Well, once again I have made a foray into the Hoya forum and am disappointed.
Not sure why this thread took this turn but this is not why I come to DG. After spending my days working with the public and hearing the daily news, I enjoy DG as an escape.
Here's hoping this thread will die a natural death rather than asking admin to remove it... so sorry.
H. obovata suggestions needed...
Hey guys. Let's all take a deep breath! Sometimes comments, such as yours, Gail, can be sent in a Dmail. There is no need for us to start being snippy. Gabi was simply defending her position that no one on DG feels authority nor claims knowledge over anyone else...we are trying to be helpful. I shouldn't have been snippy, but Gails post on the other thread really hurt my feelings as I was trying to keep Joni and everyone from perhspas being kicked off DG and I wrote to her and explained it. I have not heard anything like an apology. I apologize for being snippy...but I am NOT the Queen or anything nor do I claim to be.
In fact....and I will mention it here:I made comments about the time it took for my DL cuttings to get to me made me frustrated....and 6 people who read that (which means they are on this forum) wrote to DL and told him I was bad mouthing him. This disgusts me. The fact that I said that common cuttings can be found from US vendors is in support of the many people, even on this forum, who have cuttings for sale of the more available ones. With David's prices for exportation have gone up as of July 1, it will be more and more expensive to order from him.
I have tried to be supportive of everyone here and I have no issues with anyone. But when I am slandered behind my back I get really angry. You may see less of me here - I don't need the publicity my posts seem to bring. Now, if anyone has something to say to me about this, please send me a Dmail as I am expressing my feelings, with no accusations and it is NOT open for discussion.
Carol
Carol,
I for one, very much appreciate your knowledge and help in educating me regarding these wonderful plants called Hoyas! I am very grateful that you are here and take the time to answer my questions (sometimes the same exact question over and over!) You've showed great patience with helping many of us understand the likes and dislikes of Hoyas and their relatives. On some of the forums I always speak of the experts/pro's, and I consider you one of the hoya pro's, since you have so much experience growing these plants.
I think a lot of us were frustrated with the time it took to get the DL cuttings this year and we all commented on it. After receiving my cuttings, I mentioned it to someone that I didn't think i would order from DL again because for what it cost me for the three very small cuttings plus shipping, I could have gotten two, three or possibly even four fully rooted plants from a vendor right here in the U.S. I know someone mentioned that you can't really find the rarer hoyas here but I think some are available and I'm sure that in the not too distant future, as more and more discover and fall in love with wonderful Hoya plants, more vendors will be carrying more and more different types.
I really think it's a sad state to stoop to the pettiness as apparently someone did in contacting DL and twisting what you said. You were not badmouthing DL in any way. I already sent you a d-mail and even though you said it was not open to discussion, I MUST voice my opinon here as well because I think it is very wrong of someone to slander you like they did and I understand your anger.
Carol, to me you ARE the Hoya Queen! And, I mean that in a fun, good way! You have been growing these plants for a lot longer than many of us and see them on a daily basis in their natural habitat as well. I am a novice at these plants and since joining DG and lurking on this forum I have learned so much from you. I have on different occasions seen you thank someone for something you've learned as well. And, I've read where many others have posted thanks to someone for some little tidbit or something they've learned here on this forum! In my opinion, that's what it's supposed to be all about. Not the pettiness and negativity, but the friendship and learning! I for one will be very sad if you cut back on time spent posting on this forum.
Most of y'all know me by now and know I'm a talker ^_^ so I hope no one gets frustrated with me for my long winded post, but I just felt I had to voice my thoughts. We all have our different personalities, quirks and moods and yet we still for the most part get along real well and have a lot of fun.
This is a friendly, helpful forum and I'd really hate to see it change, and I'd hate to lose a member like Carol who has so much knowledge that she shares so generously!
... okay, I'm hitting send now.
Lin
If y'all won't take your toys and leave, I guess I won't either, let's talk about Hoyas...
Lin, in reading back thru this thread, you mentioned your Hoya really started putting on growth when you began using the beer formula fertilizer about 1 1/2 months ago. Then later decided it might not be a good thing for your plants. I wonder if that surge of growth was "seasonal" related. It seemed that my H obovata sat as cuttings till April before it took off. Do you think maybe just a normal spurt of growth?
