Tropicals & Tender Perennials: My Luck with rooting hoya, 1 by begoniacrazii

begoniacrazii wrote:
I water as the perlite starts to dry. Since the temps are lower now, it's not drying as fast. But I'd say I keep it fairly moist which is sometimes once a day or every other day. There's a heating mat set at 73º with egg crate as a buffer so I don't cook them (guilty of that already)

It's very similar to the set up we use at the arboretum where I volunteer. Just a much smaller scaled 'home version'. We also use different mixes with vermiculite (which in my experience keeps stuff more wet and warmer, as if it has insulation qualities) Which is great for certain cuttings but since I'm 'in charge' of the hoya department (with all 6 of our hoya species LOL) I put down a dozen cuttings of h. polyneura and they did not like the vermiculite. Once I switched them to the perlite and removed all the yellow leaves, they were much happier.

But other than that, I just stuck them in the perlite and forgot about them. I didn't think they were as well rooted until I decided to check them. After one month, that's what their roots looked like.

Here's a shot of a small area of the propagation trays at the arboretum. Under all the pots is a heating wire mesh grid like thing. There's a misting system controlled by an 'electronic leaf' which is a light weight piece of sheet metal type stuff that when dry sets off the misting system.