Hoyas
I have SO MUCH to say about Hoyas in LECA and why some say they are slow growers.
Hoyas are one of my favorite plants in general, and one of the reasons I absolutely adore LECA. They are epiphytes - meaning they grow on trees in the wild, so their root system benefits from water and a lot of oxygen. This is one of the primary reasons LECA is a great substrate for hoyas.
Some people will ask, how does this hoya variety do in LECA, what about that other variety. Well to be completely honest, I’ve never had a hoya not do well in LECA and I have a lot of them, however I’ve had a few failures and I’ve learned from them - and spoiler alert, it’s not because the hoya didn’t like LECA, it was my process that messed it up. I’ll discuss some general guidelines for growing hoyas.
Roots and Transition
I’ve tried a lot of methods. When I first moved hoyas to LECA, I would clean the dirt off of roots, sometimes I’d do a mediocre job and leave some bits attached. Then I started really cleaning them off to the point where they are white. And finally I’ve tried completely rerooting them. Here are the results.
Clean roots - less meticulous: The results here were NOT good. The extra bits of soil puts the roots in a state of distress. They eventually end up dying off very slowly, but sometimes a new root explodes out and saves the day, but most of the time this is not good for the plant. You may observe the plant just sitting there, hanging on, dying a slow death over a period of 3-4 months. Don’t do this, it will fail you.
Clean roots - very meticulous: The results here are a little bit better, especially if these are newly rooted hoyas with fresh young roots. These roots are ok to work with, but definitely keep an eye on that plant because I’ve also observed these roots fail over time.
Rerooting: This is my #1 recommended method for a few reasons. One being, cleaning hoya roots is probably one of the worst ways to spend your time. Two, rooting hoyas is terribly easy in the right setup, I will explain this in a how-to guide.
Pot Configuration
If you haven’t read the difference between the pot configurations in the LECA information area, I suggest you do that first, some of the terminology I use here may be confusing if you don’t know the common configurations and what they mean.
For cuttings without roots, I will first root them in a LECA propagation box until they are about an inch long. Then I may put them in a non-wicking configuration until the roots are popping out of the net-pot. Finally when they are super long, I prefer a NSW configuration for long-term growth.
When hoya roots are short and small, they are delicate and they need a good source of moisture to keep growing. In a non-wicking configuration, the LECA draws up sufficient water for them to survive. I’ve experimented with putting 1-2 inch roots into a NSW setup and I’ve had plants fail due to the top layer of LECA not getting enough moisture.
Long Term Care
Once roots are 3-5 inches long and extending out of the pot, I highly recommend you put them in a NSW setup. Remember we said above that hoyas are epiphytes and their roots need a good balance between water and oxygen? If you have a hoya living in a non-wicking setup long term, and you keep that reservoir filled without letting it dry out, those roots will be in water 24/7. Eventually over a few months / over a year, those roots will rot. In the non-wicking setup, it’s difficult to get rotting roots out of the bottom of the pot without repotting the whole thing. The alternative is to keep it in a non-wicking setup and maintain a dry/wet cycle by letting the entire setup get dry for a few days, and then fill up the reservoir. If you have the patience and brain power to do this, then a non-wicking setup should be ok. I have not tried this method because I prefer NSW for all my plants and will always gravitate towards that setup. In NSW, the reason it works is because when you fill up your reservoir, the roots are mostly submerged and taking in water. As the reservoir empties, your root system is gradually exposed to air the more you let that reservoir drain. However, you will not need to wait until your reservoir completely empties to fill it up again because the roots are getting an amazing ratio of oxygen to water. The other benefit is that if there is rot happening to those roots, you can just trim them right off without a full repot.
Fertilizer
Epiphytes are light feeders. In the wild, they get rained on, and receives nutrients from bits washing off of trees. Their root systems are well geared to get water fast, and get nutrients fast. Most epiphytes developed a mechanism to grow without a lot of nutrients. I fertilize my hoyas the same as my orchids, maybe a little bit more because I love it when they grow a little faster. I use k-lite MSU formula for hoyas, at about 50-100ppm of Nitrogen per feeding. This is about 1/2 to 1/4 of the fertilizer I give to monsteras and philodendrons.
