I have lost a lot of plants over the last few year to what I blamed on my own incompetence as a grower. I always thought that I made some watering mistake that stopped a plant from growing, or the fertilizer was not right, or the temperature was too cold; there was always something. There were so many plants that I put into a list that I called Plants That I Could Grow Well At One Time, But Cannot Grow Any Longer To Save My Life. I now believe that most of my issues were because of this invisible menace – the flat mite.

I opted to spray every single plant that I owned whether it was growing gangbusters, or whether it had not grown for a year. It was an enormous task that took me three days to complete. I went through gallons of spray and saturated every surface of the plant; it did not matter if it was a small cutting in the process of rooting or a four foot tall plant it got sprayed. Fortunately it was still warm enough to spray outside when I learned of this issue in mid-September. Below some of the sprayed plants in one of my tents:

The very nice woman who told me that I had flat mites said that she was ready to give up the hobby because of them until she finally found the solution to the problem. She gave me several options for dealing with them, but some of the miticides were so dangerous to use, I opted for the organic least toxic alternative that she had used on her own collection. I chose to spray with sulfur; the same one that pictured below:

I recently sold some cuttings to a woman from Nevada that carefully examined them with a hand held digital microscope that wirelessly connects to your phone see photo below:

She told me that she found flat mites and did not want to make me feel bad, but thought that I should know so that I could take remediation steps.

I have quietly been pursuing my passion for growing Hoyas for going on 20 years now, but up until now have been bothered by relatively few pests. My primary pests until now were fungus gnats, a few plants that were susceptible to spider mites, and a few aphids. Knock on wood I somehow managed to escape mealie bugs and root mealie bugs. I think I have so little problem with pest, because I bring in very few new plants into my collection every year. I read with horror the new issue of STEMMA on Facebook recently with its cover story talking about flat mites and hoped that I would never get something so insidious! The image below was copied from this Wikipedia Article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brevipalpus_phoenicis#Control

Several months ago I started over my Hoya blashernaezii ssp siariae as it was languishing and not growing. I think I now know the reason for it – the dreaded flat mite! After spraying my entire collection with sulfur, this plant is one of many that has absolutely taken off, and is growing better than at any time. The white spots on the leaves are sulfur residue. Much more on my flat mite experience at a later date!

I am so in love with my Hoya linearis plant that I have to show it off one more time. It actually has nine peduncles with open flowers.

The aerial roots emerging on this Hoya macrophylla vine make if look like a centipede!

This is the finest Hoya linearis that I have every grown and it is growing in 100% coconut husk chips. It is currently flowering on 6 open peduncles and the smell at night is amazing. When you hold a set of blooms and smell it at night, I think that this is one of my favorites scents in the Hoya world.

If I ever get lucky enough to flower this plant again I will bring it back, but for now our discussion of this wonderful species is over!