I received a small H. obovata and am intimidated by how quickly it is growing large.
I need to repot it and wonder if it would be better as a climbing, horizontal or draping Hoya?
It is in a small pot right now but looks to be a huge plant so I'd like some ideas.
If you have photos of your H. obovata, please post them if you wish...
Mine just drape over the pot .......don't even have them in a hanging basket. I have one actually potted in a hanging basket without the wires. She looks so pretty just sitting on a stand.
If I could find a picture , I would show you (smiling)
Hi Pod! I just got through combining a couple of obovata's into one larger pot a few days ago. They really started putting on growth when I began using the beer formula fertilizer about 1 1/2 months ago! I don't have them staked/trellised. I usually just let them do their own thing but because of some of the new thinner vines coming off the plant, I used some of the little butterfly clips to hold the them to the hanger. I have a problem with some of the real thin hoya vines actually growing right through the screen, then in the process of ripping them back through the screen I lose some of the vine. H. brevialata is really bad about traipsing through the screen ... I guess maybe it's saying it wants out!
One of the obovata's that I put in this pot has had a peduncle for a year ... but no sign of buds yet!
Lin, I think I have lost that recipe (never made it up). Would you direct me to that recipe? Thanks. I want to jump in your pool, please^_^
LOL, Gail ... someone should use that pool - it just sits there! I can't believe we never use the thing. We've talked over the past ten years about having it filled in since we don't seem to use it anymore. When my Mom was alive she used to love to swim when she'd come to visit and my nieces and nephews and friends kids loved it but they are all grown and scattered about the country nowadays. It sure would save on our huge electric bill, not having that pump going every day!
Here's the beer recipe I got either from the Hoya forum or the Epiphyllum forum, can't remember which, but it's been going around DG for awhile. I've heard pros and cons regarding it. I'm sure any generic plant food with trace elements would work as well but I am so bad about feeding. I decided a month ago to make a conscious effort and decided to mix up a batch of this stuff. I mixed have a large 5 gal
Combine:
12oz Beer
1 cup Epsom Salt
1/2 cup clear household Ammonia
2 cups water
1/2 cup molasses
4 tbs bloom booster
250-500 mg Vitamin B12
Use 1 Tablespoon per gallon of warm water
I added a few drops of Superthrive since I didn't have any B12 vitamin!
Fast-Aging Cactus Fertilizer ............That should say "Fast ACTING" (sorry, I cut and pasted, did not check)
1 12-ounce can or bottle of beer
1 cup of Epsom salts
1/2 cup of ammonia
2 cups of water
Mix and put into a 1-quart container. Use 1/2 oz. per gallon of water every two weeks, when you water your cactus.
1 cup = 8 ounces; 1/4 cup = 2 ounces = 4 tablespoons
1 fluid ounce = 2 tablespoons; therefore 1/2 oz is 1 Tbsp.
.........Here is another..........
This message was edited Jun 30, 2009 6:17 PM
Fantastic ladies...........I have both cactus and hoyas.......
Thanks, Lin and Alison.
gail
Shoot ~ I'd be scared to give this Hoya your fertilizer blend! It is acting like it is on steroids all ready. I have only had it since Oct of last year (as cuttings) and to think I was excited when it started growing in April. The vines are 14 to 16 inches long and reaching. Maybe I should be pruning it instead. I guess I am just having trouble visualizing this monster as a climber. The draping does sound pretty Gessiegail.
And I agree, the pool does look inviting after this week of temps from 103 to 107! LOL
Podster,
Mine grows very fast too. It loves to climb, so I gave in and wrapped it around the hanger.
Here is a recent pic of it...
Gabi
Gabi: That is one fine obovata! Look at those blooms! I want to know what y'all feed your plants! I just recently began using the beer recipe fertilizer and can really see a difference ... maybe next year I will have some monster hoyas!
Mine climbs a little on this one but mainly just keeps hanging down.
Very nice Gail! When mine gets larger I think I'm going to plant it in a pot with a trellis. I wish I could find some small and medium sized metal trellises.
Nice obovatas! I really like this Hoya. Mine looked stubby before it started growing.
