How to grow adenium at home and take care of it?

Growing adenium at home will delight households and guests with wonderful flowers of various shapes and colors. But perhaps the most remarkable thing about this compact tree is the trunk. Thick at the base, fleshy, with curly branches. From a distance it looks like a ceramic bottle made by a skilled potter.

Native to the desert

Adenium spread around the world with the help of travelers who discovered a curiosity in the vicinity of the Arabian Peninsula, and then the countries of Africa. Experts attributed it to succulents (shrubby or woody), and the growers called it the "Rose of the Desert". Bonsai lovers call adenium the "bottle tree."

New varieties appear every year: enterprising Thais, as well as Indians, experiment with the species of this plant. On store shelves, you can find trees of an unusual type: with red leaves or purple flowers. At home, the branches of the bush can reach a height of several meters, and the length of the leaf plate exceeds tens of centimeters. On the windowsill, adenium will not grow more than half a meter.

Advice

You should not purchase a plant with flowers of outlandish colors without experience in breeding adeniums. They are capricious and sensitive to temperature extremes, changes in the irrigation regime, and the lack of a large amount of sunlight.

Botanists have about fifty plant varieties, it is often difficult to believe that these are representatives of one species. Coloring of buds and flowers can be:

• pink or burgundy;
• snow-white;
• lilac or scarlet.

The pattern of each petal is unique: various blotches of strokes or dots, veins of all kinds of shades. The leaves of each variety have their own distinctive features, can be bright, shiny or cast with a soft gloss; slightly pubescent or smooth; green, red, yellowish.

The trunk of the tree is always light gray. The shape of the caudex (thickening at the bottom of the trunk) varies in different types of adenium. The plant is deservedly popular due to the fact that it reproduces at home in almost all known ways. A flower grower will be able to choose the right one, because sometimes it is not possible to purchase adenium in a pot.

Method one: growing from seeds

Growing adenium from a tiny seed is a fun process. In this way, you can get plants of various varieties. The trees grown from the seeds immediately grow caudex and begin to branch. The best time for sowing is in spring.

Immediately about the soil. Manuals and the Internet often offer the following soil components for adeniums: coconut fiber, rice husk and something from fern. You can hardly get it, and this, of course, but Russian flower lovers successfully use improvised materials. You need to buy an inexpensive ready-made mixture (for succulents) and add:

• crushed charcoal;
• perlite;
• expanded clay or crushed brick.

Advice

At home, it is better to sow seeds collected no earlier than a year. If the shelf life of several years is indicated on the bag, you should pay attention to the packaging date - germination will depend on this.

First, you need to prepare a suspension from settled water and crushed coal (the proportion is insignificant), place the seeds there and leave in a warm place for a couple of hours.Only a specialist will figure out where the top of the seed is, for the rest it is better to lay it horizontally, slightly burying it in wet soil. Now you need to cover the box with glass and monitor the temperature.

The optimal thermometer reading is 30 ° C; when it drops to 18 ° C, there is a high probability that adenium will die. Drafts and direct sunlight are also dangerous for seedlings. If all the conditions for growth are met, young adenums can emerge on the fifth day. In not the most favorable conditions, the cultivation is delayed up to two weeks.

Method two: cuttings

This is a more effective way to preserve the species characteristics of the original adult adenium than growing from seeds. But it is necessary to take several cuttings - their decay is possible. Many growers have noticed an unpleasant feature during grafting - the resulting adult plant sometimes lacks a basal thickening. This does not affect flowering, the tree produces many buds.

Advice

The soil components must be crushed. The soil should be loose (breathable), with a neutral or slightly acidic PH value.

It is worth adding a little of any fungicide for the prevention of diseases. It will protect the stalk from decay if the temperature drops or excess moisture accumulates in the containers. The length of the cutting should not exceed ten centimeters. Before planting, it should be dried and sprinkled with abundant chopped charcoal.

Method three: reproduction by layering

The flower growers are taken to work in the spring - active sap flow begins at the tree, it is full of strength, actively growing.

The algorithm of actions is as follows:

1. make a circular incision, dry the shoot well;
2. sprinkle the cut site with any stimulant;
3. burrow the shoot into wet sphagnum;
4. wrap the cut with a waterproof material.

Advice

Results will be good when using strong shoots (2 or 3 cm in diameter).

It remains to remember to wet the moss and wait for the formation of roots. We'll have to be patient, the adenium will grow roots only after five weeks. Everything is ready for planting. With this method of reproduction, the risk of decay is minimized.

Features of the content

There will always be little sunlight for adenium. In its homeland, it does not lack lighting, therefore it grows to impressive sizes. When arranging a place for a tree, it is necessary to focus on a high level of penetration of sunlight. Exceptions exist for store plants and young seedlings. A recently purchased plant requires adaptation - it should be taught to bright light gradually. And fragile sprouts can burn in direct sunlight. Rotate their pots regularly.

