Great plants, loved all of them! Do they get any daylight when leafless? At what temps do you keep them? How long do they stay dormant? Do you induce dormancy in any way or they go to sleep naturally? At what age did they go through their first dormancy?
How old are they now?
Sorry to hurl a barrage of questions at you like this - I'm a newbie growing 4 little obesum seedlings and 2 4-year-old socotranums - desperately trying to learn... Hoping to get my own arabicums some time soon...
Thanks. Lena

Mike,
They all look so nice. Mine have shed all their leaves also.
Rick

Mike,

Your arabicums sure are showing clearly that they are truly arabicums with the multiple branching. Beautiful! That is truly amazing that one of the little fellas is blooming with no leaves and at such a young age.

Thank you for sharing.

Lovely plants, thanks for sharing with us. they are really showing that they are arabicums, so characteristic in shape already.
What size are the big ones, difficult to guess...maybe in 6inch pots?

Did you pinch out at any satge or it it natural branching?

Have you grown them all from seed yourself?

Sorry, can't always recall who is doing what as we now have so many members growing from seed/bought plants ...the more the merrier though! Great work whichever :)

I'm very interested in arabicum threads as I've got some arabicum babies too but smaller than in your commumity pot, mine are 9mth old. Their caudexes (sp?) appear to have stopped growing upwards and branches are now seeming to sprout from the top surface of them...without any intervention from me, intentionally or accidentally! This is exactly what I can see may have happened in your bigger specimens looking at how the ,caudex/branches are formed, but my young ones look very different to your community pot guys at the moment...maybe it's the variety? Mine are 'Bouquet' which Rick gifted me :))
Gill UK

Mike,
What age would the Arabicums be in the Terra Cotta pots?
What size pots are they in? Sometimes hard to tell with photo's.
Rick

Mike,

Great looking plants! Hope mine look so nice one day. I'm also curious about the pot sizes.

Daniel

Ok, starting at the top...
8" pot 1 yr seedlings
The next 3 are 6"pots
The last 3 are 8" pots
The only one I have a good idea of the age is the largest one ( with the calcium buildup--anyone know how to remove that?) I was told it was 6-7 years.
The others are from Thailand and I've had them about 18 months.
This new pic is some of the many babies all about a year or so old. I have not pinched any of them. The seedlings all seem to have their own ideas some start branching when tiny others are just bulking up.

Hi Mike, thanks for the info..
Re the calcium build up, not had this on actual plants but have had 'fertiliser salt' build up on terra-cotta pots. However, I do get staining on the caudex I'm presuming it's from the bark in the gritty mix. I use a soft paintbrush and plain lukewarm water to very carefully wash the areas affected. It works a treat on mine, you just have to be very gentle though! If the skin is still shiny as many seedlings are it would be easier for me to do, but as mine now have that netted effect, and gentle is the way to go with that type...it could also work for your one, can't think of another way.
Gill UK

This post was edited by greenclaws on Tue, Nov 26, 13 at 15:49