Tropicals & Tender Perennials: My new Imperialis is having some issues :(, 1 by green971

green971 wrote:
Julia, I use water and pearlite, but really, I do prefer water. I know that there is a theory that water roots are not the same as soil roots, but I personally don't buy it. I think that roots, are roots, are roots.........

I water root almost exclusively, unless there is not enough stem to keep the cutting in the water (i.e. maybe 1inch or less below the leaves, if I don't have enough leaves to tear them off), or if the stem seems too green. I recently rooted a cutting of el-nidicus in water, it was very green, no root bumps, but I figured I would try it before going with pearlite. It rooted right out of the cut stem at the very bottom. Another reason why I also don't buy into the theory that there needs to be a node under the soil line for roots. Probably 90 % of the hoyas that I have are stem rooted only - no nodes for root production, as I like to keep as many nodes above soil as possibly for new growth points.

Here is a picture of the el-nidicus.

Good luck Julia, I too like to see how my hoyas are coming along.
S