Semi Hydro Hoyas

Mark,

I noticed you mentioned in another post about trying lacunosa in semi-hydro. May I ask you and anyone else with hoyas in semi-hydro/hydroculture which species you transferred to this? And what kind of results you're seeing?

I just started messing around with hydroculture about a month ago and probably have a little less than half of my hoyas in it now. Have yet to see any adverse effects, but have seen some promising results. My Iris Marie which had been doing nothing literally has doubled in size (don't get too excited - it was a small plant to begin with...) with beautiful purple growth. Fusca has shot up in height, although has resisted shooting out new leaves. Lamingtoniae has grown a peduncle. Others I'm using this method with are davidcummingii, lobbii, odorata, vitensis, CMF-8, archboldiana, mindorensis, and quite a few others I can't think of at the moment.

Thank you!
Kelly

Kelly...I start all my cuttings in the hydroton and #4 perlite. I really like it...and growing more and more plants in it. It makes a lot of sense....can't think of any that wouldn't like it....

Carol,
How are you doing that? How much water are you keeping in the pot or how are you keeping the hydroton moist? I started to do that with some new cuttings and most started rotting!
Note - I think everything I got from you this last time is in the hydroton and doing fine! Can't believe lamingtoniae as a peduncle!
Kelly

Well...I am not growing them hydroponically...but I am using the hydroton, cinder and perlite to start them...and then sometimes I transfer them toa normal LOL mix which just has some Redwood shreds added to it. The watering is mostly misting...haven't tested how many days the mix stays moist.

Kelly, I mostly started using the semi-hydro method after reading about it and seeing some of the results on the semi-hydro forum at First Ray's (an orchid supply house).
It made sense, the principle is that the hydroton, an expanded clay product, wicks up water from a small reservoir at the bottom of the pot and so stays consistently moist, but the large spaces between the chunky hydroton pieces keeps a lot of oxygen in the mix at all times.
So I first started putting Hoya that I was having difficulty growing traditionally into the semi-hydro.
I put in H. multiflora (a difficult clone), wallichii and subcalva, both of which had been doing very poorly for me. Subcalva was half dead, the multiflora and wallichii were making ugly, distorted new growth. All three are making new growth, though subcalva still is not too pretty. I've also put citrina, incrassata, Thai#3, meredithii, fuscomarginata and a few other odd plants into the semi-hydro, and they all seem to be doing well. None have done enough to call it a resounding success- maybe by next year I can better say.
I just put an archboldiana that had rotted (again!) into a SH reservoir to root, and I will try lacunosa as well.
I also use hydroton as a prime soil mix additive, like Carol does, and I love it.

Mark,

I think it makes sense as well! One of the many things I like is you can unpot it to check roots with less stress than if it were in soil.

Just out of curiosity I unpotted my archibodiana about two weeks after putting it into hydro to see if new roots were forming and they were! Beautiful, fat, white roots!

How close to you keep the water line of your SH reservoir to your cutting initially and do you change out the water every couple of days or just add to it as it gets low? I have 3 little bitty pieces of linearis rooting this way and so far so good. I think my mistake with the recent cutting was actually putting the cutting below the water line.

Also, what are you using as pots? I have a combo of selfwatering pots (cheapies from Walmart) and plastic containers with holes burned into them (thanks to Jen!) and some glass and plastic containers with no drainage that I just monitor the water level as is done by www.waterroots.com (thanks to Gabi for pointing me in that direction!).

I'm really having fun with it!

Kelly, I keep an inch of water in the reservoir. For rooting the cuttings of archboldiana I just stuck them in the hydrtoton in a normal sized container, well above the water line. They seem to have rooted up just fine!
I have been watering the pots weekly, filling so that the reservoir overflows a bit. I haven't flushed any thoroughly yet. I have noticed that plants in SH seem to need a bit higher level of fertilizer to do well- do you use a stronger concentration?

I just had some big h. imperialis cuttings root in 2 weeks in hydroton/cinder/perlite...not just root but big honking balls of roots!!! LOVE it!

Mark,
I haven't noticed any needing more fertilizer, but now you have me wondering what I need to look for! What were the signs you were seeing - no growth?

Carol-
How often are you watering your cuttings?

BTW- either of you have any tips on rooting waymaniae?

Kelly

Kelly...I mist my cuttings often with a weak solution of fertilizer...I try to do it twice a day. I rooted the imperialis is very large pots full of mix...so that the moisture would stay for a long time...instead of small pots....

Carol

Kelly, try sticking the waymaniae cutting in a 4" plastic pot half-filled with coarse perlite, and stick it in a king size plastic baggie with the top zipped nearly shut for about two weeks. I haven't had that method fail me with any cutting as of yet.
You could mist it with K-L-N, that seems to help also.

Whoa. Is this the Hoya group or some group of hydroponic junkies? Its like I tripped into the 2100s George Jetson group.

Rob
who thinks soil is just fine.

