New Hoya Growth!!

Hi guys!!

I'm very new to the hoya world and bought this one over a year ago not realizing what it was! It has bloomed a few times and then I repotted in into a window planter where it is hanging down and seems quite happy!! It has grown drastically and now I have new growth everywhere which I am very excited about but is there any key to having it bloom again?

I had a small mealy problem but took care of that but did lose and ruin some leaves in the process!! Any tips anyone has to help me out would be greatly appreciated!!

I've been reading through a lot of threads but still can't figure things out just yet!! This is the top of the plant where the new growth is...

THANKS!! :)

Alison

just a few more pictures to get an idea :)

another one!

and the whole plant :)

Hi Alison,

I'm still a newbie to Hoyas myself and don't have an answer for you about how to get your Hoya compacta: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53915/ to bloom again. I'm finding that mine seem to bloom in their own time, on their own schedule. I have read that some Hoyas like to be root bound to bloom so maybe moving yours to a window box type planter it's concentrating on making more roots rather than blooming? You could try feeding it a diluted solution of a bloom booster plant food (high middle number) to see if that helps.

H. compacta seems to want to grow DRY - like most of that group. DRY means really DRY...just don't let it croak. It is slightly succulent, it seems.

The H. compacta seems to tread a fine line on the moisture. Too dry and the mealies move in, too moist and it drops leaves. Mine has never bloomed so no help but I would suspect rootbound was the answer on the blooms. Pretty plant Alison, new growth is good!

Extra sunlight & fertilizer will help compacta to flower more often but be careful not to burn the plant when you put it out. Mine blooms on & off all year but I am in sub tropic so it maybe different where you are.

Jan

I find the comments about growing H. compacta, dry, very interesting.

When I had this plant last (in the late 80's. I quit growing it because of the hiding places for mealies) I grew H. compacta in one of those self-watering hanging baskets and it did wonderfully (there was a small tube that would fill with soil, that went from the pot on the HB, into a clear well that could be removed from the bottom of the HB and filled with water.)

I had read somewhere that H. compacta wanted to be grown quite wet and so I put the plant in the S-W hanging basket and it did wonderfully. I grew the plant in an East window that was over the kitchen sink. I grew the plant this way prior to the advent of Marathon or BATS so when the mealies moved in, the plant went into the trash. It was hard to toss the plant, but I had too many plants to try and battle the mealies and try to get them out of all of the nooks and crannies on this plant.

Now that I have both Marathon and BATS I may try this plant again. I love the contorted leaves, but if I remember correctly, the flowers did not smell good, at least to me.
Mike

Thanks for all of the information and help!!

I am really excited about the new growth- maybe the plant is concentrating on that rather than the blooms :) which I don't mind one bit!!

when I planted it into the window planter- that's when I started to get all the new growth, it seems quite happy. It was in a tiny hanging pot and just didn't seem to be doing well, wasn't getting much sun because I live in an apartment and all my plants are on my balcony. And the winds during storms can be a bit fierce and toss the plant around quite a lot.

I will just wait and see what happens! I don't water it everyday but I do spray it and check it for mealy bugs on a daily basis and I've pretty much gotten rid of those darn bugs which is quite exciting!!

Thank you for all the words of encouragement, I really apprecaite it!! :)

Oh yeah ... I forgot about the growing it on the dry side and in a shadier location. My plant for awhile was hanging out by the pool but even with the screen filtering the sunlight, it was still too much sun and the plant got sunburned. It now stays in a shadier location under the covered deck and does much better. Mine blooms off and on during spring and summer. Since Alison is in Miami, her plant will probably bloom off and on all year as well.

Hoya compacta can be a magnet for mealy bugs, all those nooks and crannies give them a lot of hiding places too! I used to sit with q-tip and rubbing alcohol in hand, trying to get to get all those little buggers! A month or so ago I filled a spray bottle with isopropyl alcohol and labeled it and it stays out on the deck in a basket of tools and whenever I notice mealies I spray the plant with the alcohol ... so far, so good!

One other thing I remember about the article I read is that H. compacta like a lot of root room.

Now, I grow in the north so what worked/works for me may not work for all of you in much balmier climes. (:o)
Mike

Mike ~ did I understand your H compacta preferred a moister environment? Yet, you would still get the mealie bugs. For me, the mealies are more attracted to the plant when it is dry.

Has anyone ever had root mealies on their Hoyas?

Wouldn't root mealies go hand-in-hand with regular mealies?

Christine

I honestly don't know. I've had root mealies on succulents and didn't see any on the plant above. When the plant started failing and I removed it from the pot, I found them attached to the roots. I did and do treat succulents with BATS but hate to use that on the Hoyas with blooms as I suspect it may affect the pollinators? Mine are outdoors all summer.