Gabi ~ it looks like you have an extra long, sturdy pot hanger. I wondered how heavy this plant could become. What do you do to encourage blooms?
Gessie ~ I must admit I like the way your H. obovata drapes. The shape of these leaves are very pretty when hanging down.
Lin ~ I had ordered trellises from ebay that I thought would work but they are too small for most of the Hoyas. I thought of you earlier this month. We were visiting family up north and stopped at a garage sale. They had a piece of wrought iron porch railing for 50 cents. I would have bought it but it was early in the trip and we weren't in the truck. Am still kicking myself and it is all your fault. I now look at garage sales and flea mkts for potential pots, trellises, plants of course... LOL Anything else I need to look for? 8 ))
LOL! I love flea markets, yard sales, garage sales, junk stores and thrift shops! You know that old saying: "One mans/womans trash is another man/womans treasure"!
I was watching HGTV recently, one of those remodeling type shows. They were updating/re-doing a front porch and tore out some really nice skinny looking, swirled, wrought iron railing ... and threw it in a dumpster!! Arrrrgh! I could have used that!
Oh, I was digging around in the shed a few days ago and spotted three old rusty wire hanging baskets, cone shaped that you put the coco fiber liners in and plant them up. They've been dumped out there because I thought I might plant them again sometime but I haven't been able to find the cone shaped liners. Well, one was turned upside down and of course it looks like a little christmas tree. I found a pot that it fits over perfectly and played around with it. I potted up some hoya lacunosa to see how it would look. The lacunosa looks a bit sickly so I'm not leaving it in there but I think the cone shape will make a nice topiary with some small leaf ivy ... I have three of those cone things so maybe I will have a trio of little ivy christmas trees come the holidays and I could put little ornaments and bows on them. I will take a picture of it tomorrow.
Very clever idea~ I'd like to see a photo of them.
I'd thought about a tomato basket turned upside down with the three feet wired together ( I even painted it ) but it's too large for the pot I was using.
I used an upside down tomato cage for a stephanotis vine a few years ago but the vine became way too heavy so I ended up unwinding it and removing the tomato cage. As you said, the tomato cages do require large pots though. hmm .. I have a couple of variegated jasmine's that have thin vines, might work with one of the tomato cages.
Thanks Lin and Podster. To answer your question about what I feed my hoyas, I use Eleanor's VF-11 (which I swear by!). It's a very light fertilizer that can be used with every watering (and also as a foliar spray...but I have stopped spraying my plants since they are indoors most of the year and I don't want to get it all over the furniture).
And in terms of light, all my hoya are in eastern exposure.
Gabi
Fast aging fertilizer?
Now is that full strength beer or one of the lite ones? ;O)
I guessed "fast aging" beer... 8 )
Gee ... if it's fast aging beer, I'm kinda glad I don't drink, I'm old enough! ^_^ I don't know a thing about beer but the one my friend gave me for my fertilizer mix was lite beer. He and my brother in law had beer at a cook out but refused to give me one of their beers for plant food ... apparently it was beer too good to use for that purpose! The next day the friend brought me a cheap lite beer to use in the mix.
Gabi: I used VF-11 last year, went through a case of the quart size but never ordered anymore. I don't think Ace Hardware is a supplier any longer so I don't think my store will be able to order it for me again. I did find an Ace Hardware outlet on line that had a really great price on a case of VF-11, buy a pint get an 8oz free deal. I never ordered it but just checked the site and the deal is still listed. I might have to place an order for a case because I really liked it. I used it as a soil application as well as a spray.
The fast aging fertilizer helps the hoyas bloom sooner than normal since it speeds them through years of growth in a very short period of time! (:o)
(and if you believe that, I have a bridge for sale!)
Mike
A couple of years ago this Beer Fertilizer was the rage and lots of studies were done, Mark Randal posted a good breakdown of the goods/bads.
I searched and found the thread where Mark posted about the Beer Fertilizer. Click this link and go down to May 3 @ 7:58 p.m to Mark's posts: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/842421/
edited to say: This time I've printed it out for my files so I can re-read it now and again! I thought I remembered something about possible negatives effects the ingredients might have on plants, but I was thinking it had something to do with sugars attracting bugs. I even posted on that thread after reading Mark's research findings that I was NOT going to use it!
