What you need to know about propagation of adenium by cuttings
As you know, adeniums are characterized by active growth and quickly grow new shoots. To maintain the compact shape of the bush and not allow it to disintegrate in different directions, it often needs to be trimmed. The result is a lot of "waste", that is, cut cuttings. This is an excellent material for getting a new plant in a short time. They take root quite well, and young bushes obtained by grafting form a beautiful caudex twice as fast as adenium grown from seeds.
It is advisable to root cuttings of adenium in the summer, when it is warm and a lot of light. With a lack of lighting and in cool conditions, instead of building up roots, the stalk may rot.
Preparing cuttings for rooting
Reproduction adenium cuttings - a simple process, but it has some features. First of all, it is better to use apical cuttings for rooting, since they take root better and form a more beautiful bush, but the rest of the branch can also serve as planting material.
The optimum cutting length is 15 cm.
The cuttings must be subjected to preliminary preparation, namely:
- remove a couple of leaves from the part of the shoot that will be immersed in water or soil (you do not need to cut everything off, they will transfer nutrients to the underground part of the plant);
- keep the cuttings for 20-30 minutes, so that the cut dries slightly and the juice ceases to stand out;
- treat with a growth stimulant.
All work with adenium should be carried out only with gloves and avoid accidental touching the face, especially the eyes, since the plant sap is very poisonous.
Rooting cuttings in soil mixture
The substrate for rooting cuttings should be very light and water permeable. Garden land is not used for this purpose - it is too heavy and dries out for a long time. Cuttings in such soil can rot, and young roots cannot break through a dense layer.
Most suitable soil mixture for rooting may consist of the following components mixed in a 3: 1 ratio:
- perlite;
- peat.
The cuttings are deepened into the mixture by no more than 5 cm, and the pot itself is covered with a film on top to prevent the loss of heat and moisture. So they stand on a light window until their roots appear on the branch, then the bushes are planted.
Can cuttings be rooted in water?
Adenium, by nature, does not like excess water, because in natural conditions it lives in the desert. Fleshy juicy stems already have a fairly large supply of liquid, therefore, when rooting in water, they most often begin to suffer from excess moisture and rot.
But some growers still manage to get a positive result of such rooting. In case of decay of the lower part of the shoot, dipped in water, they simply prune it and put the cutting back in fresh water, and after it puts out the roots, they plant it in the ground.