Here's the new baby...

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Hi amany,
Your rope Hoya is just beautiful well done.What I would like to know is I have the three types of the indian rope Hoya in (separate pots) and they are all just one strand and growing really well.what I would like to know is how I can get mine to look as full as yours and not just 1 strand growing.Do I need to take cuttings and plant them all together? or will new branches grow off it into other branches and fill out on it's own?
The none variegated one is about 12 inches long but the other two variegated ones are only about 7-8 inches long.
I hope one day mine will look as lovely as yours........

Hope some one can advise me how to get a full pot looking like the one above....Thanks Karen...

P.S
I hope I have explained it ok...

Karen, you need to take cuttings from the longer branches. Compactas may branch out, but I wouldn't rely on it. The one I had was not the slowest grower, but not fast either.

I thought it was very very risky to take a plant that is used to growing in soil and switch it to hydroculture. I have one started right now, but I used cuttings that I started in water, and transplanted them into the hydro pot after they grew some roots. One of the reasons I have heard it is hard is becuase a plant growing in soil will have to lose it's "soil" roots and grow all new ones that are "water roots" - a pretty tough transition, especially for a bigger or established plant.

There is a really nice lady from canada at DG that does this, grows all her hoyas in hydroculture, she gave me some advice when I started my plant, are you a member at DG?

Hi ines 99,
Thankyou very much for the advice, I would like to try to take some cuttings but I just don't know if I could bring myself to cut my beautiful strand even though it is a fast grower and very happy and I don't want to put it into shock either.Also I'm not quite sure how to go about taking a cutting as it is only one branch and it is only growing from the top and I'm not sure where to cut it as well.

In answer to your question about DG,well I don't know what that is as I am from Australia and have not heard of it...
Thanks again....Karen......

It won't shock your plant to take cuttings, though I do understand your reluctance! But the mama plant will be ok, maybe even benefit from some pruning. A roughly 5" or 6" cutting would be fine, you just cut right where above where a set of leaves ends, then on the cutting you need to strip a few sets if leaves from the bottom, maybe two or three, whereas you may only need one bare node to plant it soil. With hydroculture, you need a fairly long bare part of the stem to keep the cutting anchored in the aggregate. You don't really want a long leafy part above the top level of the aggregate, that is too much for the new roots that will be growing to maintain. Once the cutting gets rooted, it will concentrate on growing.

If you put the cuttings in a glass of water to let them get started developing some roots, that helps. And when you do plant them in the clay aggregate, you keep the water level a little higher at first to help them to not dry out until they have really rooted well. It was pretty easy with my carnosa I just did last month. The first week or so, some of the leaves were too soft, I could tell they were not getting enough water, but after raising the water level a little more, everything is fine. I just have to keep an eye on it, cause once the roots are enough to support the plant, the water level will not need to be so high, and could possibly do more harm than good.

I will look for a few hydroculture links for you, the lady in canada grows all of her hoyas this way, and she is very helpful.

Thank you for your responses but my question / concern was whether a good monthly shower would keep mealy bugs away.

When it comes to hydroculture, I've done my research and covered the bases. I'm not a member of DG but, I've done a lot of reading and learned that hoyas are good candidates for hydroculture.

Ok, sorry for rambling on, I didn't get the impression you knew nothing about it, I just thought you would like to hear about my experiences with it as well... I am very interested in hydroculture too and will probably convert more plants to it in the future. I would have done it by now if there were more places to buy the supplies in person, and not online.

As for mealy bugs, as long as there are not any on the plant to begin with, and you keep it indoors, you shouldn't have any problems. Showering might be a good way to make sure any insects never get an upper hand, but I had a compacta for several years (before killing it by leaving it outside during an unexpected frost) and I never had a problem with mealy bugs. But showering plants is beneficial for other reasons, so I think it is always a good thing to do - I am just too lazy to do it!

The best defense against getting mealies on your compacta is to give it a drench with "Bayer Tree and Shrub" systemic. You can get it at Home Depot or Lowes, etc. Don't follow the directions on the bottle, but instead mix it at ONE OUNCE to A GALLON of water. Then just water any plants that you want to be free of insects with it. Make sure it soaks into the soil good. You don't need to put it on the leaves (just water the plants with it). I would not use it on any edible plants... (it is highly poisonous). You only need to do this twice a year. I have not had mealies (or aphids, etc.) in my hoyas since I started doing this, and I used to battle them every year before that.
Marcy

Thanks everyone. I'll keep an eye on it. As skittish as I am about mealies, believe it or not, I'm not nearly as bad as I used to be.

About the hydroculture, I've take most of my direction from the below listed website. I got almost everything set up over the weekend. I started a little more than half of my plants working on their water roots about three weeks ago though.

Here is a link that might be useful: Water Roots