I pulled the plant out of its pot and sure enough the roots were rotted! I took a cutting and re-rooted it. This time after water roots appeared I used a net pot to grow it out to better see when it needed watering.
I got this Hoya in 2018 from an order that I placed with AH Hoyas in Thailand. It came rooted in coconut husk, which could not be removed so I potted as is in a 2 inch rose pot. It grew a new vine and a leaf and promptly stalled out, which usually means root rot.
I’ve had this plant kicking around now for a few years where it always grew miserably and required frequent restarts. It finally flowered a few weeks ago so I guess it is time to talk a little about it.
I am growing this one in semi-hydro, but noticed a lot of root rot the other day, so I don’t know how long I will keep this one growing this way. It may have to get started over.
I put weed barrier on the ground and covered it with coconut husk mulch, we shall see how that works for a floor but so far so good. It seems to hold a lot of moisture when when wet and transmits itself as humidity in the greenhouse.
I snapped a photo of this plant flowering away in the greenhouse this morning. It seems to be pretty happy so far outside for the summer.
Let’s talk for just a minute about how hard I work and how expensive it is for me to grow Hoyas the way that I do. The photo below shows the discarded remains of an 8X8 Gorilla Grow Tent. I managed to get four years out of this tent, but I really should have gotten rid of it last year. This tent cost $576 plus tax and now needs to be replaced because it is totally rotted out from humidity and standing water on the floor. It is also totally covered in mold and the bottom frame is all rusted out.
The massive amount of work in disinfecting and cleaning the humidity trays full of blue green algae and scrubbing these tents out is pretty tough and disheartening work. The work of setting a new tent up all over again is tough to contemplate. I have almost no head room in the basement, so assembling this tent is an all day and exhausting project. I just want to make it clear that the way that I keep Hoyas is definitely not for everyone, and at some point I will have to severely cut back the number of plants that I keep as a quality of life issue.
I’m growing Hoya flagellata in semi-hydro, in a basement grow tent, down in my basement. The plant is nothing to brag about, but it is now regularly flowering. Here are some blooms from this morning:
These flowers perfume the entire living room at night. I am always asked for a list of nicely scented Hoyas, well Hoya sp. Black Leaves belongs near the top of the list!
Even though I can’t grow Hoya sp. aff. Bella PES-03 worth a #*&#, it still will occasionally flower for me. From this morning:
