My Pachypodiums and other Caudiciforms

[Smotzer]

Oh wow! These are beautiful

Thank you very much!! Have a favorite out of some of these?

 

[pannaking22]

I've got some seeds coming in the next week, so I'm excited to try to get them to grow! Adenium obesum and Dioscorea elephantipes. Any recommendations to get them going @Smotzer?

 

[Leila]

@Smotzer
Definitely the Pachypodium lamerei and the Crassula ovata

 

[Smotzer]

I've got some seeds coming in the next week, so I'm excited to try to get them to grow! Adenium obesum and Dioscorea elephantipes. Any recommendations to get them going @Smotzer?

Congrats!! What type of Adenium Obesum seeds did you get? Did you get straight obesum? Or a variety or subspecies like somalense?

you picked two good species to start with that are pretty easy to start from seed! They both will need just about the same care which is good fast draining soil mix, might want to mix peat, perlite, and some coarse grain sand. Lava if you can get it. But no more than 50% peat. Should be able to find all of those at somewhere like Home Depot. The lava you’ll likely have to order. And then keep them warm, moist, and with high humidity, until they come up. This can easily be achieved by getting one of the germination flats that comes with a plastic lid.
Here’s an example

that picture uses a deeper tray which can be nice to not have to repot them quite as fast when they are seedlings and getting established. Or you can spread the seeds all in it without the individual trays or and just let them come up all together. I believe I did this for one round of Adenium. Then place this near a window that gets sunlight to get the temps up.

both of these seeds need to be sown flat/ horizontally. For the Adenium very lightly cover them with soil and don’t push them in just cover them with a centimeter or two of peat sand mix, very lightly cover them. Resist the temptation to plant them deep or press them into the soil! Dioscorea can be planted a little deeper but I wouldnt go more than an inch down. I’d do about the same as the Adenium though.

Also note with D. elephantipes I have seen people start these just straight in small pots so not to repot them until way down the line But this can keep the soil too wet, if using not a fast enough draining mix. So if you do this I recommend planting in a VERY porous mix, like lava rock.
Lava/ peat. Perlite. Mix is what I grown mine in. They love very fast draining soil. And need to have a stone like that as a top layer on the soil around the caudex. If you were able to get your hands on some red lava rock I’d mix that into the soil mix in a good percent. If you look at my photos of mine they all have about a .5-1in of lava rock as a top layer. And are planted in a high percentage of it as well.

when the adenium obesum get large enough to repot I would get a bag of some bark soil mix and repot it in that with some lava, peat, perlite.

Once germinated they will need slightly different care, as far as watering goes depending on what soil mix you plant them in. But while germinating they both need to remain moist but not soaking wet either. Misting the top layer and putting water in the bottom, for the soil to soak up, will achieve this the best. I’d avoid pouring water directly over top of the seeds, because they both will be played more shallowly, and if you do you’ll remove all the soil covering the seeds.

Im going from mEmory here, I am moving next week and I packed my propagation journal with all my detailed notes. But I do know I did use a heat mat to start all of these seeds.This might be something good to do since you’ll be starting them indoors and temps can get a little too low for winter germination in the home. I hoped this helped and it wasn’t too all over the place. Please feel free to ask any specific questions and I’ll do my best to answer them directly. Ask away!!

And I’ll look into a good heat mat that might work for you starting these seeds. The mat I used hasn’t existed since probably the late 90’s.

 

[Smotzer]

@pannaking22
This heat mat got pretty good reviews
Would just need to get a thermostat.

 

[Rhino1]

Hey thanks very much for sharing this, I would love to see some of your pachy's and adeniums in squat pots or bonsai style pots.
Absolutely beautiful collection, again thanks for sharing.

 

[Smotzer]

Hey thanks very much for sharing this, I would love to see some of your pachy's and adeniums in squat pots or bonsai style pots.
Absolutely beautiful collection, again thanks for sharing.

This year I am going to do some potting up into my bonsai pots! I will definitely post pictures when I do! Thanks for the post and your welcome!

