Question about a Grafted plant.

I have an Adenium Obesum hybrid, that was grafted in two places onto a rootstock, the left one is growing strong and healthy, and has produced flowers. The graft on the right has stunted growth with a sucker on the side of where the graft is. Would removing the sucker make the right hand graft grow better? Thanks for your time.

This message was edited Feb 23, 2015 8:31 PM

A picture might help, but if I understand the situation, I think removing the sucker could help.

Is the grafted part still alive, growing some, just not very much? And the sucker is from the rootstock?

Yep, both grafted parts are still alive and growing, although quite slowly on that one side. By the looks of it, yeah the sucker grew up from just below where that graft is, i'll take some pictures tomorrow, thanks for your time!

Remove the sucker as soon as possible, Suckers can happen when the plant is damaged by a garden tool like nylon line weed wackers, hitting the plant with a spade / fork etc, BUT sometimes, depends on the planting depth when set into the soil, anyway whatever caused this sucker to grow / sprout, it is removing a lot of the plants growth and water, energy etc.

Usually the root stock part is from a strong wild form of the plant and the grafted parts are from a nicer better flower / colour / scented plant of the same type, Usually grafting is used because the germination is difficult when trying to get more plants, where the new plants take way too long to reach flowering maturity to sell to the market etc, etc.

The suckers always grow from the wild root stock, so please dont prune the sucker off, this just helps it sprout even more side shoots (ALL suckers) and this extra regrowth will remove all the nutrients from the nice part you want to save / keep.
To remove the sucker, use a glove, ( NO KNIFE) hold tight onto the stem and pull the sucker downwards to remove ALL the sucker, it might be tough to get started, but try to keep pulling down, dont twist or anything like that as you want this sucker to come away whole, in tack and none left attacked.
IF the sucker is very low down and appears from under the soil level, scrape away some soil with a trowel, make sure you dont damage to plant stems when scraping, IF the sucker is well up the stem then the process is the same, make sure you dont break the stem your holding onto by over bending or too rough, just hold firm and tug by pulling down.
After removal, give the plant a feed around the root area forking in gently trying NOT to break any small roots. add a good watering too. Keep an eye out for more suckers and IF caught young, these SMALL spurs can be rubbed off, just make sure they are suckers your removing when rubbing and not new good growth.
Best of luck and Kindest Regards.
WeeNel.

I may have been confused on the definition, so sucker may not be appropriate. The growth is coming right from the union, where the scion and stock are merged. Here is the belated picture.

You will need to leave this new growth alone till it grows better, you need to see IF this growth is the same as the top grafted plant, if it is, then what you have is new growth that all plants thow out come their new growing season. IF it is totally different in colour, the leaf shape may be similar but slight differences. then you will know IF its a new proper growth or NOT.
Hope all works out for you.
Best Regards.
WeeNel.

Thanks for the help WeeNel! Both the main graft side flowered, and the side growth pictured flowered as well, unfortunately the growth in question appeared to be of a standard pink adenium. Would it hurt the plant to keep both the graft and the other growth? If it will sap the resources of the graft, would it be better to remove the growth? Thanks for your time!

IF the new growth is different in any way from the grafted part, then I would suggest you remove this different growth, what sometimes happens is grafted plants or Crossed plants can revert back to the parent used for the rootstock. the rootstock used is always far more stronger than the grafted part, hence the reson the rootstock has been selected as good growing material. I would suggest the longer you leave the rogue growth, the stronger it will get and the weaker the grafted part will become, after a couple of years, the plant will have reverted back to the rootstock type of pink flowers.
Best of luck. WeeNel.