kelly, I have tried this and have several of both hoyas and other tropical houseplants growing this way. I've purchased from a few different sources the somewhat expensive pots that have the inner and outer pot and include the water-gauge, and more recently i have made my own out of the takeout soup containers you get from Chinese restaurants. I have ariadna, linearis, and different carnosas and pubicalyx pink silver growing in them.

I made the container linearis is in with the soup container, the small size, I guess its a pint? All I did was poke 2 holes in the sides, about an inch or so up from the bottom, so that when I water, the water fills that bottom space as a resevoir and then drains off above it. I then set the pot into a 6" hanging basket, mainly because linearis really needs a hanging pot. The only "problem" is that it must be watered over the sink because draining is a must. I use a hydro liquid fertilizer and the clay aggregate pebbles, which recently I actually found a huge bag of in a box on someones curb when I was walking my dog. Someone must have had the stuff to grow orchids with, because there was orchid fertilizer sitting on top of the box...that's what tempted me to look inside. What a great find, and something I needed - and I am sure you know the aggregate is not cheap.

Anyway, if you have any questions, let me know. I think hydro is the way to go with plants that are very sensitive to over or underwatering. I have traded and correspond with a few growers that grow all their hoyas this way. It is the only way I think I can grow linearis, and also one of my favorites, the prayer plant.

Your postings regarding linearis is the reason I want to try this! Have been reading www.waterroots.com and www.hydro-culture.net.

Can't believe you FOUND clay aggregate! WOW - great find! I was beginning to think I wouldn't be buying any because of the price/shipping.

Glad to hear you've successfully made your own pots - I bought a couple of self watering pots from Walmart to use for now, but have been trying to figure out how to make a water gauge...maybe it's not necessary!

I was just going to use VF-11. Do you think the hydro-liquid fertilizer is better in this case? Have to admit I haven't read too much about this part...

Did you have any problems cleaning the roots off initially? I'm so excited about trying this, but so worried I'm going to do something incorrectly!

Thanks for responding so quickly! What sites have you been using to learn more about it?

Kelly

Ines,
Sounds like you may have taken someone's freecycle pickup, hehe. I try to keep an eye out for listings like that where people put their stuff on the curb or in the driveway.

Kelly,
VF-11 will work fine for Hydroculture, If you read the paperwork, it mentions being good for that. Try to get all the soil off the roots, as any will cause rot, if for some reason roots are stuck to a wood chip or something, cut it off before potting it in the agrigate. A cheap hydroculture "soil" is aquarium gravel. I've used marbles also.

Instead of converting a whole plant to hydroculture, try cuttings and root them in the hydro setup, it won't stress the plant as much.

Thanks, Mentha! I wouldn't have thought to use other medium as well. I may take your advice and try cuttings first. Also, thank you for READING the directions of VF-11 - I'm so bad about that!

Kelly

oh, I hope that wasn't someone's pickup - I doubt it though, we have a once a month "big trash day" where the township will take anything you can drag to your curb, and that's when I found it. I also thought it was an amazing find, one because I had it on my list of things to buy but kept putting it off because it would have to be an online purchase and I hate ordering online, and two because it was just a strange thing to stumble over.

I don't think the water gauge is all that necessary, depends on how much you want to spend. If you go to
growinhydro.com, you will see they sell the pots like the one I made, just clear plastic with holes for water to drain out at the right level. They work fine, you just have to remember to check the levels and add water regularly.

I don't know anything about VF11, so I can't help you there. I get my solution from a place here in NJ called Interior Water Gardens (website of same name) it is called Luwasa 1-1-3 made by Worldwide Hydroculture. I don't know much about it, it is the only one I've ever used, one bottle lasts forever.

I agree with mentha that especially for beginners, best to use cuttings and not try transplanting a soil growing plant into hydroponics. I root my cuttings right in a glass until the roots start, then transplant to the hydro pots. I have also heard you can use other rocks as substitutes for aggregate, but do they have the same wicking properties that the clay has - again, I don't know about that.