Temperature and Humidity
Make sure you know which hoyas are warm growers, intermediate growers, or cool growers. This is so important to growing hoyas in general. Don’t be like me and put your polyneura in a 85 degree cabinet. Do your research and give it the right temperature. I’ve found that growth is faster with higher humidity, but hoyas do not require high humidity in LECA to survive. I like to think of LECA as the plant’s personal pebble tray. Vermont Hoya has a great resource page to look up your hoya for temperature tolerance.
Watering
So… I know NOTHING about which hoyas need a more moist environment, or which ones need to dry out completely. This is one area that is completely different in LECA, the plant regulates its own water depending on its needs. I’m generally very happy that this information isn’t rattling around in my brain somewhere taking up space for the 100+ hoya varieties I keep. I leave it completely up to the plant and it takes the mental burden away of when to water, and how much to water. I water on my own time, when I feel like it, not when the plant needs it. This is why I grow in semi-hydroponics.
Why do Hoyas stop growing?
In my experience, I’ve seen hoyas grow slow and fast. I believe the cause of hoyas stalling out is due to partial root rot. It’s when a piece of the plant has a few root structures, and one or two may be ok, but a few may be in a state of rot. Growing in LECA has allowed me to examine roots very clearly, I would’ve never been able to come to this conclusion if I were growing in soil. These roots that hang on are detrimental to the plant. It’s usually a piece where I cleaned off the soil, these pieces eventually do end up failing and sets the plant back. I clip those pieces off and all of a sudden, massive growth. Hoyas are very resilient, it can survive in soil and maintain its current structure for months, even if the roots are in distress.
My unintended experiment happened when I got a hoya kerii cutting from a friend. She had cleaned off the roots and potted it in LECA. She told me that likely I’ll have to go in there and clip off some roots.
Month 1: I let it be, gave it some nice fertilizer, and noticed it wasn’t taking in a lot of water. It ended up dropping 1 leaf out of the 2 it had.
Month 2: I took it out and clipped off some of the dead roots. Noticed that it hasn’t grown any new roots either. Put it back in LECA.
Month 3: stalled, 1 sad leaf.
Month 4: Pulled it out and stuck it in a jar of water along with the leca that’s attached to the roots. I noticed that there wasn’t any new root growth and the roots that were there are kind of sad. Clipped off more dead roots.
Month 5: Existing roots were declining in water. No new roots. I clipped off ALL of the roots, and within 2 weeks there were brand new roots growing and these looked like the lush water roots.
Month 6: Roots have expanded quite a bit, and it’s pushing out a brand new leaf. I’m excited to see it grow finally!
What does this mean? If you’re a soil grower, you have to be careful with when and how much you water. You probably already know this if you’re a successful grower. If your hoya is stalled, you likely have partial root rot. For those of us that suck at being consistent with watering, or tend to over-water or under-water, growing hoyas in LECA has been amazing because it completely takes watering out of the equation. Most of my hoyas are growing very fast once they are established with roots coming out of the bottom of the pot.
What about Pon?
I’ve seen pon getting quite popular lately amongst hoya growers. Well I’ve been growing in pon now for the past 2 years and I love the stuff. I would even say gasp hoyas love pon more than LECA. Originally my assumption is that pon is too dense and retains too much water for hoyas. But guess what? I’m wrong. The roots adapt to pon just like they adapt to LECA. I prefer pon for thin root hoyas, and LECA for anything with thicker roots. It’s not even that pon is bad for thick-root hoya - it’s that LECA is so much cheaper than pon! My favorite setup is a layer of LECA at the bottom of the pot, and pon above the LECA layer. Sometimes I mix a handful of LECA into the pon.
In conclusion, I highly recommend that hoyas are grown in LECA and pon substrate. It allows you to maintain the perfect balance between moisture and oxygen. That balance needs to be maintained as your hoya matures when its roots enter the reservoir in your semi-hydroponics setup. This is why the pot configuration for hoyas growing long term is so important to its health.