Advice

Experts recommend turning even adult adeniums on the windowsills. The fact is that the top of the plant tilts to the brightest side. As a result, the tree grows with a curved trunk.

Like any plant, with excessively abundant watering, adenium rots. It is able to accumulate moisture in the thick part of the trunk, therefore, even in dry soil, it does not suffer from its lack. Watering is carried out in different ways depending on the season.

• Late autumn - winter.

The tree is dormant. Sap flow is slowed down, flowering is absent, foliage does not accumulate. It is enough to water the adenium once a month, making sure that the earth is dry.

• Spring Summer.

The plant begins an active growth phase, it begins to grow new leaves, and blooms. At this stage, the tree needs constant watering. Do not moisten the soil if it is not dry yet.

The water should be soft, without excess impurities. Rain or standing would be a great option. After a few hours, it is necessary to drain the water accumulated in the trays. It is important to follow the rule: it is better to underfill water for adeniums than to overflow.

Adeniums are fed at home only during the period of bud formation, with each watering. The applied dose of fertilizer is reduced by three times compared to that indicated on the package. In addition to mineral additives, a good complex fertilizer should contain equal parts of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus.

With the onset of autumn, the frequency of fertilizing needs to be reduced. And when the tree is at rest, fertilization is stopped altogether.

Advice

Fertilizers in granules are well suited for plants. When watering, part of the granule will gradually dissolve and release the necessary substances.

What should be the new pot?

The seedlings have grown up, got stronger and now they will be grown in separate pots. It is better to choose pots deeper, so that over the summer the root system of young adeniums completely masters the earthen lump. This will provide them with a comfortable wintering at home. If there are not enough drainage holes at the bottom of the pot, you need to make a few more.

Adult plants should be transplanted in early spring when new shoots start to grow. They do not require a deep pot, but should be three or four centimeters wider in diameter, with plenty of drainage holes. Adenium bought in the fall does not need a larger pot, only the replacement of the store soil will be required. After transplanting, watering begins a few days later.

Advice

You should not buy dark-colored pots - they will heat up unnecessarily in the sun, the irrigation regime will be disrupted due to increased evaporation. For the same reason, growing in ceramic pots is inconvenient.

When transplanting, special attention should be paid to the root system. Too long and rotten roots need pruning. This will only benefit the plant, it will quickly grow new ones. Places of cuts must be dried and sprinkled with charcoal. When transplanting, the trunk is slightly raised above the ground so that the roots are slightly bare.

Unusual tree shapes

You can let the adenium grow and develop without outside interference. But regular crown pruning will only be beneficial. You should not shorten the branches too much - the tree will knock out a lot of thin ugly shoots. The best time to carry out the procedure at home is at the end of winter, before the plant leaves the hibernation state.

Advice

Florists pinch seedlings before transplanting into separate pots. Usually a few pairs of strong leaves are left and the rest are removed.

Adenium is made for experimenting with bonsai techniques. Plants can be lifted off the ground by exposing and intertwining roots in whimsical compositions. The cultivation of two identical young seedlings as a result can give completely different adult trees. And when there are many seedlings, the possibilities for creativity become limitless.

The enemy does not sleep: diseases and pests

For any plant, putrefactive processes occurring in the stems, trunks or roots are dangerous. Such a specimen becomes infectious to neighboring plants. Rot is not amenable to treatment - their carriers are subject to immediate destruction.

Exotic adeniums are affected by rot in the following cases:

• with a sharp drop in temperature (below 18 ° C);
• with too much watering.

It is important to drain water from the pallets on time, do not spare the expanded clay and correctly form the soil. Having spent so much time growing, it is a shame to lose a plant due to a banal oversight. Mature trees require more loosening ingredients when preparing potting mix. This should not be forgotten when transplanting.

Despite the fact that most parts of adenium are poisonous, they are attacked by pests. On closer inspection, you can see on a sad plant:

• shield;
• spider mite;
• mealybugs.

Pest control is time consuming. The use of insecticidal preparations will get rid of insects in 2-4 weeks.It is necessary to thoroughly spray all parts of the plant and the soil with a solution once a week. Fitoverm and Neoron proved to be excellent.

If there are children or animals in the house, it is worth taking care of the place of residence of the adenium with special attention. The tree is poisonous and dangerous. Babies or pets should not have access to it. Florists should work with the plant with gloves, and then wash or take a shower.

You can look at adenium endlessly and constantly discover something new in it. The beauty of the flowers is mesmerizing, and the funny shape of the trunk is uplifting. By purchasing a bag of seeds, the florist brings a piece of colored plasticine into the house. And now he can only sculpt his own extraordinary tree.