Does anyone have any tips for rooting this particular hoya? It's nice and green but seems dehydrated even though I soaked it for about 10 hours when I first got it. I put it in baggie which has worked great for others but doesn't seem to have done much for this one. I recut the bottom end and cut it into two pieces. One half is in rooting gel and the other is in water. This is my second try with this hoya so any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Sandy
Rooting a H. cembra/odorata cutting
Hi Sandy. This discussion thread might be of some use to you until the people with lots of experience have the chance to respond. Look to the second post from the bottom, where she talks about rooting H. cembra.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/563043/
Good luck!!!
Ann
Thanks Ann. I guess I could try cutting another piece off and putting it back in the bag. I just got the feeling it was continuing to dry in the bag rather than start to take in any moisture. I have had great success with baggies and use them for most but that one just seemed different. I was wondering if it was more like a multiflora which only roots from the bottom of the stem. I lost my first one of those but just rooted two in a gel pack. That's why I'm trying a piece of this cembra in the gel pack.
I wonder about that myself. I have some H. sp. Tanna cuttings with 1" roots and the leaves are similar...can't figure out the problem. I have put them in ziplocks, sprayed them etc. - too warm?
Hmmm....that's interesting. I can't blame the heat for mine as we've just had some cool days.
I've had close to 100 % success rooting both cembra and sp. Tanna directly in soil, then put each pot in a plastic bag, but the top open. Mist into the bags a couple of times a day and they have all rooted in no time.
Christina
Christina...what size bag (in other words does it cover the whole plant? ) Also how much of the top is open? (just an inch or so, or the whole top?)
Marcy
Thanks Christina....I think I'll try that with the piece I have in the water. I think that even though my cutting looks nice and green the week it spent in the mail has dried the leaves out. Does it root all along the stem like most hoyas or only on the bottom of the stem?
Sandy
Have you rooted this kind Marcy? If so did you use your perlite method?
Sandy
No Sandy, I just wondered about the method to try on some others.
Marcy, instead of explaining, here's a photo of my latest find: gigantangensis. The bag is semi closed with a butterfly clip but eventually I remove it and start folding down the bag to get the cutting adjusted to "normal" air.
Sandy, what I have notised is that it roots at the bottom node first and eventually there will be roots along the part of the stem that is in the soil. But then, that could have been just that one cutting that I checked.
Christina
Christina,
Thank you for that very helpful photo!!! Visuals really help alot.
Ann
Thanks Christina, that is very helpful.
A couple of weeks ago I went out to a party store and spent a wad on some 17 x 11 ziplock bags...which dot my greenhouse. ... Great idea....
I got those to put my sweaters in for storage so moths etc don't eat them. What a great idea. You could get some big pots inside that.
Thanks for the picture showing how you do that, Christina.
Marcy
PS...that rooting method discussed awhile back where you use a small terra cotta pot inside a bigger plastic one with the perilte in it (putting the small TC one in the middle & filling it with water after plugging the hole with a cork) is working great for a number of cuttings I did last month. I can get a lot of cuttings around in the circle and they do seem to root fast like this. I do think cuttings like the company of others around them for some reason.
Marcy
Christina, I am trying your approach for rooting (in soil and in a bag). You say you mist a couple of times a day, and I wanted to know how wet do you keep the soil while its rooting. Also, about how long do you keep it in the bag before you start rolling down the sides and introducing it to regular air?
Thanks much.
Ann
Yes, Ann...that was my question too. I find there is enough condensation in the bag without needing to mist and I leave it cracked open...how far open depends upon how humid it is inside the bag.
Carol
Ann, when I use bags i never fully close them at the top. I leaves the sides open and put the clip in the middle. I want the air movement and that's why I never fully close the bags. The hoya (gigantangensis) in the bag I photographed has started growing and today I opened the bag at the top. Will keep misting into the bag a few times a day and in the end the bag is all the way down but I will keep misting directly on the cutting for a while after that. Once I see enough new growth and think it's ready to move from my cutting/quarantine area I will have to find a good spot for it. I guess I put in quite a lot of "work" when I get new hoyas, but since I'm rewarded with (so far this year) 100 % success of all my new cuttings and also some that I have rooted for others, I think it's worth it. The soil is kept moist, but never wet. Today was the first time I had to water my gigantangensis in the bag.
Christina
Excellent explanation, Christina! Thank you!!!
Ann
Wow, that sounds better than ziplocking the bags shut all the time. I can never keep mine inflated. And no bottom heat at all, that amazing.
Hey for those of you that do use bottom heat to root, how long after it has roots do you keep it on the mat.
I only use bottom heat when the temp goes below 73deg....so it isn't too often!!! Once they are rooted and I pot them up...I sometimes leave them on the heat pad a few days until they adjust...if I don't have the space filled with something that really needs it!!! I have shelves above my heat pads too...and since heat rises...it helps them adjust. I don't bother with the coolgrowers like H. pubicalyx etc....