I would like to start a thread that could be useful to all of us...newbies and newbies ( after all, aren't we all newbies in one sense or another?)...about 'propagation'. Perhaps it could be a sticky thread or a link to it. All different conditions, climates, growing conditions, light, temperature etc. etc. etc. demand different adjustments...ZZZZZZZZZZZOOOOO It would be cool to hear from everyone, stating WHERE they propagate (basement with lights, porch, greenhouse, kitchen window etc.) and how. What I would love to see is:
Where you live - where you propagate.
What challenges you find.... and
How you have overcome these challenges.
How you propagate (water, soil mix ...whaddevah)
Tips of the process...rooting hormone, fert?/// etc.
Hopefully someone new on the forum, from a similar area, can see your post and relate...and have an answer.
What do you think? Shall we just start off?
Carol (after you all...smile)
Propagation -
I used to root them in water, but I've found they root quicker and produce new growth faster if they're rooted right in my planting media, which is just coir and perlite (or some other additive...) about 1/2 & 1/2. I've never seen any difference between using rooting hormones and not, so I don't. They seem to root very quickly in spring - they're slower to root in winter. I put rooting cuttings right out in my GH (which is an extention off my kitchen...) in a bright spot, with just a touch of morning sun. I keep them pretty moist until I know they're rooted, and I spray them regularly with Eleanor's VF-11.
Here's an opinion I have that may be totally in my head, but one I've become convinced of: if I have a stubborn rooter, it seems to help to put it in a pot with another rooting cutting. I suspect that a plant that is working at producing new roots is throwing out hormones which can, in turn, benefit another one in the same pot. Once the "problem cutting" has roots, I then seperate them.
Denise in Omaha
I propogate all of my hoya cuttings in a gh. I live about a mile from the ocean and it is quite hot and humid here, and I find spring and summer to be the easiest times for me to root jsut about anything,including hoyas.
The later it gets in the year, say like from september through october,I find it almost impossible to root anything.
Knock on wood I havent had any major challenges with rooting hoyas yet!! I Use a premium potting soil from a local nursery which is their own brand to which I also add perlite and orchid potting mix.
Cuttings are dipped in a rooting hormone and go directly into 4"pots,watered in, and placed in the gh with plenty of bright light and air circulation. I dont water again until dry. I've lost a few by keeping them too wet.
I leave them in the 4"pots until I see roots comng out of the bottoms and I then bump them up to 6" baskets.
I've been questioned more than once if I didnt think I was going up to too large a pot size too quickly. No I dont.
This is the way i've always grown my plants and I mean all of my plants not just hoyas. I've been growing hoyas now for about 4 years and to date havent lost one because of potting it up like this.
dmichael
I try to strike 2 node cuttings if I have enough material and I put the bottom node just barely under the soil...often it will grow from that node instead of the top one...sometimes both. The very large stemmed hoyas I start out in 2.5" pots...as I find that growth is slow until the roots feel their 'limits' and they it starts growing very quickly. I strike in the same soil I use to grow the plants in...makes it easier for me instead of messing about with different mediums. I dip in rooting hormone (Hormex) and then water them in with a mild Eleanors...and spray with Eleanores(diluted) when I remember. My prpagation area is at the end of the GH that has the least light...so they are in low light. I keep the area as humid as possible. Some new H. caudatas I just struck I put outside on the potting bench so they would get as much airflow as possible....
The very fine stemmed plants, like lacunosas, curtisii etc., I plant at an angle in the pot...sometimes I wrap the ends with long fiber spagnum moss and then stick it in soilless medium. Laying those ittle ones along the top of the medium in the pot works too. I have also been successful taking a LONG vine, say from a H. lacunosa, and just laying it on top of the pot and winding it around and covering lightly with mix.
One thing really important for me to do is to date when I struck the cuttings...that way I can know more or less when to start looking for roots....
How often do you spray the cuttings with Eleanor's Denise or Carol?
Thanks
Bea
I do mine in pure perilite. I use those little clear plastic drinking cups/glasses that you get at the store for picnics, ets. Then I burn holes in the bottom & a couple on the sides. I fill with perilite, water it with ST water, use a pencil to poke holes, insert the cuttings (sometimes I use rotting hormone, sometimes not). I then place them in an old aquarium I use that has a heating pad underneath (used to be for reptiles). The top is half coved with a piece of glass& then ther is a long grow light that comes on at 6 am to 7 pm so it stays fairly humid in there. I pick up the glasses about once every 3rd day and if it is starting to feel light, I give it more ST water. They usually root well in a couple of weeks. Sometimes I just leave them in there until I see roots all over the sides of the glasses & then pot em up.
Marcy
These days I propagate directly in the pot and soil it's going to stay in. I'll make a fresh cut on the end, stick the freshly cut end down to the first node into the soil (no rooting hormones), moisten the soil and stick the pot into a large Ziploc bag. I'll leave it in the bag until there is new growth and sometimes even leave it in there until it "outgrows" the bag.
OH...once a day if I remember...it is very diluted.
Yesterday I tried an experiment...will post results.
H. limoniaca was growing into the tree...a whole wad of it up there blooming to pieces.... So I cut her down and found one of the vines, at one time, had gone out of the pot and into the hanging basket before heading up the tree...so I had two sets of roots and VERY long vines, some parts of which were very bald.
So...I stuck them in an 8" round pot ....thusly...and covered the vines/nodes, with soil... I wrapped two cuttings around in there....
I am expecting sprouts from each node...we will see.
In the beginning I rooted all my hoya in water. For some reason I just had better results that way.
I've tried the baggie rooting method with some success. I started my first plants from seed in a baggie; with the seeds on a damp microfiber cloth. Works great but getting the seedlings off the microfiber cloth without ripping them is a challenge.
I don't propogate alot but I now usually strike the cuttings dipped in rooting hormone directly into a light soil mix. I place the pot in a plastic baggie, spritz the inside of the baggie with water and place it under a flourescent light on a shelf in my kitchen. H. bella, what I have left of it anyway, permanently lives on this shelf.
Slap me and call me a moron, but Carol, does this mean that if each section roots, each will become its own plant?
Ann
Yes...it could be a large plant or I could cut it up...?
My favorite method of propagation is this: I phone up Queen Pimpette's Hoya Palace or Bob Smoley's, I have them root up the plants of my choosing and send them to me forthwith. So far I have had a 100% success rate of aquiring rooted plants with this method.
Now that's funny!
Hmmmm, I like Mark's rooting method!
I have been rooting mine right in soil with pretty good luck :)
Though I am still a newbie LOL