Hoya's-growing medium and fertlilzer?
 

Hi all. Nice to have another place to learn from when plants other than orchids are the topic. That said, I have a small hoya plant, ( I dont' know the exact name)-I bought it for my daughter ((she was killed a year ago in a car accident)) so this little gem is extremely important to me. It's bloomed once for her, the first year she had it, and once again the following year after I brought it home to my house, from her place. Anyway, I know that Hoya's are epiphytes, and I have another one (Hoya Nervosa) that I've had for years. It, like my daughter's, was potted in regular potting soil. It's doing great, huge leaves, etc.. Recently I repotted this little one (NOT a Hoya nervosa!) in a mix of bark, soil, and Orchiata-my thinking being that since it's an epiphyte, I can maybe make it happier if I give it more of the growing medium that epiphytes grow in. So, with all that info, my question is can I feed this gem the same food I use on my phals and other orchids? I use MSU granular food for well water. This plant is currently in a strong growing phase, but before I changed food, some of the leaves were getting a yellowish tinge-which is when I switched to the orchid food. Previously I was feeding it Dyna grow. Ok, I guess I have 2 questions. One, about the food, and two, was repotting it from soil to bark mix a good move? I'd love some advice here :blushing:

If you can keep it moist enough in your bark mix, it should be ok I think. Mine is potted in regular potting mix, grows and blooms great. Mine always gets orchid fertilizer.
The yellow leaves may be from strong light ? I used to have mine where it was in sun for much of the afternoon, and I always had a lot of yellow leaves, but lots of flowers, too.

Thanks for your reply white rabbit. I'll move it to a less sunny window and see how things go...

They love to be outside too! They like a bright shade. I keep one under a tree. I see them as growing similarly to epiphytic orchids, and also epiphytic cactus. The medium needs to be fast draining, and like phals, they need to go dry. I use orchid fertilizer as well because as an epiphyte, they would grow in tree branches, a bit of earth, lots of air, rain water, and low levels of N-P-K.

Oh yeah 😊I'm kind of wary about putting it outside because of insects. I worry about it getting bugs as well as it passing bugs to my phals when I bring it in...but I know she'd love it outside!!

I keep my old broken down orchid medium, and use it mixed with some miracle grow potting mix for those types of plants.....they all seem to like a bit of bark, but dirt too.....hoyas are nice!

Thank you for your reply. I ended up potting her in a little bit of bark and a little bit of soil. She really has taken off!

Can you take a photo? Many have distinctive leaves. Almost all species are epiphytes, but some don't like to dry out at all. There are a lot of photos here:
Rare-Hoyas

The ones commonly sold in markets are usually forms of what is known as Hoya carnosa. There is a problem with its type specimen, so the common plant might actually have a different name.

They often have much smaller root systems than you might think. Overpotting is not a good idea. Well-aerated medium is very important for all of them. When you say you used soil, do you meant a peat- or sawdust-based house plant potting mix, or soil from your garden?

Their plant family Apocynaceae is highly susceptible to mealy bugs. Many Hoya growers put imidacloprid granules in the pots of all their Hoyas. Others watch carefully all the time.

I found out that this hoyas name is 'Nummerials' (or something like that) I'm just not spelling it right. It's a small hoya ( I have a Carnosa and believe me, this looks nothing like it) I used a small mount of potting soil, but the mix is predominantly orchid bark. It bloomed for me last year, and I've just begun to.see those curved little 'arms' that will have a flower on it's tip.

Hoya nummularis. Yes, it has small, rounded leaves. (nummularis means "like a coin".) It is considered easy to grow. Many people do well with it in packaged potting soil, changed every 2-3 years, so they remain well-aerated and don't break down. It is often grown as a hanging basket, dangling over the sides of the container. It does not have a large root system, so don't overpot, or the medium will stay too wet for too long.