Hey Rob...if growing hoyas isn't diverse...it isn't anything!!!! LOL

Rob, I like soil just fine too, and so do a lot of Hoyas.
Don't you enjoy feeling like a mad scientist on occasion, though? (In a low-budge sort of way.)

I love feeling like a mad scientist on occasion (all the time?), but I am not sure about hydroponics on the windowsill. Or maybe I need to look into what you guys are talking about.

There is a guy with the local cactus club who grows cacti hydroponically. Its pretty odd. But it works for him. Most folks are not into cacti without pots and potting soil.

Here in the Seattle area, there is one place that I do frequent, as the previous owner was a big succulent-o-phile, and sold halide lights and hydroponic sets to college kids to grow tomatoes (yeah, right) but his succulents ruled. Well they still do, but the tomato growing outfits only get weirder with tanks, and circulation systems and blah, blah, blah.

So when I think of hydroponics, I immediately think of that whole mess, and I wonder why bother if I am not growing tomatoes in my house. But I guess there are easier ways.

I remember back in the 70's attending a hydroponics plant party (think Tupperware, only this was selling house plants.) I vaguely remember the containers, I bought five or six, they were two part plastic containers. The inner container had holes all over for drainage and you put these pebbly looking things in that container weighing the roots down with the pebbly things, and then put that container inside the other and put water in the outer container. Is that what y'all are talking about? I remember having house plants that did really well in those containers but I haven't seen anything like that in years. If this is what y'all are referring to are they on the market again?

Not in that same form, but the concept is alive and doing beautifully!!!! THAT method is Hydroponic. By SEMIhydroponic, I take it to mean that the concept is used...but perhaps not the actual process. Like....using no soil at all in the pot and growing the plants in hydroponic material (hydroton, perlite etc.) and allow the roots to process and grow AS IF THEY WERE in a hydroponic pot. if you Google hydroponic growing pots, you might see a bunch...

Ok, I've been googling and finding lots of information! Thanks Carol!

Ah, I know what you guys mean, but no, this is not that type of hydroponics. This type is super simple- a plastic pot with holes melted in 1" from the bottom, so that a reservoir of water is retained, then filled with hydroton, so that water wicks up through the hydroton but the spaces between are filled with air. A "passive" rather than "active" type of hydroponics, you just keep water in the reservoir, so may only need to water every week or other week. Very simple and easy, and the Hoya I have tried this on seem to like it a lot. There is much less chance of root-rot, due to the high level of oxygen retained at all times- root rot has been a prime problem for me in the past, especially with fussy species like H. archboldiana.

Look here for pictures:

http://www.firstrays.com/shphotos.htm

I have not tried the semi hydroponics with the hydroton stuff but it sure sounds like something I might have to try it at some point.

In the past, I have wick watered Gesneriads and have a few of those two part self watering Ceramic African Violet pots. The outer reservoir pot is ceramic and the inner pot is unglazed on the bottom so that it absorbs water. I was having problems with the shooting star hoya (can't for the life of me think of the name!) Leaves were turning yellow and falling off right and left. I was so afraid it was going to die, but someone on here suggested using one of those pots for that hoya because it likes to stay moist. It seems to have worked. The past 4 or 5 months it's been in one of those pots and as long as I remember to keep water in the reservoir pot, it seems very happy and has bloomed a few times.

I know some people wick African Violets and other Gesneriad plants by cutting a piece of felt or old blankets to line a nursery tray (or one of the shallow tupperware type containers) and just keep a small amount of water in the tray to keep the material wet and sit the potted plants on the material. The plants wick up the water from the wet blanket material. Only problem with that is the possibility of algae building up on the material and then you have to use something like Physan 20 as a fungicide/algaecide/disinfectant. I am a lazy gardener and it seems like a lot of work to me. I like the idea of the semi hydroponics for some plants.

I found two peduncles on this Hoya today, it will be the first time it's bloomed for me so I'm really excited! I think I posted a photo of this one awhile back and someone said it is possibly australis. I have another plant that looks exactly like this one so once it blooms if they are the same I will pot them both together. I can't wait to see the blooms!

Looks like H. australis...and this is blooming time for it too!!!!

Thank You Carol ... I'm going to be watching every day, waiting for the blooms!

So is this a program that I could do at home, inside the house? Mark you are talking about pots with holes 1" up the sides of the pots. So I take it the pots are immersed in a water bath periodically? How is this done?

The more I read, the more interesting it seems.

Rob, you can absolutely do it in the house. I use left-over plastic soup containers from the local Chinese restaurant, and melt small holes in the side with a heated-up phillips head screwdriver. They sit in a fairly deep saucer and I water just as I water my other plants, overhead with a watering can. I just let the reservoir overflow slightly each time I water, and so long as there is any water in the reservoir all of the hydroton all the way to the top stays evenly moist.

aHA - evenly moist but with a lot of air around the roots.... Got it. Gotta try it!

