Hi, everyone.

My morning inspection tour revealed that my 150 or so seedlings are doing well. As a matter of fact, quite a few of them are actually fattening up. We're expecting rain today. They'll love that.

I had tried on numerous occasions to sow adenium seeds, with dismal results. I had come to the conclusion that I was notoriously inept when seeds were involved. I guess I'm not that useless when I start with fresh seeds. It does this old gardener's heart good.

Take care.
Sylvain.

Those are looking great

Goodness, Where have I been? I'm using a different computer today and have no photos, pffft.

My babies are getting crowded, so I'll be transplanting them to more spacious trays, haha. I'll take a series of photos for you in the next couple of days.

Nice to have you here, Tony! And good to see you drop by, Sylvain.

Doris, sometimes seed pods have mercy on us, and don't have 100 seeds inside. I got four from the Valentine Rose (double red) and Double Santa Claus (double red with white edges) cross that I did. They haven't sprouted yet.

OK, just checking in! Chat with you again in a day or so...

Melissa/coconut

Melissa if you sell any of those seeds please let me know.

Hello from another Adenium nut. I got a few hundred seeds on ebay last year and enjoyed watching the seedlings grow. I totally agree with gone2seed you can store the seeds. I didn't manage to sow all my seeds last year so had some sitting in my landry room. Two weeks ago I decided to try some of them and now I got the first babies coming up. It was a nice surprize because I was ready to get nothing. The germination rate will probably be lower but still I'm happy they are alive

Here, my 1+ y.o. seedlings. I heard they could bloom in 1 year from seed but nothing here yet

Well, tried to post a pic but it took forever. Will try later

Please if anyone here ordered threw my co-op please submit payment please that time is coming near
Hi Sylvain nice to meet you I live outside orlando and quickly becoming a adenium nut. Wow those babies looking great nice leaves and you can see there just starting to plump

if things go as planed i will have purple rose adeniums for sale mabe even trading??


thanks
mike

Hi Melissa
I had to re pot my Anucha seeds yesterday. They were about 2 inches high but had started to rot off at soil level.
It appears that the vermiculite was holding too much water around their bases and I lost a few. So they and the Ko seeds I planted at the same time all went into 85 mm square pots. They are looking good now.
I don't think my seed raising mix was right for the amount of water I was giving them, so from now on I am going back to what I have used earlier, That is the same potting mix I use for all my adeniums.
I have been experimenting with my seed raising mix for the last few lots of seed and have lost far too many. Back to plan A.
I look forward to hearing how yours ar going

I need answer what is causing my plants leaves to curl up, is it too much sun, should I move them inside.

OK what do you all use for seed starting? I use a good potting medium and added pealite in the mix to be very good draining, I live in florida so i am going have to let these sit in my screen porch or the afternoon thunderstorms will wash them all away. i should get my seeds in the next 5-7 days and want to be ready for them
what and when do i apply fertilizer? I figure i will be using a spray bottle to moisten the soil

mike

Mike
The way I have been going lately I feel I am not the person to give advice. With seed mix the seeds have to be kept moist but not wet.
The last two lots of seed I have planted have been a disaster because I have been listening to other people and changing my mix too much.
I have a lot of seed to plant and have decided to go back to my original mix that was quite successful.
For my Adenium plants I use the following mix.
30 litre bag of Cactus and Succulent mix.
1 x 20 kg bag of coarse river sand.
1 x 20kg bag of 10 mm Quinkin gravel, ( this is a local volcanic crushed rock)
This ends up being a very free draining mix that never gets saturated with water.
Because I tend to water too much my mix must be free draining.
Previously I have used the same mix for seeds without any problems. I used to worry about the 10mm gravel but the seeds appear to handle it well.
I add slow release fertilizer to my mix also.
I keep them under shade cloth for about a month and keep them moist with a spray bottle.
I start feeding them with a weak seaweed/fish emulsion fertilizer after they are about a month old. I use a watering can to drench the plant and pot.
That's about as much as I can tell you Mike. This works for me in our climate, you will need to watch the seedlings carefully and adjust things as you see fit.
Two main points 1. Don't let the seeds dry out. 2. Don't get the seeds too wet.
Cheers

Well Mike I have success with what I use, it is equal parts Vermiculite, Peat Moss, and Cactus Mix, I wet the mixture good before laying the seed down, then just barely cover with seed starter.

I'm just finding this thread- fabulous photos everyone!

Melissa- thanks for taking us along on your journey- such wonderfully useful infomation on this thread!

Nice to see some new faces as well! Welcome!

Mike,for seed starting I use Lowe's Jungle Growth with one third,by volumn,added perlite.I believe the perlite could be reduced to 1/4th and still be ok.I now use this mix for everything and have had no problems except that after a year or so,the forest products in the mix begin to break down and can cause drainage problems.Usually by that time they have been moved up anyway.

Hi Trish good to see you.

Hi, Trish!

Tony, you have the MAIN idea--

"This ends up being a very free draining mix that never gets saturated with water"

What ever you use must let water rush through. And be 'fluffy', Air to the roots! Air to the roots!

Photos tomorrow, maybe!

Doris, maybe mealy bugs? Look closely to see if there are little fuzzy white things at the base of the leaves. Could you try for a photo?

BLEAH!! Doubles dislike rain rather much! Double Santa Clause. Hint: not supposed to be brown!!!!!
.

I must say I have become an "Air To The Roots" fanatic when I lost one of my babies grown from seed to rot. One day, it was doing fine. The following week, the leaves were gone and the caudex turned to mush. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!

The terracota pot in which it dwelled was sitting square on the concrete deck. A film of water formed between the pot and the concrete when it rained, or when I watered. From there, I guess anaerobic bacteria grew and eventually attacked my baby. Bummer!

I now raise my adenium pots off the concrete surface using 3 small pieces of broken ceramic tile around the bottom edge of each pot. That way, at least 1/4 inch (7 or 8 mm) of air flows between the pot and the deck. I haven't had another rot problem since then. Low-tech and easy: my kind of solution. As far as potting medium is concerned, I use the cheapest potting soil available at Home Depot, to which I add about 1/3 sand. It works for me.

This baby was rescued from a property where the abandonned house had been declared an "unsafe structure" and was scheduled to be demolished by the County the following day. The front lawn was such a mess that, had it not been for a pink flower sticking its head out of the tall grasses, I would have never known an adenium was growing there. While digging out the plant, we found the large (18 inches dia./45cm dia.) blue ceramic pot sitting in the back yard. It was being used as a garbage can and cat poo container. We came back with 2 rescued adeniums and the large pot. And it was my birthday. I must confess that I am not that fond of the blue glaze. One shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Happy birthday to me.

Take care, all.
Sylvain.

I love the pot *S* and you were so lucky to find a large flower like that, I bet it will do great.

If anyone has fresh seeds, I will pay-specially the doubles. My seeds from Mr.Ko has 30% germination rate and 45% on Commart.

Thank you,