Geesh I'm getting old. I might have to order some of the MSU fertilizer to try since a lot of folks have good luck with it.
After reading it again, I'm now wondering if I'm possibly doing harm to my plants. The only plant I can see that maybe it has affected negatively is one of the Plumeria's in the backyard ... the only one that got a dose of the beer formula and it looks like a couple of the leaves are burnt. It was fine before using this fert.
This message was edited Jun 30, 2009 4:36 PM
Thank you so much, Lin. I needed to read the whole thread (missed it). The most important point I got out of the thread was, "Let's have a friendly hoya forum"...........I have received several dmails in the last few days from people who are afraid to post as they know very little about hoyas but want to learn. They say they feel that the hoya forum had gotten to be about 'competition', ' who pretends to be the best grower' and 'who has the most plants'.........
That thread is a good reminder to welcome all who want to come aboard and learn about hoyas. I know I often forget what it is like to be a newbie on DG.....
Gail:
When I first joined DG I did a lot of "lurking" on many different forums. I did feel at first that a couple of forums were a bit "cliquish", this one included. I had the impression that a lot of forums were for the professional growers to communicate with each other. But, after hanging around awhile and reading lots and lots of past threads and learning as I went, I began asking questions and found folks here on this forum as well as the others to be very knowledgeable and helpful. My reservations were just my uncertainty and newbieness, LOL!
I have seen folks refer newbies to the "stickies" at the top of the threads and was directed to them myself at times ... but the same thing happens on the AV forum where I've referred folks to info in the stickies and have seen others do so too. There are some people who don't like being directed someplace else when they ask a question. I had that happen just yesterday on the Plant ID forum. I am not good at identifying from photo's and gave links to PF for a plant I thought matched the one in question and the person came back telling me if I didn't know for sure to please not direct her to a bunch of photo's, she didn't have time to go through. Well, there were only 11 photo's of the plant in PF. I offered apologies for trying to help and just went on my way. It isn't worth it to get into an argument about something so trivial. I feel life is too short for controversy and negativity, so when I read something that I perceive as negative, I try to just read it and let it go. Instead of commenting and letting a thread get out of hand, I will switch to another thread or forum .. or go googling, Gail you know me, I'm the google queen! ^_^
We all have different life situations and we all have good days and bad days, it's hard to have personalities mesh all the time, whether in person or on the internet. I know there are many folks out there with so much more education and knowledge than me and I have learned a lot from so many here in this garden. It's what DG is all about, learning from each other.
It's sad that anyone feels any forum on DG is about competition. I haven't had that sense at all about the hoya forum or any other. We all post photo's of our plants here, just like on the AV and other forums. I don't know what you mean about some pretending to be the best grower or who has the most plants. There are many great growers all around the globe and I feel like I'm a good grower, not great but I'm learning just playing with my plants and reading things here. There are lots of folks who have hundreds of hoyas, some who may only have 30-40 and some who may only have 3 or 4.
You say you've received several d-mails in the past few days from folks who are afraid to post here. Please tell them not to have reservations about posting, to pop in, ask questions, get involved in the discussions ... they will learn a lot, I know I did.
The Hoya forum is a friendly place! Really! You know I would not be here if it wasn't!
Lin
Lin, I did tell them to please not to get off DG and give us a chance to show that people really are friendly. Those words I posted were NOT my own words. They were the words of three people who had dmailed me recently.
I have been on DG long enough to not feel intimidated on any forum and yes, there are a lot of experts I love learning from. Sorry it offended you that I made a comment based on reading the other thread. The thread you had referred to simply reminded me of what had been dmailed to me recently.
Don't even know why I posted that.........seemed a good reminder at the time I posted it. Shall we drop it? Sounds good to me.