I haven't really found many websites that go too much into hydro, I just pick up info here and there from reading online and in books and talking to people who do it. Most of the forums for hydroponics talk about the big giant systems used for growing vegatables and annuals.

Good Luck, I will try to post some pictures

Prayer plant in pot with water level indicator, this pot has an inner basket pot and came from Interior Water Gardens in NJ, they are well made, I have had 4 or them for over 10 years and even left one out all winter (without a plant in it) and it still works fine. I always kill prayer plants eventually in soil so this is a last resort.

here is linearis, the cuttings had been growing in water for several months, the inner pot I made from the soup container is inside the hanging pot. Plant is starting to put out new growth, so I guess it's happy!

{{gwi:969483}}

soup container, you can see the two holes, I just poked a phillips head screwdriver into the plastic.

Cool! I have a lot of those pots which have lost their disk, I may try to find a bowl or something that will fit in it and try my hand at making my own pot. What size pot is that? I'e never seen soup bowls like that, maybe a restaurant supply would carry them. I just found out there was a hydro store in the next town over, so I may go take a look.

Wow, Ines, you're linearis looks great! Thanks for all of the info!

Mentha, I think what she used for the linearis is a 16 oz (pint) deli/soup container. Saw some on ebay, but will be going through my plastic-ware at home first. May resort to eating lots of take-out hot and sour soup!

I'm really excited about trying this!

Kelly

My hot & sour soup comes in styrofoam. I've never thought soup would come in a cool whip tub ;)

The dollar store is a great place to find plastic containers to make your own semi-hydro pots.

Nice growing Ines!

Anyone who is interested in a great site (I saw someone mention above that there aren't that many sites with info on this), I will post a link at the bottom of a great site. It has fabulous pictures and great instructions.

Gabi

Here is a link that might be useful: water roots

Checked Dollar General in the town I live in - that's the worst $ store ever! Will scout a better one tomorrow. Great idea, Mike!

Waterroots.com is a great site! Thanks, Gabi!

Kelly

i want to try this out too but no hydroton for miles:(
so do you who do grow in this let the water come out of the pots or do you use reservoirs?

Well, I am doing an experiment. I've never done this with a hoya, and I don't have LECA, but I do have some red lava rock gravel which I put over some perlite in one of my pitchers. I put a bunch of cuttings off of my new Hoya lacunosa (thanks all for the ID) in there and filled it in with more lava rock to hold the stems in place. I added a little VF-11 and set it up on the bookshelf. I hope they do something in there. I just wanted to see if they will root witout any coaxing. I know I should have done it differently, with holes and all that, but I can see the water level from the top of the pitcher, and they are only going to be in there long enough to root, or until I can get a true hydro pot. I probably shouldn't have used the perlite, but just the lava rock since some wanted to float. I'll keep you all posted what happens.

Mentha,

Looking forward to hearing how it goes. I really don't think you need any holes poked if you are using a container that you can see through. The way the woman does it on the website I provided is really easy - she just uses glass containers and fills the water to right below the roots, and then the water rises up to the roots when they need it via capillary action (or so I recall!). I like her method because you don't need to spend lots of money on hydro pots and meters and all that. I also like Ines' method for the same reason. The clay pellets are expensive enough!

By the way, there is a hydroponic supply store by me that sells the clay pellets and all hydro supplies - if anyone is interested, let me know and I'll see how much they are. I can pick some up and ship it to you.

I don't use this method (too much work to change...and if it's broke, I don't want to fix it!), but I think it's very interesting.

Anyway, Mentha...are you keeping the cuttings IN the water, or is the water below the cuttings? Just curious (although I'm not sure if that type of medium would be able to pass the water up to the cuttings). I would think the first way is the same as water rooting, while the second is similar to hydro. I'm curious as to whether it would make a difference....hmmmm, another experiment??? :)

Gabi

Mentha, as long as you can keep an eye on water levels and occasionally flush the water out and add fresh, you should have some success. I am not sure about the perlite, I have heard and seen that it can get fungus-y, so just keep a check on it. Also, you asked about what size pot I was using with the linearis, not sure how much it holds, but it's about 4" across the top and a little over 3" deep. Kelly is probably right with her description, and yes you can get them at deli's - BUT the ones used for hot soup at restaurants tend to be a little thicker and therefore sturdier. Check out the website "growinhydro"
they show mostly orchids, but they sell a plastic pot that is pretty much the same thing, that is where I got the inspiration to just poke some holes in what I already had lying around, uselessly storing leftovers that I never eat!!