 

[pannaking22]

@Smotzer that was extremely helpful, thank you! The A. obesum seeds are "mixed" so I'm sure it's a few different varieties. I've got a starting tray and heat mat already from when I germinated pepper seeds, though I may need something different to plant the actual seeds in (not tall enough). I'll check the local Lowe's and see if they have any lava rock. With the Dioscorea, do you recommend clipping off the little "wing" on the seed before planting?

 

[Smotzer]

@pannaking22 your very welcome! You can actually find it on amazon, I’d be very surprised if Lowes had it.
An no just plant them flat and cover them.
And when you plant the adenium seeds, I didn’t specify but I usually cover them very very lightly with sand.
Keep me updated and I’ll help along the way! Love to see other people grow these plants!

 

[Smotzer]

@pannaking22 also with dioscorea to help it grow and build the caudex you will want to water in a dilute fertlizer every time you water. This is what i use

You can do like a 25% ratio every time you water.

there’s a lot of options for fertilizers out there but this has been my go to for the life of my plants.

 

[pannaking22]

@Smotzer that's good to know too. I've got a succulent fertilizer at home that may work, but I'll have to check what all is in it. I've used it for a few other cacti and things I keep.

 

[Smotzer]

@Smotzer that's good to know too. I've got a succulent fertilizer at home that may work, but I'll have to check what all is in it. I've used it for a few other cacti and things I keep.

I personally do not like the “succulent fertilizer” types, I’ve tried one from Home Depot but don’t get great results, and this brand you can get different NPK ratios, which is helpful for when they go dormant or get ready to flower. you can also easily switch over from something for regular vegetative growth to something for good root or flower development. It’s water soluble too which I love. And it’s very easy to control strength with how your fertilizing too. I would stay away from any time release fertilizers. But with both plants your going to grow the reason you will need to fertilize more is the soil will drain really fast and therefor doesn’t hold nutrients as long as if you had them in potting soil.
Everyone has their preferences, my preference for the last decade has been Jacks. I’ll probably always use it for all my plants.

 

[Smotzer]

Just got these in! Be starting them in about a month!

 

[Smotzer]

@pannaking22 how many seeds of both plants did you order?

 

[Smotzer]

Here’s a Crassula ovata I have been branch training to promote much denser compact growth. Grown from a cutting off my very old Jade already posted. Envisioning it as a side swept style tree. Going into one of my many many bonsai pots I have in storage from when I was an apprentice. Will repot it in the summer after another round of branch pruning. Here’s a before an after of it. Probably about 8 months of growth in between pictures. It’s ready for another pruning

 

[pannaking22]

@pannaking22 how many seeds of both plants did you order?

15 A. obesum, 10 D. elephantipes

 

[schmiggle]

I have one (currently sad looking) Hydnophytum sp. "Malaybalay"; it's a cool plant, and the way it grows its caudex is very interesting

 

[pannaking22]

I have one (currently sad looking) Hydnophytum sp. "Malaybalay"; it's a cool plant, and the way it grows its caudex is very interesting

Whoa, that's a cool looking plant. I hadn't heard of that genus before. Very neat. Hard to believe just looking at it that it's an epiphyte. What's the care like on it?

 

[schmiggle]

Whoa, that's a cool looking plant. I hadn't heard of that genus before. Very neat. Hard to believe just looking at it that it's an epiphyte. What's the care like on it?

Hot temps (suffers in the 60s), middling light, high humidity and water. The trick with ant plants is that, relative to other epiphytes, they can feed fairly heavily, because they're adapted to an influx of nitrogen from their ant inhabitants.

 

[Smotzer]

@Rhino1 So for my Covid boredom I think I’m going to get around to repotting some of my caudiciforms into some of my old bonsai pots from when I was an apprentice and artist many years ago, sold off my trees but kept most of my pots.


This pachy desperately needs a new pot as I had to cut away the sides of the pot to Make room for its swelling arms


Thinking this rectangular pot for him


Going to get some custom pots made for my other ones as I need some inbetween sizes for my gracilius’ that I would love to get out of plastic pots