I opened up my little propagation dome to get some cuts out and ready for planting when I found this guy. It's an australis which decided not only to root very well in the perlite/coir mix but to also root about 12"-14" further. There are several nodes on this cutting and I'm unsure if I should cut it into a few pieces or how to proceed. Has anyone got some advice on this one? I'm not in a great hurry for flowers, I'd just like to get a nice/full little basket going.
MM
Consider planting it laying down....circle it around the pot sticking the roots in the medium. It should sprout at the nodes and with H. australis you should have a monste plant in a few hours!!!
Here is how I root long vines...get full pots FAST!!
That sounds like a good way to deal with australis, it has a different way of growing than most of my hoyas, kind of straight up.
Ahhh :) Great idea!
I'll fabricate some makeshift "U" pins with paperclips to hold it down until I see some new growth or I know the roots have sunk well into the potting mix.
Many thanks,
-Andrew
Andrew, for a dollar or so you can get ready made u-clips in the girly hair supplies section of walmart or the drugstore. Buy hair pins - not bobby pins, but the already U shaped hair pins. They are perfect and also long so you can poke them deeper into the soil.
I keep looking for those!!!! Can't find them!
Here's a link for some. They are not easy to find, I just have been searching the web for them and they're elusive. What do you call them? Anyway, here's some: http://www.shopping.com/xPC-Marianna-Marianna-Hair-Pins-1-3-4-1-Lb-Black
Hair pins can be hard to find since they are not used as much in today's society and hairdos...if you can only find bobby pins, just pull them apart or use the paperclips and bend those into shape.
I found those hairpins in a beauty supply, but Giddymoon is right, they probably are not as popular with todays hairstyles and may not be at the drugstores or walmart type chains. If you do alot of this type of pinning down of vines, a spool of semi stiff wire from a hardware store would be perfect( and cheap) as well, you just snip off what you need and bend it yourself.
Eureka! I just remembered I have a spool of green florists wire laying around. I used it a few weeks ago to make some spiraling trellis around bamboo stakes for my Morning Glories and I've got some left.
Thanks all for the beauty product tips :) but I think I'll stick to paper clips and florists wire.
-Andrew (who doesn't feel like asking the lady in the drugstore where the hair pins are LOL)
just wanted to mention I was in Eckerd Drugs today - and they had those U hair pins, Goody brand, little packs of 50 for $2.39. Not sure if Eckerd is nationwide, I am on the east coast of the US
LOL Andrew. That is funny. If my plants needed a "manly" product, I would ask! Ha! Can't imagine what kind of manly product they might need, but I would still do it.
By the way, I have to ask, because of your moniker: Do you have a mullett haircut? I was pretty much a product of the 80's (I'm 34), and have been wondering about that since I saw your first post. {{{{{{{{{{GRIN}}}}}}}}}}}
Sara
This message was edited May 25, 2007 7:58 PM
Sara,
No mullet here. Never have and never will :) I've always used oddball screen-names just for ^#&@'s and giggles.
I don't mind terribly buying and using ladies products for my plants. I've used hairnets to hold aquatic plants to rocks. Pantyhose make good support for heavy gourds and double nicely as media bags for pond and aquarium filters. I'm sure I get 'the look' from clerks when I buy Epsom Salts and Fleet Enema at the same time from the drug stores. I'm an aquarium hobbiest also and the enema product has phosphates in it which are added as supplements for aquatic plants. Needless to say, hairpins would probably be the least embarrasing of my drugstore purchases.
I wound up just using the floral wire I had laying around. It worked great. I had to make the pins pretty long to hold into the potting mix. The light, airy mix we use for hoyas doesn't grasp short pins very well.
Andrew, I have aquarium too.....not fancy, just 75gal. with huge cichlids. Very low maintenance just the way I like it. Didn't know about hairnets to attach plants to rocks - will file for future use.
I've never had a mullet either, but while looking at family slides last Christmas, I am fairly sure that my sister (5 years younger) did!! Ha! I was joking about you not buying girly things, and the Epsom/enema purchase kind of made me laugh.
I would probably use something on hand before making a dreaded trip to the store too. Noticed that I am about out of "S" hooks - I can whip up a plant hanger in about 5 minutes, and "S" hooks are more of a staple item in my house than milk, flour, or sugar.
Cheers,
Sara