Well, with the cold rains of this weekend, more plants came in from outside. I may not have anymore windowsill space to try this out! But I will keep an eye out for a small bag of Hydroton to try this out.

So Carol starts plants this way, are you growing them with this medium Mark? I guess I am thinking about my first project already.

Rob

I'm thinking about ordering some of that hydroton stuff on line and doing the semi hydroponics with cuttings over the winter.

Rob
I went to Petco and got a small bag of clay pellets for Reptiles. They are the same size as hydroton just a little darker. Seem to be working well though

Of the Hoya I have in hydroton the one that has been in there the longest was placed into it as a rooted cutting about six months ago. All of them are showing some growth, which is a better track record than I've had with Hoya in potting mix.

If I get a chance this evening I'll take a picture of my Iris Marie. In soil it had come to a complete stop in growth for months and started losing lower leaves. I cut it up, but it in a self-watering pot with hydroton about 5 weeks ago and it literally has doubled in size with new growth! This has been my most successful one to date!

Kelly

Great news, Kelly....

Good to hear! Yeah, post a picture for us.

Here's the Iris Marie. Hopefully the purplish new growth will show in the picture. I'm really impressed how this one has done in hydroculture! Cagayensis is starting to put on some new growth, davidcumingii is budding up and put on a new peduncle, fusca has has increased in height by a third, australis Lisa is starting to put out a little stem, one of my tiny little linearis cuttings has put out a new little stem. All of these are in hydro - as well as some others that are just sitting still at the moment.

Not necessarily related directly to hydro culture, but I seem to remember that Loyce Andrews used to grow her hoyas in straight vermiculite. I think she said that the plants did so much better in straight vermiculite than in any other potting medium she had used. I also remember someone else commenting that once she started to grow her hoyas in the straight vermiculite, she never had any truly large plants. I would guess that the really light, porous medium is what the plants liked, but vermiculite does break down and would need to be replaced on a regular basis.

I've not ever tried growing hoyas in hydro culture, but I would think that the plants would really like hydro culture since there is so much air around their roots. The only thing I could see doing differently is maybe not keeping the water level as high as with other plants that are grown this way. This is just a hunch and purely speculation.
My .02
Mike

One problem, I've had with semi-hydro is finding a good support to use. The hydro container and hydroton are fairly light, and tip over easily if heavy metal supports or small tomato cages are used. Bamboo sticks and "u"s are light enough, but they tend to rot so quickly in soil, probably even faster in water.
Today I remembered someone in this forum (Awanda?) recommending coating the submerged parts of the bamboo with Plasti-dip, a liquid product which dries to a water-proof plastic finish. I got some today and coated the bottom 6 inches of a bunch of bamboo sticks to use as plant supports for the semi-hydro. We'll see how that does...

Nice Iris Marie Kelly!!!! Can you show a picture of the whole pot? it looks metal...is there another pot inside?

I'll try to remember to take a picture of the whole pot this evening. Carol, it's just a cheap plastic, self-watering pot from Walmart. The pots were on clearance - so I bought all of the 4" and 6" ones I could find for between 50 cents and $1 a piece. From a distance they don't look too bad!

I'm so pleased with how Iris Marie is doing! It was one of those moments when I wasn't sure what to do - leave it alone in the soil and hope it would stop losing lower leaves or cut her up and start over in hydroton. Glad I made that decision...which makes me think of a new thread "When to start over"....

Hey guys,

I just caught up on this thread and I wanted to comment because I just bought 2 containers that Lin explained (from those 70's plant parties you mentioned, Lin).

Check out this site (I just bought a set of 2 pots to check it out...I like how each pot comes with the whole set up - outer pot, inner pot, clay aggregate, and water gauge): http://www.hydro-orchids-store.com/growsystems.html

Obviously, this is too expensive for a whole collection, but it looks really neat. If I like it, I'll try using the type of semi-hydro shown on the link that Mark provided...I can just use a chinese soup container with holes poked in it, right?

Gabi

Gabi, That's exactly what they were like, with the gauges showing when the water level was getting low!

I was thinking about buying some of the hydroton pellets and some of these orchid type baskets to put the pellets in: http://www.orchid-supplies.com/clearpots1.html or these: http://www.calwesttropical.com/index.php/categories/net-pots (but the holes may be too large on this one.) I could use any decorative container as the outer pot.

Are you kidding?!?! There used to be plant parties in the 70's?!?!? We so need to bring those back!

Gabi,
Thanks for linking that site! I had yet to find anywhere that sold the individual components. You're right - it might not be feasible to transplant everything over to these in particular, but as stated on the site it gets you accustomed to it.

And, yes, Gabi, you can use any old plastic container. As a matter of fact last night I was outside burning holes in the side of clear disposable cups! My wee little linearis is in dark blue (I think....) acrylic glass with no drainage and I just sort of eye the water level.

Kelly