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I inherited a Hoya from my mom

9 months ago

I don't know anything about live plants. After reading y'all's post I realized I made some mistakes. First I cut off the long tendrils. They dirt is solid as a rock. I've learned not to water it very much. I wait until the leaves are crinkly. I would like to repot them into a drainage pot. Do I just buy a cactus or Orchid mix? And I didn't even know I was supposed to fertilize. The good news is I did get blooms on one of the plants. Please help I don't want to loose my mom's plants. Thank you.

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Comments (3)

iochroma
9 months ago
We can help you out.

Fortunately, the common Hoya carnosa is a very sturdy plant; I bet that’s what you have, but it would help if you could post a picture here so we could confirm its ID. It would also be helpful if you could get a shot of the top of the pot so we could see the soil.

There is no rush to repot it. In summer I would water more generously and feed regularly with a bloom food.

In short, don’t worry.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
9 months ago
last modified: 9 months ago
Waiting until the leaves are crinkled is not good for the plant. That’s a sign of pretty severe wilting for a hoya. Does this container have any holes in the bottom? If so, I would suggest that you submerge the whole pot into a tub of water for an hour or so, just to make sure that the entire dried out root ball gets a drink for a change.

Watering our container plants shouldn’t be about how much water but how often. Succulents such as hoya do require a good drenching on watering day, but then allowed to dry out somewhat until the next drenching. Wilting over and over is never a good thing for any plant, including hoyas.

Have you tried to carefully lift the plant out of the pot? if you can do so, take a picture of the root ball for us, too, as well as the whole plant. If it seems too difficult to remove, don’t worry about it. I was just wanting to know if large portions of the root mass had died.

I would advise against any ”bloom booster” fertilizer, that myth has been busted for a very long time. They should’t even still be on the market. A general, an all purpose houseplant fertilizer is sufficient. Purchase one that is soluble in water so that you can water it in a diluted solution. Truthfully, you should be very conservative about fertilizing until you can drench the container thoroughly on watering day.
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 months ago
never fert a stressed plant... and if yours wilts that much.. its stressed ...

find a good media.. and repot the plant.. and just water is for a couple months.. no direct sun.... do not use media with fert in it....

0nce it is no longer stressed... then you can start feeding it very lightly..

they are plants.. not children.. then simply dont need all that much fert or food.. nor an education.. nor clothes.. etc.. water them properly.. in the proper media.. and you should have years of success.. with or without fert... dont get hung up on marketing mumbo jumbo... its mostly all snake oil..

ken

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