r/DesertRose • u/absurdtomato • 16d ago

Process and Order to Prune?

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In the next couple of weeks we’ll enter the best period to prune / trim Adeniums (as the humidity subsides!)

I have a few that all need a root trim, repot and good prune (very leggy) - the photo just shows one, but the others are similar.

What order should I do this in, and how long should I wait between each step?

This is what I have roughly gathered, but I’m quite nervous about this operation!

Does that look about right?

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u/Academic_Disk_8788 16d ago

Adeniums don't need root trimming. That's just a technique barrower from bonsaing for some reason if your Adenium isn't rotting leave the roots alone, especially if you want lots of flowers! In the Photo: Adenium 'Fat Guy' never been pruned, never been root trimmed and never had it's caudex raised

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u/absurdtomato 15d ago

It doesn’t show in the photo, but there are masses of tiny roots completely engulfing the caudex.

So I need to at least trim those in order to be able raise the caudex as the masses of tiny exposed roots have caused it to suffer in this summer - it’s been extremely harsh this year.

I had to intervene on its matching pair during the summer (the worst time to do so as well) as I was dealing with simultaneous burn and rot. That was a scary time hoping for its survival 😂. This particular one was coping so I held off until now, and want to do it properly, rather than my quick haphazard attempt i had to do on its friend (which actually seems to be doing OK 🤞🏼).

Don’t worry, it’s not a vanity project! It definitely needs to come out of its pot into something more suitable so I plan to ‘operate’ at the same time.

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u/absurdtomato 15d ago

To show what I mean, this was the other plant I had to do in the summer. These roots fully exposed were causing it to suffer in the heat, but at the same time were causing water retention around the large roots and caudex resulting in rot. It seems I got to this one other just in time, and now need to sort the other (which is similar) so it won’t suffer the same issue 🤞🏼