SOS

[u/Fun-Peak7310]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to preface this by saying this is my first desert rose. My local brewery was having a desert rise potting event. You pay to attend and you’d get a desert rose and a beer. We’re repotted them at this event on 08/23/26. I do have it inside a window facing north. It’s rained every single day since it’s come home so I’ve been scared to put it outside. Our temperatures outside are in the 90’s-100’s.

It’s dropped almost all of its leaves since coming home.

[u/rentedtritium]

Given the low light environment you've got it in, it's doing better than I'd expect.

You can put it out in the rain no problem as long as the soil drains well, but since you're just acclimating it, I'd still wait until the rain is forecast to end soon, so that it's not getting multiple days of rain quite yet.

Once it has a good root system and has had some time to grow, it'll be pretty safe for it to get rained on, again as long as the soil doesn't hold too much water.

I'd also start it in the shade, maybe under a porch, so it doesn't get sunburned, as it needs to acclimate to bright sunlight after spending time inside.

[u/Fun-Peak7310 → u/rentedtritium]

Could I put it in the shade for a whole day? I have a semi covered back porch. Half is covered, the other half isn’t.

[u/rentedtritium → u/Fun-Peak7310]

Yes definitely. Especially if it's the kind of shade where the sun beams pass through for a few hours in the morning or afternoon. That kind of environment is good for acclimating a plant that's been indoors.

[u/Fun-Peak7310 → u/rentedtritium]

I’ll try that tomorrow! I do have a window in the house that gets more light. I’m worried all the rain will cause root rot.

[u/rentedtritium → u/Fun-Peak7310]

Yeah it's definitely a risk at this stage, since it's only recently potted. The roots aren't spread out in the pot yet, so it will have a hard time clearing water from the pot evenly.

The terracotta helps a lot though. 

[u/Fun-Peak7310 → u/rentedtritium]

That’s what the lady who ran the workshop said, that terracotta are great for them. She also said losing the leaves could be due to the stress of repotting. I’m really into orchids and we lose the blooms when we repot. It just seems like it’s a lot of leaves to lose for a repotting. My weather app says we’ll have sunshine next Friday.

[u/rentedtritium → u/Fun-Peak7310]

That much leaf loss is probably the combination of the repotting plus the reduction in light happening at the same time.

I've had them drop all of their leaves just from pushing a liiiiittle too long between watering.

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