My advice is not to try. Water loving Hoyas such as H. papaschonii, H. lockii, and H. multiflora grew well for about a year, and then the roots rotted. Anything else that I tried it with never made it past a few months. It simply holds too much water, and will rot the roots. I use coconut husk chips almost exclusively now with the best plants I've produced in years. This is now the only thing that I will start plants in. Stay away from sphagnum!

I struggled with yvesrocherii, for a very long time with leaves that would continually yellow and fall off. After sticking with it long enough to mature, it no longer seems to lose leaves, and knock on wood it currently looks fantastic. I don't think that I ever want to go through the process of trying to start it over though, so if it starts regressing, and losing leaves again, that will probably be the end of it. I have to continually up-pot paradisea as it seems it is almost impossible to keep this one watered. Most Hoyas would succumb to root rot with the amount of water that I give this one, but paradisea just keeps wanting more. A few months ago, I received another clone with much different leaves, and it behaves the same way.

Thank you Patricia; I have to say that this is a Hoya that I really never mastered, and no longer keep. Good luck with your new plant, and I hope that you grow it better than I was able to!

Thank you Helen! It should not be too hard to find Hoya kanyakumariana, it is capable of rapid growth with a high humidity grow tent, but won't grow much in the regular house.

Thank you!

Thank you! It shouldn't be that hard to find the H. thomsonii as it is pretty common in the trade.

Good luck with your new halconensis! It is an extremely vigorous grower; I am sure that you will do well with it!

Good luck with your new Hoya curtiii plants Erica; I know you will do well with them!

U.S.A.

Thank you so much!

Good luck to you! Every week that goes by now this monster stenophylla gets harder to handle. I think it may have to get chopped up in the spring as much as I hate to do it.

Wow, I love that story! Years ago on the Hoya forums there was a woman from Montreal who grew all of her Hoyas in water and had great success with them. How do you keep your water bottle and the roots from getting covered in algae over time? I no longer use MSU fertilizer, but I did use it with great success for a very long time. Thanks for the great comment!

@@DougChamberlainVTHoyas some algae grows in its bottle, but most of it comes out when I change the water. I've only topped it up for the most part, but I've emptied it out to g get rid of the algae at least twice.

Your right there are so many similarities!

Aren’t they in the same family?

@@leedubwah6746 They are in the same family!

Hi Kathy, All of the many different clones of Hoya carnosa, and Hoya pubicalyx, Hoya celata, fungii, H. vangviengiensis, and Hoya griffithii come to mind. There are a lot more that would probably do well in cooler conditions as long as the humidity did not drop too low, which is probably more important than the cooler temps.

Always lovely to hear from you Lynda! Thank you for the kind comments, and Happy growing to you!

Thank you Sheila!

Hi Rebecca, I am a chronic overwaterer; so pon and diy pon mix simply did not work for me. Everything I have ever grown in Pon, or leca eventually lost their roots from rot. Many people have had great luck growing that way, but I am not one of them. Since I switched over to coconut husk chips, I have lost hardly anything to rot. It is labor intensive though; almost every plant needs a weekly soak to rehydrate the chips so it is definitely not for everyone. As to whether your plants will have issues long-term growing in pon, I'm afraid I can't help as I barely kept my plants alive short-term growing that way.

Hi Maria, I just bought my second gallon of PureCrop 1 so I'm still using it. I used it with every watering for 3 months; stopped for 2 months, and root mealies reappeared in two plants. I have been using it again for 2 months and the root mealies are gone again. It seems that root mealies are so tenacious, that I may have to use PureCrop forever. There are no other new products here for that pest of which I am aware. My new routine is the use PureCrop 1 with every watering, and once a month I will flush the plant with just water. Best of luck to you with your growing and thanks for taking the time to comment!

@@DougChamberlainVTHoyas Thank you so much for taking your time to answer in such length, It a friend who has a house full of Hoyas and unfortunately got root mealies, so I remember your video. These kidders are really hard to get rid off. Thank you!!

You're very welcome Garrett, and thank you for the kind words!

Definitely worth seeking out!

Thank you so much William for the kind words. In the old days I used to put up a video every week, but now it seems that there is always something keeping me from putting one up. I do work very hard at this hobby, and some days are easier than others, but I will keep going as long as I can!

​@@DougChamberlainVTHoyasI also look forward to your videos. Keep them coming when you can.

@@littleauntjomama I will try my best to put up videos a little more frequently; thank you for leaving the comment.

There is absolutely no detectable scent to my nose.

That is what keeps me going in this hobby!

Contact me in late April, or early May next year, and I may be able to help you out. I sold about 35 starters on eBay earlier this year. With any luck, I hope to have more next year.

Good luck with your new Hoya elliptica! I have found that it is a difficult one to keep happy in the long-term, but it is worth the effort.

@@DougChamberlainVTHoyas any tips are much appreciated. Doug, I just got a Para albo but can't find any info about it. Do you have any idea about that one?

