We used to live in Colorado and rainwater catchment was strictly illegal. I never understood that. I think we're ok in NM and AZ. We don't get much rain, but could catch some. We do have some rain barrels we just need to get hooked up to some gutters. I do think rain water would be much better for all of my plants.

My son lived in Colorado and once while visiting him I met with a horticulturist and asked about the rainwater. I was told the state believes rain belongs to everyone and must, by law, flow back into the ground.

Isn't it great how our "guardians" know what's best for us. I'm surprised they allow sunlight to be used for electrical production. Shouldn't that belong to the "public" as well? I don't want to share my sunlight!

I've been babying this Adenium for about 8 months now. It was full of buds and I figured I'd get a wonderful show. The most I ever got was 9 flowers open at once. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to enjoy riding back and forth from AZ to NM. I've kept it under the LED light, and watered faithfully with distilled water. It uses a lot of water. This last week has been 70's outdoors here in NM so I have been putting it out for some sun in the daytime and taking it inside at night as we are still in the 40's.

Today I noticed lots more browning of the leaves. Many of the buds have turned brown and are falling. We did have some good winds while it was outdoors. Could that have caused all this?There are no obvious insects. It's so ugly and sad looking now that I'm thinking of pruning it back down and re-potting again. If I did that it might recover by summer. What do you all think?

Karen, I still think it did not like being moved around a lot and it wants sustained warm temps even at night. Now unless it is just trying to drop the older leaves to reallocate its resources to the buds or any new growth coming about soon. I notice that seasonal transition at times with my succulents.

Perhaps it was too much sun too quickly? Did you put it in shade for a few days first and gradually move it into more sun?

These are the top, new leaves that are brown, T. They're not the older leaves. Our night time temps have been in the high 60's indoors. It's possible that it doesn't like that. After I took it out each day I didn't put it back in the grow tent. I just left it in a bright window.

I don't know, Alice. I had been growing it in a grow tent under a very strong Mars Hydro LED light bank. That light source is so strong, that I never thought going straight out to our strong sun at 6500 ft might damage it. That certainly is a possibility. I should have started with shade and made the move gradually. Maybe I just need to do a small prune of all the dead leaves and buds?

Yes, you can certainly remove the dead leaves and buds..has no use now and to avoid attracting nasty critters.

Oh my, Karen! Yikes! This is happening like right now. I don't have your temperature fluctuations so can't really help you with this one. Perhaps our two resident Rick's could help.
@RCanada
@RickCorey

It happened so quickly that it almost has to be sunburn. I'll wait to do anything til the Ricks check in. Thanks for alerting them, KD.

Karen, I beg to differ about the sunburn aspect. Please feel the base of your adenium to check if there are any soft spots. If you don't feel any, up-lift a little to check the upper-most roots. I hate to say this, but the problem might be rot.

I'll do that tomorrow. I sure hope it's not rot. It's been getting watered about every other day, and the water never comes out the bottom. I assumed it was using it all.

Aah! Ah-sooo...
I think the adenium's roots have clogged up the drainage holes. Not a good sign.

You may be right, KD. I just went to look at the caudex. It's totally hard all over with no soft spots, but in 2 spots it has new coloration...sort of darker brown than the caudex. I'm betting it is rot coming. I'll get it out of there tomorrow to see for sure. I've always tended to overwater my plants.

I hope your tree is fine, Karen. I would think if it where sunburn. The leaves would be showing it on all leaves or at least on side of tree, not just the apex of each branch.
I think Kadie has the right direction to follow.

Karen, when you say you water, but no water comes out of the bottom. It is best to water enough so that water or water/fertilizer mix always flushes through and out the bottom.
This will flush out any unused or build up of salts. This may be different if dealing with dormant trees for watering.

Definitely worth a lifting.

Rick

Thanks, Rick. I will un-pot it after I get my coffee. If it's rot, I hope it is in time to save it. I've babied this one for 8 months.

I feel a bit better about this. I was imagining brown or black rotted roots and caudex, but I'm not seeing anything I can identify as rot. Everything is firm, almost rock hard. It all looks pretty healthy to me. It definitely was under-potted. It had no room below or on the sides. We had an extremely hard time getting it out of the pot. It took two of us, and I have battle wounds. I may make the new mix even more well draining, just to be sure. See what you think.












Finding a pot for this is a real problem. The top is 21 inches high, the roots take up 9 inches deep, and the plant is 8 inches wide. Any pot suggestions? I have looked at bulb pots and bonsai pots but none are big enough to accommodate this baby.

What a problem to have. It all sure looks to be in the best of health.

I sure hope so, Ken. I know I'm losing a lot of buds doing this, but most of them were drying and turning brown. Instead of carrying this plant back and forth between states, I'm going to put it on water in the greenhouse and leave it. The temps will be fine for it, and it should do very well in summer!

Karen, nice tree. Glad things are looking good for it. The soil does look very dry, but a big part is probably due to root mass and dryness.
I would lift it up slightly when you repot it and find a pot that would give it about 2" on either side of caudex, say 11" - 12" wide.
Will look wonderful. Those pots that are narrower at the bottom and wide at top would look great.
This is a tree of a very special and wonderful friend, Laura. She calls it "Buddha Belly".



Rick