I've seen these used with hoyas but the hoyas themselves are planted in leca. If you google semi-hydro hoya you should find information on that methodology.

Oh I see. Do you know If hoya will adjust well if I move it to leca?

Many people have great success growing hoyas in leca. I am growing two in leca: a carnosa and a bella. Both seem very happy. I think if you want to try, you should! Just don't experiment with one that is difficult or expensive to replace. :-)

Thank you. I have 4 carnosas at home so it shouldn't be hurtful to experiment on them I'd probably try on the smallest one first. Do you have any brand recommendation of leca? Or they are all equally good?

And where can I get leca. Sorry I'm not familiar to it. It's gonna be my first time. And thanks for your recommendation.

I've seen leca for sale at Ikea, hydroponic grow stores or online.

I probably should have asked for a picture of your interpretation of a self-watering planter. I think that term may be used differently in different places. Do you have a link or picture of what you were considering?

Yes. Please refer to the picture below.

I would love to use it on my hoya, peperomia and pothos. But skeptical if that would actually help or do kore damage as to overwatering. I know that these plants wants to dry out in betqeen watering. But these self watering containers would actually make them consistently moist since it pulls water by capillary method when soil starts to dry out. It's not the roots reaching out for water. But I may be wrong.

Hi mowhui! I use a few self watering containers and I really dig 'em for certain plants. A bit of trial and error to figure out which ones. I have a pothos in one, similar to the one you have, and it's pretty happy. I'm new to growing hoyas so can't advise with any confidence. I don't think I would use it on my peperomia cause he likes it dry, but that's just me.

Just a note: you might have to top water your plant once before the wicking action starts. I almost killed a fittonia before I figured that out. :)

Best of luck and happy planting.

Thank you so much Catherine! I was contemplating whether to use it or return it. But I think I might keep it and experiment on one of my pothos cutting. Let's see how it grows there. I'm just very reluctant to experiment on my hoyas. Mind if I ask which potting medium did you use?

Sure thing. I make a mix of roughly 60 potting soil/20 perlite/20 worm castings. Although, I think the pothos was potted in potting soil with a just a bit of extra perlite.

Thank you so much!!

You're welcome. :) Also I thought I should mention, if you find it's getting too wet for your plant, you can just dump out the water and give it a break. I do that sometimes because of seasonal changes. Have fun.

Will keep that in mind! 😉

@popmama (Colorado, USDA z5) - sorry for going off topic to OP but I transferred a philodendron squamiferum to leca 8 days ago now. I’m new to leca and the plant still looks healthy and flush, just a little droopy on the larger leaves. Is this normal after repotting to leca? It sits in water roughly 1/4 up its pot, I’ve rinsed the leca about 2-3 times, do I need to rinse more? Thanks In advance!

Chloé

thank you mowhui. That is exactly the type I was thinking of. Lots of people using similar setups with leca (clay pebbles). Tons of videos on youtube, search for "semi hydro hoya". I don't recommend using soil because I think it will stay too wet. But leca or other clay pebble or expanded shale could work.

@Chloé: unfortunately I recall couldn't say. I don't grow any philos in leca. I've only grown hoyas. But I have seen many people on youtube convert all kinds of plants to semi-hydro including philos. I doubt you need to flush more. You may just need to give it time to adjust. But check out some videos on youtube.

@popmama (Colorado, USDA z5) haha!! Yes YouTube. Been watching all tutorials I can get to master leca and self watering pots. I will try it out with a cutting first and see how it works.

I have a carnosa that has been growing in leca for over a year. I used a wood burning tool to poke several holes at about 1/2" above the base in this gelato container. I keep about 1/2 an inch of water in the bottom. It's very happy in this. I also use leca to root other hoyas but then i usually transfer them to soil. But I've had trouble with retusa and I'm thinking of converting it to leca.

I use the lid of the container as a saucer in case some water spills out when i'm moving it around.

Keep us posted on how it it goes for you. There is a thread about someone growing in expanded shale and that seems to have worked as well as leca.

Check it out:

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5979782/stuck-a-couple-of-h-ilagiorum-cuttings-in-expanded-shale-a-month-ago#n=10

Chloe,

Have you checked out the roots again since converting? Whenever I transfer a new plant from soil to leca I revisit the roots and very carefully clean off anything sloughing off of the roots and check for any rot... I have Converted a few philos, hoyas, pothos, and a ficus lyrata to leca Over the last two months and they’re all doing quite well! I’m obviously a novice but it’s been quite successful in my opinion. I lost one pothos that was already unhealthy but Everything else has really thrived. Attached is my philo cordatum that came quite small and is putting out several new leaves now that is adjusted to semi hydro

Mowhu,

My hoyas love the leca life. I use hydroton from ikea and have also bought it on amazon. Obviously it’s not exactly the same thing as bottom watering soil but the leca balls use capillary action to wick the nutrient water up to the roots. All of my hoyas are thriving in leca...

@popmama (Colorado, USDA z5) Perfect I have a few Gelato jars that I've been saving forever. Now I can put it into good use. Will get the Leca first and start my hoya on leca adventure. I'm glad I asked. Thank you for helping out.

