I recently found two pods on two different Adeniums. How long do I leave them on the plants ? I think I messed up last year by taking them off too early. My plants have become quite big and showy; even the cuttings I took earlier in the year are a good size (no cautex yet); but they have flowered.

Hi Orchidgal, good question. I myself only recently found seed pods on a couple of my adeniums. According to the literature, it takes 75 to 90 days for pods to ripen depending on various things. Then they say, just before they are due to open they need to be secured with a tie wound around the pod or a piece of nylon stocking covering. This is to prevent the seeds from blowing away when the pods open. Allow the pods to ripen on the tree. Hope this helps.

Ask @Ursula. She'll know.

Tie the seedpods as soon as you can. I waited too long on mine. One day I saw them all green, a week after I came back from vacation the seedpods were brown, all opened up and seeds were gone. So next time when the seedpods are bigger (almost the size of green beans maybe that would be 70+ days old) I will tie them up with bread ties to keep them secure.

I did manage to catch one seedpod, that was yellowish brown and after a day it turned brown and split open but seeds could not get out because I had the seedpods tied tight. You have to bring it in the house to open it up because seeds have some fuzzy propellers on both ends of the seeds and the wind could blow them away from right under your nose if you open the ripe seedpods outside. Then you remove the fuzzy things on both ends of the seeds and just keep the seeds.

Well, yes, if your plants are outside, you need to tie them, so the seeds won't propel everywhere. My plants here in NJ are always inside by the time those seed pods are ready to split. When they split, I just grab the seeds before they wind up in the pots around them.
Btw, I have never removed the "fuzzy propellers" to seed them out. They will fall off by themselves.

I did not remove those "fussy" things either. I just planted them as-is. I did not know I should remove them.

Nature doesn't remove them either!

My seedpods are reddish-green from the beginning then gradually turn a darker red.











This is my first seed pod...should be opening soon if it was viable.

Now I know what to look for IF mine ever get large/old enough to grow pods.

Ken, I don't think my seedpods are the norm...they are supposed to start out and remain green until starting to ripen? Also, there are supposed to be two horns that are identical...my older pod only has one horn; the horns on the newer pods (first two pics above) are not the same length.

It probably is not necessary to remove it but I think I read in one of the threads here to remove it so I did.

I'm replying just to see if this will bump the latest post in front of the 'redser' spam postings.

Good job

Thanks, Donald.

Looks like Dave got back and cleaned things up also. I hope no one clicked on those bogus links.

I have three of those double horns ripening right now!

I pinched off the tips of half of the babies. I noticed that one has already split on its own (double-horns?).

Ken, "double horns"

Double-horns refer to seed-pods?

I learn something new here every day.