@@planttherapy1860 I have never grown Para Albo, but it looks like a real beauty. Hoya elliptica has extremely sensitive leaves and does not like to be misted or have any foliar feeding, or you are apt to damage the leaves. Back when I grew the plant, I used a substrate that was too heavy; it would benefit from a much looser mix. Keep evenly moist and water before it totally dries out. Light should not be too intense either. That is about all I've got.

Great and useful information Leo!

@@DougChamberlainVTHoyas happy to hear 🙂

Thank you Kathy, I just finished up water rooting some variegated Bella this morning so it still works!

You're ver welcome Garrett, thanks for watching!

There is no scent at all, but I have come to really love this plant it is always covered with these little red flowers, and think it would fit in well with a Christmas plant display. I just up-potted mine and it is quite large, but I have never tried to grow it in ambient conditions. It lives in a tent.

I use coconut husk chips as my substrate in 90% of my plants, and the only way to rewet the stuff is to soak the entire pot. The 10% of my plants that are in a peat-based substrate just get watered normally with the PureCrop solution as soaking the pot might cause root rot. I reuse the solution sometimes filtering it through a paint filter to clean it up. It is far too expensive to throw out. Here is a link to the paint filters: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09XPXD2QK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

@DougChamberlainVTHoyas great! Thank you so much! I was thinking about reusing it too...

Except I have another question lol - I made 1gal and used that to soak all of my hoyas in, from what I understand I can reuse that solution for a couple days? And in the meantime I took them out of their substrate and chucked it, so is having them sitting in plain water for a few days okay?

These root mealies are really tenacious and spread very quickly. You have to assume that all of your Hoyas in that cabinet have them and treat everything. I want to make sure that you know that PureCrop 1 is not a one and done treatment and has to be kept up with every watering for quite a while. I'll give you an update to this video with my comment here. I used PureCrop every time I watered for three months until I was fully confident that all the mealies were vanquished. I stopped using it for two months and then found two large plants (H. leucantha and H. blashernaezii) full of them again. This happened about 8 weeks ago, and I immediately went back to the treatment with every watering, and they appear to be gone once again. Going forward I plan to keep using the product every time I water and flush the pots once a month. I just bought another gallon which should get me through the winter and into next summer.

@@leafykkbean I don't know what substrate you use; I use coconut husk chips, which works really well for me. With my setup, I just soak the entire pot once every week for most plants to rehydrate the chips. There was really no need to chuck the substrate. If you use something like Pon, or leca, I can't really speak to it as I have had terrible experiences using these long term on any Hoya that I have tried it with. Other people seem to love these substrates. PureCrop 1 as you know is extremely expensive, so you can definitely reuse your solution. I go from plant to plant and really make an effort to waste as little as possible. If the solution gets full of debris, I pour it through a paint filter and pretty much use it until it is gone. The best of luck to you, and don't get discouraged. PureCrop 1 has contributed I think to the healthiest looking Hoyas that I have had in a decade.

@@DougChamberlainVTHoyas yes I understand it should be used continually or at least for a good period of time. I’m just unsure if everything else is infected or not in my cabinet because I did catch it very early on. Plus there are many non hoyas in that cabinet as well.

@@DougChamberlainVTHoyas I had some in straight up coco coir, which is where it stemmed from. Paint filter makes complete sense to strain out any pieces. Thank you!

My Hoya vitellinoides is almost too big to handle at this point, and is probably my most impressive Hoya specimen at least to the casual observer. The plant is capable of quick growth in warm humid environments like my tents. In ambient home conditions, it is slow and steady with almost all growth put on during the summer months.

@@DougChamberlainVTHoyas Thanks for letting me know Doug. Yeah it’s in my bedroom where it’s room temperature 68-70 F with a humidity about 50-60 percent. It seems like it is a hardy tough Hoya?

@@PerAllwin1963 While not as hardy as a publicalyx or carnosa, it is pretty tough. My plant has been living on a windowsill now for a number of years and does just fine - good luck with yours!

@@DougChamberlainVTHoyas Thanks Doug. Can you recommend any Hoyas (other than pubicalyx or carnosa) that are vigorous fast growers and flower early?

@@PerAllwin1963 Any of the many clones of lacunosa would be good candidates along with obovata, many of the Philippine Hoyas like ilagiorum, blashernaezii, and cutis-porcelana. There really are too many to name here, but there are lots.

Hi Mary, Really nice to hear from you! PureCrop is definitely a pest control miracle. I just bought another gallon which should take me through the winter and get me well into next year. Here are a couple links to the clear orchid pots that I use on almost everything: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BGW9CGK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1; www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08DXN5PHM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1; www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B58Y4Q13/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

I wish you the best of luck with your new Hoya archboldiana Kathy! It is definitely one of the great Hoyas to flower!

I suppose that it could be possible, but the near universal difficulty around the world of getting this one to flower, makes me think that it is more complicated than just the length of the day.

You're welcome and thank you for leaving the nice comment - much appreciated!