I had a minor infestation that threatened to get out of control, so I treated all of my hoyas and non-hoyas with BATS three times, approximately 7 months apart. Some of the hoyas had buds or were in bloom at the time and none of them blasted their flowers. Yeah, the pollinators would stay away, BATS has that effect. It has the same main ingredient that's in my cats' flea preventative treatment, and I haven't seen a single flea on them this year. Mighty fine stuff.

Back to root mealies though, they'd be the same colour as the perlite, correct? What would make them stand out?


Christine

Yes, the same color as perlite and they stick to the roots as perlite does. It takes a close inspection (and my glasses) to see the difference. lol

Anyway the only Hoya I've had above ground mealies on is the H. compacta and as a result of my experience with the succulents, I have pulled the compacta out a few times and inspected the roots closely for them. Never found any but that was why I was curious if anyone had encountered root mealies on a Hoya. The BATS is a worthwhile remedy. My compassion for nature makes me hate to use it for the tree toads that seem to like to inhabit the large hanging Hoya baskets tho.

I've never seen root mealies but have heard folks on the African Violet forum talk about them in the past and mentioning a product called Marathon. I found this where it talks about them on AV's: http://www.entomology.umn.edu/cues/Inter/inmine/Mbugsr.html

And more info at this site which mentions using hot water dips as well as Marathon: http://www.extento.hawaii.edu/kbase/reports/hIlandsc_rootmealyb.htm

Ok ... now I'm thinking I should un pot every plant I own to check the soil and roots! ^_^

Pod,
Yes, the H. compacta did wonderfully when it was in the self-watering pot and kept very moist - better than when it was grown much drier. Years ago I had such a bad mealie problem that it didn't matter what the plant was or the care it received. The mealies were everywhere! I am so glad that phase of my gardening life is over!

Root mealies and "regular" mealies that are found on the above-ground portion of the plant are two different types of mealie bug.

The active ingredient in both BATS and Marathon is the same: Imidacloprid. The BATS works faster since it's just watered into the soil whereas Marathon is a granule and care needs to be taken not to water and allow the water to run through the pot for three waterings. This makes sure the active ingredient is absorbed by the plant and not leached out by the watering. I have both and I prefer the BATS. I believe the Imidacloprid is in a stronger concentration, in the BATS, when mixed, than it is when the Marathon is used.
Mike

Thanks for that information Mike. I do appreciate it. It seems the mealies chose to attack the H. compacta if I let it get too dry but that might not be the reason either. Might have just been one of those thangs... For best absorption by BATS, I let the plants dry out well before saturating them with the diluted mixture. That way I don't think as much is leached out or wasted. I also let the plants dry well post use of the BATS. Seems to have worked all right.

Lin ~ you use BATS on occasion so I don't think you need to worry about the root mealies at all. I was just really curious if they were drawn to Hoyas in general... Sorry to inspire the paranoia ~ lol

And my apologies to Alison for the diversion on your thread. pod

I must confess, I've only used BATS once ... last year when I first heard about using it for Hoyas! I filled a 5 gal bucket and mixed the BATS in and slowly dunked the Hoya compacta, held it there for a few minutes so it could take up all the bats water, then lifted it out by the hanger and let it drain. Sure was a lot easier than sitting with q-tips and alcohol trying to get into all those nooks and crannies! ^_^

I'd bet it was easier! What did you do with the rest of the bucket of BATS? I had problems with the succulents, mainly the Stapelias and mainly root mealies. I really wondered where they came from. Perhaps in the soil from the store? Anyway I mixed it up in a gallon jug and dosed them successfully. After that, I was visiting the gal at the office next door at work. She has lots of plants and her large Stapelia had regular mealies. She was ready to chunk it out. I didn't even want to mention root mealies. I loaned her the BATS. Last week I was over there and she said she had done the qtip/alcohol treatment till her eyes crossed as she hated to use chemicals. She finally gave up and used the BATS with no more mealies. Wonderful stuff that BATS.

After dunking the H. compacta, I poured the BATS liquid around the base of one of my large Gardenia's that seems to always have thrips. It works!

wow Plantlady, what a beautiful hoya!! Mine only has five umm arms? And a few more growing, I think like three or four so I can only hope my hoya looks like yours :)

Not to worry about the diversion, i'm learning a lot, I appreciate the diversion!! I also sit with qtip and alcohol in hand to attack those mealies!! At one point, I looked closer to the top of the plant and found so many babies I almost cried but the qtip alcohol did the trick!!

My hoya doesn't get much direct sunlight because of the balcony above me but I'm trying to figure out if I should repot it in a larger hanging basket- I just can't seem to find one I like!!

But thank you so much again!! I'm glad we're all learning stuff :)

Alison