Hi Tracy, I rooted woody stem partially by air layering my cinnamomifolia(single node). I cut part of the stem, layered with sphagnum moss and wrapped with the saran wrap. I sprayed water inside the wrap until rooted. I think it took about 3-4 weeks. I only did this once for an experiment. You can try another method, put wet sphagnum moss inside a plastic container with a cover on top of heating mat then put in cuttings. keep moist until root. Try and let me know how it turns out. I think second method work better this time of the year or you could wait until spring.
4-5 leaf nodes are fine for bella cutting.
Jan

My understanding is that you need at least 2 nodes when you are rooting a cutting. So 4-5 nodes is definitely enough for your bella cutting.

As for rooting a woody stem, I've never had a problem...but I know it can be difficult. I root cuttings in my regular soil mix, and I've had 100% success so far, even with woody stems (takes longer though). With just one node, you may get roots (as long as the node is buried under the medium), but I don't think you'd have an easy time getting it to grow leaves if there are no other leaves/nodes on the stem. You never know though.

Will I need to use a baggie? Is there a way to keep the cuttings moist without baggies? If it means misting 6 times a day, that is fine, I just prefer to do them without the baggies? I actually thought the thicker woodier stems might do well in water, but I think I will pot them up.......I dont have a lot of luck with water cuttings.

Thanks
Tracy.

I do a lot of water cuttings myself, but I haven't had much luck w/ thick, woody stems, esp. on old Carnosas, I'd guess they'd be likely to rot before they root due to their thick & woody nature. I tend not to try them anymore, however:

While I don't like the look of baggies, I have recently taken to rooting some things in zip lock bags in clumps of moist long sphag & periodic misting inside, which I then hang off baskets. Worked quite well on H meridithii (aka vitellinoides?), which is pretty thick stemmed.

The variety in question is hoya onychoides (sp) so it is quite thick and quite large.....i have a couple other hard woody ones that I am not sure of the name, and I worry about how to root those properly too.
Right now they are in water until I figure out the best way. And I would need to find some really large baggies that I dont have in hand right now.

Tracy

when ya'll say spag moss, do you mean the kind you can buy in wal-mart or varity stores?? thanks ahead for the info.molly[sewnmom7@yahoo.com]

Hi Molly, yes that's where I buy mine.

Tracy,

Yes...I would use a baggy. I pot mine up and then poke some holes in the bag before I insert the pot inside the bag. I mist every couple of days (when the moisture is gone from the bag). If you have a heating pad, I'd use that - especially at this time of year. I just used a heating pad for the first time, and it really helped speed up the process.

As for water rooting...everyone has their own way of rooting that they have success with, but I have lost way too many cuttings in water to ever use that method again. I would think that if you pot the cutting up, and then the stem starts to look bad, you can always switch back to water as a last resort.

As for the size of the baggy, if a large freezer size ziplock isn't big enough, I use those HUGE baggies that are used for clothing on my really big cuttings.

Gabi

Okay one more question, if I put it in a baggie, they say to put it in bright indirect light.....not direct sun or they will cook, what about putting the cuttings under a HID light....should I? Can HID burn/cook them like the sun can? Should I put the cuttings under flouro's, maybe 60W, or would the bright counter in my kitchen work the best. I really dont want to lose these ones as they are pretty hard to come by, and I am lucky that I found someone in town that chopped me off a couple small pieces.

Thanks everyone sooooo much!!

Tracy

I know someone a couple hours away from me that likes hoyas too, so between us we do okay, I hear you when you say you are lucky to have found them.....lol. They are like a needle in a haystack. I too use baggies, or a humidity dome, remember no roots, so the leaves are doing all the sustaining for the plant at the moment. I have put cuttings HID lights as well, although off to the side, so it doesn't get direct light. I have put them directly under for the ones that really like light, but I found they started to go moldy, so I moved them. I think with the extra heat and humidity, it encouraged mold. Good luck....I saw an onychoides in bloom once and they are very unique and pretty.

I've never tried it, but somehow, to me, rooting under lights doesn't sound like the best idea. I have good bright direct & indirect, west windows, have never need the extra light to root anything, I'd be afraid it'd be too much for them.

I use an old aquarium with a glass cover as a rooting chamber for my Hoya cuttings. I pot the cuttings up and water them and then stick them into the aquarium on a ceramic tile that is directly over top of a small reptile heating pad from the pet store. I keep a small amount of water in the bottom of the aquarium for humidity and the cuttings do very well. I suspend a full spectrum compact florescent light over the aquarium and run the heat pad if the weather is going to be cool.

I've seen a bunch of people on a different hoya forum using a setup with lights for rooting. Seems to work well for them.

which forum gabro14?

Dave's Garden

dont you have to be a paid member to view their posts? I am not a paying member, but I would love to see others growing hoyas under lights as I do. I was looking at another hoya forum on msn I believe, does anyone belong to that forum?

Yes Nova, you have to pay to be a member. The only reason I mentioned it was to point out that using flourescent lighting to root cuttings works for some people. Dave's just happens to be the forum I remember people talking about it and showing their pics. Anyway, I'm sure if you do a search on here you'll find pictures of lighting set-ups.

If you want to become a member of the MSN forum, that is Chris Burton's forum and you'll pretty much need to send your resume to even be considered for membership!

Really, I have heard her name before......I took a look last night and there was a lot of useful info over there. I wonder why you have to send her your snail mail address?

Yes, there is a lot of useful info on there. If you want to read it, you can read it for free (in other words, you don't have to join to read the posts). But if you want to join, you have to give her a whole bunch of info (like your snail mail address) because she likes to check that everything matches up and that you are who you say you are (maybe a little paranoid?). Anyway, that's the deal with signing up for MSN.

Gabi

Well I figured I would just ask this here, rather than starting a whole new thread....is there any good mailing lists/newletters that I can subscribe to on the subject of hoyas? I belong to one mailing list called the gesneriphiles, and it is quite informative. I was hoping something like this exists for hoyas. I do know about the Hoyan, but other than that, I cant find anything.

I dont think I will bother with the msn forum, seems to me it is a little too personal just to chat about hoyas. I think I will just to GW, as it is free, informative, and friendly so far.

Hey Nova,
There is one free e-newsletter that I know about, called Stemma, that is sent out quarterly by Mark Randal. I don't want to publish his email here but you can send me a message via GW if you are interested.
You can also try Epiforums, which is free, but I still can't get it at work :( which is a bit irritating.
I really like Dave's Garden, and if you can afford $20, why not join?
Of course, stay here - we're a friendly bunch, and there are some quite knowledgeable people here.

Nova,

In addition to signing up for future Stemma publications, you can also download the last few issues of Stemma from Epiforums.com (I'm not sure if you have to be a member to do so, but it's free to join and it's a good forum).

Gabi

I will do that Gabi. Thanks everyone