It's been about two weeks---how are everyone's cuttings doing? I only got 4---my h. vitiensis is struggling (as I figured it would), so acting on advice from here I unpotted it and am currently soaking it...it's already plumping up nicely, so I'll re-pot it when I get home tonight and hope it's recovered enough to root this time...
By VERY gentle tugs I believe my fuzzy carnosa, my trigonolobus, and my sp. Solomon Islands are all rooted (hooray!!)...I've opened up their plastic bags to give them more air circulation and will mist often...
Do you guys wait until you see new growth to remove them from the bags entirely? Thanks...
Shelley
DL cuttings update
Shelley, I don't root my cuttings in bags ... tried it once, but with our humidity they rotted quickly. I just pot mine up (after soaking in Super Thrive water for a few hours) into the mix I use for everything, and try to mist them once in awhile. This year I only ordered 3 cuttings, (2 patella and 1 anulata) and they don't look really great. All but 2 leaves were off of anulata when it arrived and patella leaves look dried up, but that doesn't mean they won't take root. I always have hope ... but, if they don't make it, it's the chance I took ordering from so far away. I knew about that going into it.
Of the 5 cuttings I got last year, one was DOA and the others are doing okay, a couple like magnifica and pubicalyx RHP have really done great and growing like gangbusters. H. memoria is alive and looks okay, but is growing very slowly. H. citrina is a short cutting with only two leaves (still after over a year!) but it has lots of roots.
My worry right now with all my Hoyas and a couple of Rhipsalis is all the rain we've been having the past couple of months! Summer time is our rainy season and also tropical storm/Hurricane season, so we very well could be getting much more rain before October rolls around! A lot of my plants are hanging out around the pool area and I don't have anywhere under cover to move them to get them out of the rain. So ... it's just wait and hope for the best since we can't control mother nature. I do use a very fast draining mix, otherwise they would have been goners a month ago!
Lin...You could check your pots...if they are big plants, I would guess the media is dry-ish... Mine usually are as the foliage protects them from the rain. We had 4 straight months of rain and I was sure mine would be rotten...but they loved it!!! With the rain is a good time to fertilize... Remember, they come from areas with alot of rain certain times of the year.
Carol, Thank you! I wasn't even remembering about the hoyas coming from areas that get so much rain! We had 23"+ in May which is very, very unusual! Now we are in our normal summer afternoon thunderstorm patterns with an inch or two here and there. I guess one good thing is that when the sun is shining, it's hot and everything probably does dry out rather quickly. I think I was being a worry wart for nothing! Wow! 4 straight months of rain!! I can't imagine! I'd worry that the islands and everything therein would float away with that kinda rain ... ain't nature amazing though?
... Ok, off to mow the lawn before the afternoon storms do hit!
I received 8 cuttings...planted them right in their pots, coiling the vines around on top of the soil and using hair pins to hold the vines down into the soil. Misting twice a day. My first time trying a very light soil mix. Orchid bark, hydroton, sphagnum, perlite and soil. So far so good, they're all still green and I've only lost a couple of leaves.
I have them hanging on my screened in porch. Temps. here have been cool mid to high 70's during the day and 60's at night for the most part except for a few nights dropped down into the high 40's. Humidity between 60 and 80% on most days.
I have to say that this batch of cuttings is not rooting as well as I had hoped. I don't know if it was the time of year or what, but other than the H. kerrie, the rest are not doing much of anything. I got a bunch of cuttings in the Hoya Co-op from Carol in the Spring and those things rooted in a week, and now they are growing like crazy. The DL cuttings are warm and humid, but I am seeing little in the evidence of root formation. I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose H. megalaster and H. engleriana, but I'm hopeful that I don't lose any more than that.
Speaking of DL, has anyone received a bill from him yet?
Doug
This message was edited Jul 9, 2009 3:32 PM
I received and paid the bill.
Most of my DL cuttings have rooted...albeit small roots.
Spring is definitely the best time to root.
I also received and paid my bill....maybe yours are free :-)....my cuttings have tons of aerial roots and, like I said, I think some smallish soil roots...at least there's some resistence when I tug and the leaves appear firm and well-hydrated...except for that pesky vitiensis...grrrr...
Well, good to know that bills have gone out. I will have to email him and let him know that I have not received one. I also want to make sure that I don't pay for H. patella that was supposed to be in the package but was not.
Doug
All but one, of my 'boatload' of cuttings, have roots and graduated from the Hydroponics System to potted mix...about one week from the time they arrived.
Doug,
My H. engleriana is the one that has yet to root so it's still in hydro...all alone.
It still has it's leaves so I am hopeful it will take root and thrive.
I was and still am pleasantly surprised with the results.
Joni
Received my bill last week and paid it.
Doug, could it possibly have gone to your spam/junk mailbox? We check our junk mail box on occasion because sometimes a few good ones get in there for some reason.