With the beer formula, I tried it several years ago and wasn't too fond of it. I have a bunch of hoyas in my office (in a window, and it gets the same exposure as my "home hoyas"), and I used the beer formula on those...nothing to write home about. And this was while I was using my VF-11 at home - tons to write home about! So after several months I switched my "office hoyas" over to VF-11, and they took off.
So for me, that little experiment helped to rule out beer fertilizer (for me...I think it's different for everyone tho').
Gabi
Pod & Gabi: With mine, it could very well be a seasonal growth spurt ... with maybe a teensy bit because the plants were so happy to get some food, any food, LOL. I have been so bad about fertilizing over the years ... they were lucky to get a taste of something other than just straight water. I did use the VF-11 off and on for awhile and I really like it because it is non burning. I don't really have any pros or cons regarding that one. I liked the ease of it, mixing the liquid in a bucket with water and spraying or soil watering it in. And, I used it for everything, orchids, house plants, outside yard plants. I used to have my local Ace Hardware store ordered it by the case for me but now Ace is not a distributor anymore so if I want VF-11 anymore I guess I will have to order it direct from Calif or from an online site that carries it. It was cheaper through Ace hardware. I did find an Ace Hardware in Brooklyn N.Y. that has the deal of buy 1 qt get 1 pt free and the case is $57.48. I don't know what shipping would be for that case though, might weigh quite a lot and add big bucks with the shipping fee.
I had totally forgotten about the research Mark did previously on the beer formula fertilizer. I haven't seen any adverse effects from it but do wonder now if using it over a long period of time would lead to any problems. I like to switch things around anyway so I probably wouldn't use any one fertilizer exclusively. The think I don't love about the beer formula is the smell. Of course that might not be as offensive if it weren't sitting outside on the deck in the heat, LOL. I mixed it up sometime in May and it's been fermenting out there all this time. It's not awful, like a rancid smell, but it isn't a real pleasant smell either. Maybe it's a good thing that we've had so much rain this spring and summer ... flushes everything out of the soil, otherwise I might have some sugar overloaded tipsy plants from the molasses and beer in that fertilizer! ^_^
Very interesting. I've no experience with the VF-11 and will have to do some reading on that.
Lin ~ when you mentioned the sugar overload, surely it wouldn't build up? My first thought was attracting sugar ants when you mentioned that.
Gabi ~ that is a good test to be able to do two sets of plants under similar circumstances. I don't think I will be out panhandling a beer for this one. 8 )
Thanks for the information (both good & bad) on that recipe.
Pod: That was just tongue in cheek regarding sugar overload. I don't really know if the molasses would be too much sugar for plants or not. I think someone did mention something in some thread about the beer formula attracting bugs and that's something I sure don't want. We have enough bugs here in Florida! I have not seen any sign of ants but we have lots of little anole lizards around that seem to take care of ants, roaches etc. thank goodness. I have always been very lax about fertilizing my plants but when I do, whatever fertilizer I use, I always dilute it much more than directions state, just because I don't want to take any chances on ingredients possibly burning or damaging my plants. Since I haven't seen any adverse effects of the beer formula on any plants I will probably continue to use it until this gal mixture I already have made is gone but I'm not sure I will bother mixing up any more in the future.
Sorry Carol....Household Ammonia = Household Bleach ? The stuff you put down the loo and the drains to clean
I remember bleach being called 'janola' in Spain...don't know what they called Amonia... NH3 is the chemical. It smells like really reallly realllllllllly strong urine. Household bleach will kill your plants... Amonia has Nitrogen..
I did try the beer formula for a while...I saw no difference at all on the few plants I used it on.
Okey doke...:))
When I was a kid, there always seemed to be Ammonia in the kitchen on American tv shows, it was always in a similar bottle to UK Bleach so, I always thought they were the same......Thought it a little odd to put Bleach in your feed..:))
I could have killed myself once years ago, mixing chlorine bleach and ammonia together to clean the bathroom! I was young and stupid ... had no idea about the fumes from mixing those two together.