Friday, September 25, 2009

Adenium with Seed Pods

Out of my 6 pots of Adeniums, 4 are having seed pods!! What a blessing!! This has never happened to me before. I am thrilled over this! My friend, Roxanne, who is also an Adenium enthusiast and I had also featured her Adenium previously said the Chinese believes that this is a sign of abundance and good fortune! Wow, this makes me feel very blessed!


How does seed pod formed? From what I gathered through my reading on the internet, the seed pod is formed when the flowers from the Adenium is pollinated by insects. Adenium does not self-pollinate.




This is the oldest Adenium that I have grown. I have kept this plant for 10 years has 3 pairs of seed pods on it. This is another first time for me. Usually I will only have one pair of seed pod on this plant.

As you can see in the photo above, I have used a gardening wire to tie up the Adenium pod. I learnt this from the Green Culture Singapore (GSC) Forum. The wire will prevent the seeds from being blown away when the pod burst upon maturity. This can be seen when the pod turns brown and its skin is no longer as smooth as it is. Each pod contains many fine, hairy seeds. This seeds can be kept in the fridge and it will last for very long time.



If you see the first photo in this posting, all the seed pods have symmetrical length seed pods. However, my 2nd pot of Adenium shows stunted growth on one end of its seed pod (refers to pink arrow). I don't know why this happen.



My 3rd pot of Adenium shows one healthy pair of seed pod.



My 4th pot of Adenium shows 2 pairs of new seed pods. They are still very young. I hope the seed pods will grow well.



The above is an old photo of Adenium seeds that my friend, Chooi, gave me. I have tried to germinate the seeds and eventually only two turned out well to be the 2 young Adenium seedlings below that I have recently transplanted into bigger pots.

From the GSC Forum, I have learnt some tips to grow big caudex for Adenium. I have pinched some leaves on the top of the plants with the hope that this would made the caudex grow big, instead of the plants growing tall. Pinching of the leaves can only be done after there are 3 pairs of leaves on the seedling. Not before that as the plant would still be too young. Covering the root with lotsa soil can also help to make the caudex grow big.







5 comments:

Stephanie said...

Congratulations! I have seen Adenium seed pods before but not as big as yours. Now, I wish mine would have seed pods too :-)

Bangchik and Kakdah said...

Good to actually see Adenium having seeds... Keeping a plant for 10 years.., huh, that's very long... ~cheers. Bangchik

James David said...

wow!! Never seen the seedpods so huge. You must be so lucky!

Ramona said...

Hi here is a photo I just took of my plant I have only had it for a few months and very new to all this... Could someone please let me know the best way to take care and maintain the 4 pods on this plant... I have noticed that where 2 of the pods are joined there is some white growth, what is this and should I be worried... Any help would be hugely appreciated... Thanks...


http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u292/Hana_Chk/IM000297.jpg

J.C. said...

Dear all, I am glad to have the seed pods on my Adenium. For your info, more seedpods are forming! I think I am going to get really lucky soon!!

Ramona, I can't see the white growth in your photo. Don't panic, I think it should be ok. Your plant looks healthy to me. Do tie your pods up with wire. You never know when they ripen and break. Because the sees will just be flown off if you don't tie up the pods. Those seeds can be sown and you can have more Adenium growing in your garden.

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