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meviva

Adenium obesum advice needed

meviva
11 years ago

Hi,

I'm new to this forum and to Adenium. Yesterday I bought this Adenium obesum. I really like it. I've read that they like 6 or more hours of full sun. I live in the Phoenix, AZ area and it's HOT!! The temps in the past few weeks have been between 108-115 degrees. My question is.... how much full Arizona sun can it take? Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

Andrea

{{gwi:348801}}

Comments (9)

  • elucas101
    11 years ago

    Nice plant! It's really hard to give an exact amount it can tolerate but maybe you can try gradually increasing the amount of time it's in the sun and see how it fares? I live in Texas and I give mine about 8 hours of sun right now, they were in more and were fine but I have other plants with them on the same table and felt they could use a little less. Your temps are higher than ours though so I would work up gradually, especially since it's new. Good luck, let us know how it goes!

  • Marie Tran
    11 years ago

    Andrea, congrats on your first adenium and welcome to the forum. I also live in Texas and all my desert rose are in full sun all day.

    You may down size the pot a little bit. I think it is too big of the pot for that plant. Only my suggestion.

    Good luck.

    Marie

  • meviva
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thank you both for the info. I will start out by putting it in full sun for an hour or so a day and slowly increase the time. What signs should I look for if it's getting too much sun?

    I will also look for a smaller pot...I actually went to the nursery to find a plant for that pot and I came home with the adenium.

    Thanks again,
    Andrea

  • keylyn
    11 years ago

    adenium will tolerate whatever temperate you could. Mine lives in the same condition as yours though the humidity here is between 80- 90%.
    these plants though native to arid and dry condition would appreciate high level of humidity.

    adenium plants can get sun burned reminiscent of dried leaves but occur in patches just like any plants.

  • irun5k
    11 years ago

    Andrea, nice plant. If you specifically want to use that pot you might consider replanting in a smaller pot that you can place inside the larger one.

    I do this on occasion, placing a smaller nursery pot in a much nicer larger pot. The nursery pot can be raised with rocks, mulch, etc. and you can possibly add rocks or something on top and nobody will ever know the difference.

  • elucas101
    11 years ago

    I think you could safely start with 4-6 hours of sun. If you see wilting, brown spots or shriveling on the leaves or tannish-orange spots on branches or trunk it could be sunburn but it's unlikely. None of my 3 DR have gotten any kind of burn or even shown signs of wilting. Even the seedlings get put in full sun and they tolerate it perfectly!

  • meviva
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    keylyn...our humidity is very low usually under 10%. I recently killed a bunch of lithops because they got severely sunburned and it was in the 90's that morning.

    irun5k....that's a great idea. The pot is by the front door and I like it being big but if it's better for the plant to be in a smaller one I will do what you suggested.

    elucas101....ok I will give it more time in the sun....I'm just nervous about it because of the lithops I mentioned above.

    Thanks again,
    Andrea

  • keylyn
    11 years ago

    i never have an experience with lithops nor would i ever have, but adenium plants in dessicated condition will live through and still give you a profusion of colors though they will pale in comparison with the ones grown in humid condition.
    you could easily address this problem with overhead spraying every morning so your plant can waltz mellowly in the summer heat of phoenix, az

  • Aggie2
    11 years ago

    Andrea,

    Arizona sun will be OK for adenium, just be careful with caudex and roots! Double pots are great for protecting roots from overheating, especially after watering. This summer I killed 4 adeniums, they were on smallish size and roots cooked in small black nursery pots during 90+ weather with heavy rain! When i pulled first one out of pot, I realized that temp inside must be above 120 degrees, add humid media and you have DR soup instead of roots :(. I had always kept my DRs in bigger clay pots and never had this problem, and now I lost whole bunch at once! I believe that second pot would help prevent this problem!

    Aggie

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