For the sake of simplicity, and saving money, one could also take a regular plastic plant pot, with drainage, and just put it inside a one size bigger pot with no drainage, and then keep about an inch of water in the bottom...you want there to be enough water for the clay aggregate to help to wick up to the roots, but at the same time, you don't want so much that you drown the roots. As long as you check the water level regularly, the water gauge is not something you HAVE to have.

jsainz, you should have a reservoir, the clay aggregate will not hold enough water otherwise. You would have to water all the time.

I am about to pot up H davidcummingii in a hydro pot today, for some reason, the whole plant's root system decided to die on me. I heard that this is not uncommon with this variety, and I have a little spare hydro pot I got as a gift that is empty, so I am going to try growing what I managed to salvage that way.

Hi Gabi,
My cuttings already had aerial roots, so they can wick themselves if they turn them on. I put the water just below or at the level of the bottoms of the stems. I usually root with just moist perlite, or a really really light soil with more perlite than soil, but I wanted to see if the roots would try to cling to the lava chips.

I used to do something similar with my schlums only was set up a little differently, I put the gravel under and around a clay pot and filled water to the bottom of the pot, the clay pot soaked in the moisture and keep the roots just moist enough to stay alive and search. The plant never rotted and I didn't have to worry as much about fungus because the soil wasn't watered, nor was it wet, just pleasantly moist. I stopped doing that though when I realized my outer pots were not as water tight as thought, but they leached water and stuck to my MIL's entertainment center, ooops

http://www.hydro-culture.net/

the above site has alot of hydroculture info, including how to make your own water level indicator with a drinking straw

Ines,
I sent an email to the hydro-culture.net site. Didn't completely understand the instructions for making the water level indicator. Thanks!

I should be getting a rooted cutting of lobbii next week. I'm assuming it's going to be small - does it matter what size pot I use for hydroculture with it? I was hoping to use a 6 inch self watering pot (Walmart purchase), but am wondering if the roots are going to be too far from the water source. Does that matter or will water wick a good ways?

Mike - good call on the Dollar Store! Bought 8 16oz plastic storage containers for $2! They also had the 32oz sizes - may go back and get more!

Kelly

Kelly, I would recommend putting the lobbi into a bottle or glass of water and letting it start getting some roots first, then put it into the pot. At first, you can keep the water levels a bit higher than is normal - until the roots get more established. I don't know if anyone else who grows this way has a different recommendation, I am just letting you know how I was told to do it when I first started cuttings in hydroculture.

Oh, and smaller pots would be better, I guess the same as any other way of growing hoyas.

I was on another website where someone said they just used a clay or plastic pot, filled with the clay aggregate and the plant of course, then set it into a saucer filled with water. The water level stays the height of what you have in the saucer, creating a reservoir in the bottom inch or so of the pot. You can always see the water level, and the roots are still above it. Sounds perfect to me, and cheap too!

Has anyone tried Schultz Aquatic Soil? It's 100% Fuller's earth that has been kiln fired to create granules. It is used for pond plants. I bought a bag today at HD. I've been trying to find Hydroton but I'm having no luck. I think I'll take cuttings of my varigated hoya and see how it roots in this stuff. If it roots with no problems, then I'm going to leave it in the AQ soil and test it.

Aquatic soil should be a good choice for hydroculture. A lot of people use the two interchangably. I bought a bag of Schultz a while back to mix in my epi mix and it is really good.

I have some new cuttings of lacunosa and KQ, and a cutting of rhipsali pilocarpa. I think I'll pot them up into a mix of potting soil, orchid bark, perlite and this aquatic soil and see how they grow. Thanks mentha, for the idea to put it in potting mix. It's good to know that someone has used it before. I don't feel like such a guinea pig now.