Hey all. To all of you who grow subcalva (BSI-1) ( I know this name is in dispute). What do you think of the new leaves on this one? All of the descriptions I've read of it mention the beautiful flowers and unique smell, but none have mentioned this really beautiful sort of reticulated new growth. Is this typical for you? Or something about my growing conditions?
Mark
Heres one more, from a few days later.
Mark - I have quite a few hoyas that got that wierd leaf thing: had them tested for 15 different groups of viruses (a group might encompass 10-20 different ones) and the lab came back that they thought it was nutritional. Cant figure out WHAT...but I flushed the pots with a weak calcium (gypsum) and magnesium (epsom salts) and then repotted. Seems to have straighted out.
HTH
Thanks Aloha! Sort of dissapointed though. It does look a little weird, but I think its really beautiful. Oh, well.
Mark
I have a H. archboldiana whch started out normal, and is suddenly putting out very reddish venation and stuff. I am experimenting with light, keeping it in lower light. Much of my wierdness happened when Spring sprung...and my GH has 73% and 50% shade...possibly too much light.
Carol
My BSI-1 does get very bright light, with maybe a half hour of direct light in the very late afternoon. Would it prefer less, do you think? I think it may be nutritional, as the new leaves are now developing some distinctly unhealthy looking patches along the edge. Odd, I use a balanced formula of fertilizer with micronutrients. I dosed it with SAFERs green restore, which has calcium, sulfur, iron, manganese , and zinc, and will report back.
mark
Try lowering the light, Mark....I have found that often helps.
Yes, please, report back!!!!
Carol
I just added a second layer of shade cloth on the roof of my greenhouse. I had a terrible time last summer with heat buildup which damaged some plants. We are the 90's all this week and I just knew I was going to be getting too much light and heat in there.
After repotting in a richer mix (2/3 good quality comercial potting mix, 1/3 perlite) and fertilizing with dilute (1/4 concentration) of maxsea fertilizer for several months, Hoya SB-1 is showing small but normal growth. The new purplish leaves look fine, the next to last set are distorted in shape but were normaly colored, the third set in were the extremely discolored ones in the first picture. Hooray.
p.s. it's growing in the same spot, no diference in light or temp.
This message was edited Oct 6, 2005 11:55 PM
This hoya really perplexes me! It grew normally for me....then everything started going haywire...deformed leaves/discolorations etc. My mother plant was ignored thru these panics...sitting out in the rain, little fertilizer and she is JUST FINE!! I am thinking that it all comes from too much fertilizer... Am going to try that one the small plants I have...see if they don't straighten out. Will let you know. I have started this about a month ago, and the leaves are starting to look better...
Carol
Too much fertilizer? Do you think? I was fertilizing this hoya with 1/2 strength epiphyte food (17-9-26 at 1/4 tblspn per gallon) when it started going crazy, and it was in very poor soil nutrient wise (1/2 peat and 1/2 perlite). Now its in a rich soil and I fertlize with Maxsea, half strength, which is 16-16-16, at 1/2 tbsn per gallon. So at those rates, Maxsea is allmost twice as strong as epiphytes delight, and the plant is doing much better. Maybe BSI-1 is just perverse? Were both of your plants in the same mix?
Yes, Mark, they were. Try cutting out the fertilizer, and see what it does. The plant that reverted back to normal sat out in the rain for months...just a top dressing of Osmocote 14x14x14 which has long expired...
This is the same plant that sent me into spirals of panic thinking it was a virus. It isn't.
Carol