LOL, Gail ... you didn't offend me in any way. See what I mean about it being hard to chat on a screen instead of face to face? It's hard to know what the person typing means. I know I have a hard time sometimes trying to explain my feelings and I never intend to offend anyone. And, I go on and on ... and on don't I? Sometimes I need to remember to tell myself to shut up. ^_^ LOL, I'm a talker in person too! I actually put my mom to sleep once when I was chatting away!
Oh yeah, that other thread was one from a year or so ago when three folks got booted from DG permanently for causing a lot of problems, then one or more of them was signing up again under different names and trying to cause more trouble on a couple of forums.
I'm glad you told the d-mailers to hang in there and they will learn so much and they will love this internet garden!
I can be so brazen I have been told on the internet. In person, no one would ever feel that way towards me. What is that old saying, "It is not what you say that matters.........it is only how you made the other person feel"? I need to learn computer ethics (LOL).
You never talk too much for me^_^
LOL Gail, I am always telling my husband "It's not what you say, it's how you say it!" Different personalities ... my DH and I are so different! Our 40th anniversary is next month and sometimes I wonder how in the world we've remained together so long! They say opposite's attract but sometimes opposites butt heads too! ^_^
Geesh ... see what I mean about me being a talker? I've been going on and on and just now realized we aren't in d-mail we are on Podster's thread!
Sorry about hijacking your thread Pod ... will try to get back on the subject of H. obovata with a picture of a small one I have that has one large round leaf, a couple of wonky shaped leaves and a couple of heart shaped leaves. I guess sometimes plants are like people .. a bit "wonky" at times!
Sorry about the mis-type (above). I corrected it.
It is from another forum where, it seems, it is widely used.
I only put it on my epiphytic cactus and related, etc. etc. etc.
(HA)
I guess I will have to make some for epiphytic cactus and maybe they will bloom. Getting mad at them for just sitting there and smiling back at me with not a bloom!
Not to worry about the hijack Lin... that is why it is called a thread.
I understand what Gail has heard from others too. I am more reserved about making comments or ask questions. One thing I have learned though, is to ask for ideas ~ like what is wrong? how do I do...? what would you suggest? We all like to share photos of our plants, what we know and and I, for one, like to look at them and read about them. I must admit I lurk more than participate too.
Off to read the link to that thread...
Pod, sometimes I think the photo's are the best part of the site, but I cannot tell a lie, I like to talk and do get carried away and run on and on quite often! I have learned a lot by just reading, asking a few questions and I love the info in the stickies.
One thing I would love is a list of Hoyas that can take sun. I know they all like bright light but I want to know exactly which ones like to be in the sun without getting faded out or sunburned foliage.
You know, I have to say that "I" am quite offended at what has been going on here. I find that almost all of the people on this forum are some of the nicest people I have ever met. The "experts" (as Gail called them) have done nothing but help out on this forum, when they do not need to do so...they are quite busy and could very well be doing other things.
Why anyone would be intimated to comment or ask questions is beyond me. This is such a friendly forum.
For those that Gail stated have Dmailed her about getting off DG....their loss. I have made some amazing friends on here and learned a lot - and I don't see any "competition".
Gail, you said that you told these so-called people who Dmailed you: "Let's have a friendly hoya forum". Well, to be quite honest, you have been the one stirring the pot lately. What you said to a certain member on a recent thread was so uncalled for and deserves an apology. If you have an issue with someone, the right thing to do would be to take it up with them privately.
I don't know anyone on here who "pretends to be the best grower' and 'who has the most plants". This is not a competitive forum...it's a group of friends and growers with similar interests who help one another out.
As for the other thread, 3 snakes were responsible for a lot of the 'bad blood' on this forum...and now that they are gone, things have been wonderful. So please don't use that other thread as a reason to vent your frustrations towards certain people.
Gabi
I don't know very many people on the hoya forum so I am not mad at anyone. I know Lourdes and love her......just hand delivered a basket I owed to her in Austin a few weeks ago. I know only a hand full of people on the hoya forum.
Well, Gessiegail, I hope you learn to meet and love more of us. Lourdes IS a wonderful, smart, caring and beautiful person. Many of us are...
Carol
Queen of Freedom of Speech
You may have your forum back........I don't need nasty dmails from either of you.
