Contents
Today I am going to tell you an interesting story on my 5 Adeniums or desert rose plants. I will share my complete experience of growing adenium from seeds and reveal three nursery gardening secrets to growing adenium from seeds with 100 % success results. I will also show you the comparison between adenium seeds purchased from Amazon vs the fresh seeds harvested from adenium seed pods.
Introduction
To begin! I received these 5 bare-rooted baby adenium plants about a year back, gifted by my dearest gardener friend Ram. These traveled over 1000 miles to reach the destination in great condition. This is because these are excellent drought-tolerant plants and are rightly called desert roses. So, you can safely purchase adenium plants online if they’re not available at your local nursery.
For beginners, Adenium Obesum is a succulent plant that stores a lot of water in its stem and also the modified part of the stem called the Caudex. We have discussed these in detail in my other adenium videos.
Five Important Care Tips for Adenium
Soil
This is the most important factor for successfully growing adenium. It’s a desert rose and hence prefers sandy soil. Make sure you have at least 50 percent sand or perlite mixed in your potting soil. For details on the perfect potting mix for adenium or any succulent, I have a detailed episode on this topic. You can check that link at the end screen of this video.
Watering
If your soil is really well-draining, the frequency of watering does not matter much. For instance, if you have a lot of rains in your zone, it’s almost like daily watering. And also make sure you have good drainage holes in your container. Otherwise, generally watering twice a week is the general rule for adenium, like any other succulent.
Sunlight
This is a very important factor for proper flowering. Adenium needs maximum sunlight and good humidity for flowering and growth. At least 6 hours of direct sunlight is a must!
Fertilizers
Most recommend chemical fertilizers like water-soluble NPK, but I always use organic ones like simple decomposed cow dung or vermicompost, using a handful once a month. During repotting, mixing a tablespoon of steamed bone meal will do the job and induce enormous flowering in all seasons except in its dormant season – that’s winter.
Pest Control
Adenium is commonly affected by sucking pests like aphids, mealy bugs, and mites. A weekly spray of 10 ml neem oil in 1 liter of water will easily control this problem.
- Seed Starter Pots: 100pcs small planter nursery pots with 100 labels. Plastic plant pots are very suitable for succulent seedling breeding and urban landscape plant cultivation, and you can identify your seedlings by marking their name on the labels.
- Plant Pots Dimensions: 4″ opening diameter at top, bottom diameter 2.5″, Height 3.2”. ( dimensions shown in the product images). Perfect samll size plastic pots for plants, indoor/outdoor small plant seed starting, cuttings, seedlings and transplanting plant.
Three Nursery Secrets on Growing Adenium from Seeds
Purchasing and Germinating Seeds
To start this story, I purchased adenium seeds from Amazon and followed all the tips perfectly to germinate adenium seeds. I have shown this in a detailed video some time ago. You can check a link to that episode in the description below. But the result of these Amazon seeds was really bad; not even a single seed germinated.
Secret 1: Harvesting Seeds
Then recently, one of my adeniums started developing a seed pod. The first thing you need to do when you notice an adenium seed pod is to tie some thread around the pod to prevent the spillage of seeds before the seed pod matures and releases seeds. It has a special seed dispersal mechanism by wind, where each seed has fluffy stuff that is easily carried away by the wind. Here you can see, I have protected the seed pod from its natural dispersal mechanism. When the seed pod starts drying and cracks open, it’s time to harvest the seeds. Separate the seeds by gently pulling this fluffy stuff as shown in this pic.
Adenium Seed Pod
So these are fresh adenium seeds we just harvested!
Secret 2: Using Antifungal Powder
These seeds are very delicate and are more prone to fungus. So what you need to do immediately is pour in some antifungal powder like bavistin or any antifungal powder like the Carbendazim + mancozeb combination, such as the SAAF brand powder. Coat the seeds with this antifungal powder whether you keep them aside for storage or plan to sow them immediately. You can also use Copper Sulfate as Fungicide.
Secret 3: Growing Medium
The growing medium is crucial. You can use pure sand or some cocopeat mixed in it. What nurseries actually do is take fine sand and sterilize it by keeping it in full sunlight for at least 2 or 3 days, or if you are growing on a small scale, you can even microwave this sand. If you are using antifungal powder, this step is perhaps optional.
Final Steps and Results
And one more thing: You should also mix some antifungal powder into this sand or cocopeat. While sowing the seeds, try to maintain a space of at least an inch to avoid overcrowding. You can do this better; here I have not done this perfectly.
Finally, mix some antifungal into the water or spray can and use the same solution to spray or gently sprinkle some water once every two days. Do not flood the seeds with water, as this can damage the seeds.
Conclusion
These three nursery secrets can greatly increase your success rate in growing adenium from seeds. Be sure to follow these tips and watch your adenium plants thrive!
Please Watch the RESULTS of growing adenium from seeds on Day 5 till Day 15 in the Video below.
Last update on 2024-11-07 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
3 comments
Love adniums n roses. Always egear to learn more n share my own knowledge
Have about 60 adniums and 100 rose.
Thanking you Sir,
Its really beneficial to me as beginner .Sir, kindly update the soil composition for the plant.
A very well written and well recorded clip. The process was so clear