@Caitlin Will keep an eye on Hydroton when I go to Ikea. The more reason to frequent Ikea now...lol Thank you. I'll keep you guys updated once I moved them to leca.

i have 3 H. carnosa on water-wicks. they are in 5" pots and huge :). not in leca.

it's passive hydro. i mix my own mix: 40% should be perlite for aeration, may be 20% coco-chips or bark and 40% half and half peaty mix and coir dust (coir peat). but you can just do about half and half perlite and african violet mix. it'll work on small pots. up to 10".

i use braided acrylic rope for wicks 3/8 diameter. or smaller size for very small 3-4" pots.

actually most of my 150 smth plants are on wicks (tropicals most of them).

you will need to feed with liquid fertilizer in the solution, of course.

here's one in deli tub 4" stuck inside 1qt yogurt container :

you can see what kind of plants i grow in my idea albums (lots of aroids, ficuses, crotons, gesneriads, amaryllis)

incase you can't see it thru profile, here's a link

@petrushka (7b) what a beautiful and lush hoya you've got there!! I actually have those 3 mediums at home. I can definitely move one hoya to that soiless medium. For the fertilizer can I use my regular NPK liquid fertilizer that's 5:3:2? Is that enough? And do I feed every watering? Or is there a specialized fertilizer specific to that mix. I know that Leca has a system that I should equip myself with if I decide to move to Leca.

@petrushka (7b) Amazing!!! And I can use the planter that I posted above, right? It's a self-watering wick system.

yep, you can use that planter and make yr own mix. as somebody said above: it' is necessary initially to wet the medium from the top: dry medium does not wick. or wicks poorly. also it is best when you have roots thruout the pot established.

so, i start my cuttings in small pots well rooted, then move to next size.

hoyas and many others will send out water roots into reservoir : it's ok. occasionally you'll need to trim them: when you run out of water and they dry up they will rot when put back in water. peroxide helps to keep it all fresh. even with brown declining water-roots.

my hoyas water roots are longer then the 4" pot they grow in!

there is a whole system for this type of growing: Lechuza. it's very popular in Europe.

they use thier own hi-fired clay pellets on the bottom with mix in the top leyer.

they have deeper pot for more water and very pretty, but expensive.

i learned about it here many years back from a guy from Germany. since i have too many plants i read up as best i could on passive hydro, found African Violet info on wicking and then ..my plants took off! and then me ..love to travel!

@petrushka (7b) Thank you sor such a wonderful information!! This will definitely help me garden better and not worry much about their watering needs. Appreciate it much!!

Great information petrushka!

Caitlin - thanks so much for the info!

Ive not yet checked the roots, I think from worry of disrupting them so soon after transfer. Obviously the plant doesn’t have the same reaction being pulled out like it would in organic medium? I’ll check them today and make sure everything is okay.

As for the watering, I quickly rinse the plant in the leca every 3 or so days in the sink (as well as water that’s stays in the bottom of a ceramic pot) is this okay? I’ve seen some mention they run water through every day and others don’t mention it at all. The water in the ceramic pot has 1/3 amount of fertiliser I would normally use watering, I just don’t know how often to change this, every week or 2? They’re not clear so don’t get any sunlight.

Everyone seems to have amazing results potting to leca but I’m scared to transfer the rest until I get it right haha.

Thank you in advance :)

Chloé

@petrushka (7b) thank you for sharing your experience. I love wicks for African Violets and have recently started trying it on plants outside the gesneriads. Im having great success with a dwarf syngonium and a begonia medora. I havent tried it with a hoya yet and have been searching posts trying to find someone who does. I know what I’m repotting this weekend! The begonia medora was a single 4” tall stem when I got it in June and look at it now.

I recently came across this post and thought the OP might benefit from it. There's discussion in there about self watering pots.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1963109/new-hoya-trellis-idea

@Chloé i just realized I never wrote back about your questions! Sorry about that. How is your philo doing In leca? have you transitioned anymore over?

i rinse my leca once a week and replace the nutrition water every two weeks. Minimalist Cali and gigibelleplants are good semi hydro Resources if you’re still looking :)

Thank you @Elena Nuta. I will definitely check on that😊

Thanks Elena. I remember reading that post. I even pinned his idea for trellis. He definitely had a system going there.

Since I tend to overwater I would be afraid to use a self-watering planter for my hoyas. But others with more restraint may have better luck. : )

I bought a hoya curtisii and it was already drowning from the store, after a few weeks od still being wet and going almos all yellow to fallinf i decided to experiment with it in one of this self watering planters, so i repoted it wirh almos all new dry soil moist it it a lil left her in the sun almost two days, the third day i implemented the bottom container from the pot ans bow is by the window and me with my fingers crossed…. is my first hoya ever and i really like it and i cant afford it to die lol after buying 13 planta in a week ny husband revoqued my right to any more plants 😜🤣😂 literally theres is no more space hahaha

Petrushka - I like how you displayed all your plants in the link you supplied - how did you do that?

Oh, it is simply an album in my ideabooks.

i have many. if you click on my name it should take you to my profile where you’ll see ideabooks, activity, etc. it is quite easy to set up: you create an album and then add photos to it one by one (click on houzz photo, browse to yr library and then click to upload). and then you can add captions too.

it helps to resize yr pics for faster upload to 1000 max horizontal pixels.

i use self watering container to grow my gifted hoya and they are growing well There is even a flower bud cooking I use dilluted jacks fertilizer in my water that I use in my african violets The one on the right was gifted and the one on the left grown from cuttings

imnotsurealackofpunctuationandcapitalizationisthebestwaytocapturesomeonesattentiongiftedornotbutmaybeimtheonlyonewhoseesitasbeingdiscourteouscallmeoldfashionedijustthinkitsourjobtomakethethingswewriteeasiertoundersatandnotmoredifficultknowwhatimean

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Alan is a teenager again

@ HU-529524295 : what type of substrate do you have in your wicking pots?

imnotsurealackofpunctuationandcapitalizationisthebestwaytocapturesomeonesattentiongiftedornotbutmaybeimtheonlyonewhoseesitasbeingdiscourteouscallmeoldfashionedijustthinkitsourjobtomakethethingswewriteeasiertoundersatandnotmoredifficultknowwhatimean

:D