Lin,
I always check my junk mail before deleting, but it is possible that I missed it.
Doug
I was a piggy so won't tell you how many cuttings I got from DL, but after an overnight soak, put them all into semi-hydro, initially fully covered with a clear plastic bag in a light but not very bright area. I very gradually introduced them to less humid air over the past 5 weeks and have had 100% success rooting them, even retusa, which I've killed twice before, and patella which I thought was nearly dead when I got it. I'm going to start distributing them around the house into brigher areas this weekend.
Christine
This message was edited Jul 10, 2009 11:56 AM
Christine,
I found this post from you regarding rooting hoya cuttings in Hydroton in another thread in the Hoya forum:
"I've tried many different rooting methods for hoyas, and they all work eventually. Hydroponic using Hydroton pellets is my current favorite. That's by filling a container (usually a tall plastic cup) 1/3 with Hydroton, put your cutting in, and while holding the cutting upright, fill the container the rest of the way with Hydroton. Then fill the container with water, cover the cutting loosely with a clear plastic bag (to capture moisture yet provide ventilation) and keep in a warm place away from bright light. Give bottom heat if you like, but only a very little. This method generally produces roots within a week.
Good luck!!
Christine"
There is a hydroponic store on the other side of town that sells Hydroton and I am thinking of getting some to root the DL cuttings that should be coming in the next couple of weeks.
So, you're really just rooting the cuttings in water and the Hydroton is simply holding the cuttings upright in the cup. Correct? Do you transfer the cuttings to another semi-hydro pot when rooted or do you transfer the rooted cuttings to a regular pot and soil?
I'm wondering if I couldn't just use perilite to hold the cuttings in place rather than using Hydroton, since I won't be growing the plants in SH once the cuttings have rooted? This should produce the same results. Correct? (hopefully?!?)
Thanks for any insight into this you can give. I have ordered quite a few cuttings of some plants I have been aching for and I don't want to lose any of the cuttings, if at all possible.
Mike
Mike, I eventually found that some cuttings rotted doing it that way. So now I fill the containers to just above the holes in the bottom of the cups, the same way I do for established plants, but I do put them in plastic bags. The one time I tried perlite for rooting, I added a lot of water to it as well, and out of five cuttings I only lost one, but they were in transit for nearly 3 weeks. So, essentially I go back to the original comment I made in what you've quoted above, "I've tried many different rooting methods for hoyas, and they all work eventually." When hoya cuttings travel a long distance, you have no guarantees that they'll all live, no matter what you try to do to roo them.
Thus: I have an update: I spoke too soon about patella, it's still struggling, has now lost most of its leaves, but contrarily, it has put out some roots, so is still giving me a bit of hope. I'm thinking it doesn't need quite as much humidity so have taken it out of its plastic bag and will hope for the best.
Christine
Hi Christine,
Thanks for the reply.
I have ordered both the white and pink H. patella from DL and I am hoping that I get the cuttings in my order and that I can get them to root, if I do get them.
In reading replies from folks that have ordered this plant from DL, it seems to be one plant that is giving folks some problems as far as rooting goes. Does H. patella have fairly thin leaves? If so, I would guess that's why. I root my cuttings under fluorescent lights so have pretty good luck since there are no cloudy days in a light garden, but that's provided the cutting is in pretty good shape to begin with.
Thanks again for the info. Wish me luck!
Mike
Mike...Mark Randal uses perlite to root his cuttings... It doesn't work for me because our ambient humidity 'mushes' the perlite and causes it to compace, losing the benefit!!! Just about anything works. I find the trick with patella is to keep it WARM!
HTH, Carol
Hi Carol,
Thanks, that info helps a great deal!!!
I will break out my seed heating mat and use that when I get the DL cuttings to help keep the cuttings warm.
Thanks again,
Mike
Yeah, I forgot about warmth too until last night. So, I put it in the same window my pink patella's in, facing south, but shaded by bigger plants. When I first moved the pink patella there it got some direct sun and the newer leaves curled up almost like compacta - still green and fuzzy and healthy though. We learn as we go along in this game.
Christine
Well, I emailed David; he sent an invoice and we are all squared up. He said that he sent out all of the invoices June 28th, and he is wondering if somehow some of these bills did not make it through, because he is still waiting for payment from a number of people.
Doug
I paid via paypal the day after i rec'd my invoice. i only got two this time, one has good roots and the other is alive but i don't see any roots yet.
Among others, I ordered a Pink Patella from DL in the Western Canadian order throught Bea. All of my plants rooted and are in pots, growing well. Patella needs extra humidity, and so I decided to be fancy and chose a cocktail shaker container with a lid that I can remove when I feel there is too much humidity. The lid has several little holes in it as well. I cut down a small 3" plastic container that fits nicely inside. I am happy to report, that of all the plants received this spring from DL, H. Pink Patella is the first to put out new leaves. I am very pleased. ^_^
Oops, forgot the picture...
