch and then use the media form the, make a mound in the middle then put back the plant and cover with the rest of the media.





Exposing the caudex gives them instant bonsai look:







Compared to before when left adenium caudex was buried, right adenium was leaning:


I top dress with crushed granite for looks and display in pretty pots for instant gratification of bonsai look:



Once it is done blooming some will be pruned and repotted in bigger pot and well draining potting mix. Usually just potting soil, fine mulch and perlite mixed with bonemeal and slow release. Then weekly weakly but liquid fertilizer while actively growing. The heavy pots will keep them stable and keep them from being blown away on windy days.

I got as far as mixing a batch of somewhere between 30 and 40 litres. It's something!
There's probably a better method for breaking up the charcoal than just banging the bag with a hammer. I broke them up a bit more by hand to match the approximate size of the coco husk pieces. And I lost count a few times, so the measures are not exact. But this is roughly the mix:

5 parts rice hulls
5 parts P-jord planting soil
5 parts coco husk
2 parts perlite
5 parts pumice
2 parts coarse sand
2 parts charcoal





The rice hulls make the mix feel really airy.

I really like how it looks with the crushed granite on top. Might have to get some.

@Ylis I've not used rice hulls, mainly due to local availability, but people in places that have monsoon seasons seem to love it. Let us know how that mix works out for you.

Are you using lump charcoal and breaking it up, making your own, or purchasing something else?

Sometimes I think growing adeniums is just an exercise in making really expensive, labor intensive, dirt 😛

At first I tried breaking up lump charcoal as the cheaper way to go. I gave that up after the first plant... it's just too messy and time consuming to bother with. Now I buy a bag off Amazon or when I see it at my local stores when I need more. And the rest of that original bag still sits in my garage...

Murky said: And the rest of that original bag still sits in my garage...

That stuff works great in hibachis and charcoal grills, that's all I ever used in my cast iron hibachi 🙂

yeah ....lump charcoal *can be a mess* .....stick a few pieces in a zip-lock type bag, seal it squeezing the air out ....then mash with hammer ...

you want dime to nickle size chunks

the idea behind lump charcoal is that it takes up the space that would otherwise be taken up by organics, and....makes the mix chunky ....wont hold water .....has fertilizer properties ....makes the mix airy ...

@GigiAdeniumPlumeria for the

deepsouth said: yeah ....lump charcoal *can be a mess* .....stick a few pieces in a zip-lock type bag, seal it squeezing the air out ....then mash with hammer ...

I tried that rather than catching the pieces that fly everywhere without a bag. But when pounding the charcoal it makes holes in the plastic bag. So the next pound has black dust flying out that gets worse with each pound that you end up breathing in. I'm happy just buying the more expensive small bags already chopped up.

Murky said: I tried that rather than catching the pieces that fly everywhere without a bag. But when pounding the charcoal it makes holes in the plastic bag. So the next pound has black dust flying out that gets worse with each pound that you end up breathing in. I'm happy just buying the more expensive small bags already chopped up.

try freezer bags...they are thicker -

Or put cardboard inside the freezer bags then put the charcoal in between the cardboard . So you are pounding the charcoal inside the freezer bag with cardboard protection. (I will try that this weekend.)

deepsouth said: @GigiAdeniumPlumeria for the

I bookmarked it too!

seems last time i broke up lump charcoal, I used 2 freezer bags ....one 1 gallon inside a 2 gallon ...oh yeah .... dont wear your Sunday best clothes ....