All I have is a little cutting to pot up. When this little plant starts growing it will be quite lovely with it’s little squared leaves. If you want to see a better example click the link A Visit with Hoya rotundiflora by Doug Chamberlain. This is but one of his many beautiful Hoyas featured on his website Vermont Hoyas. I can only hope mine will look half as good some day. For now I have to settle for my petite cutting which I purchased from PlantyManty in Sep ’22. It arrived in good shape with a few tiny roots. It was in a little pot of dirt and I’m not good at potting in soil. I usually over water and end up with root rot or stem rot. I took it out of the soil, gently rinsed the roots in the sink and put it in semi hydro in Fluval Stratum. There hasn’t been much growth up top so it’s time to take it out of the stratum and see what’s happening underneath.
After 4 months in the stratum I have a nice healthy set of roots. It’s time to pot this up. I’ve been experimenting with potting mix for my Hoyas. I’m trying to create a more natural environment. I started with ABG Terrarium Substrate from GlassBoxTropicals on Etsy. This is designed for wet humid environments. It holds moisture but drains nicely. Hoyas like to dry out between waterings. I was also looking for something to give the roots a little bark like material to cling to. Many of my Hoyas now arrive in coconut husk chips or some type of chunky bark. So, I added RediChip Premium Medium Sized Coconut Chips, also known as reptile bedding. This is a nice product and a 12-qt bag lasts quite a while. I also added a small amount of stratum to give the growing plants some nutrients. Below is some of the early mix I had remaining in my big mixing bowl. It has more coconut chips than ABG mix.
I’ve been potting my Hoyas up in clear orchid pots so I can see what the roots are doing and also give the substrate some air. I’m bottom watering once every 1-2 weeks and letting the substrate soak up the water. On the plus side this keeps the roots from becoming soggy and waterlogged. However, over time I found the medium coconut chips dried out rather quickly. Also, my Hoya latifolia produced a vine with three albino leaves. This could be due to the substrate being pH neutral or a little alkaline.
Rather than take the time to test the soil pH I just decided to amend my mix. Since I already had some mix left I added some pumice, fir bark fines and pine bark fines all from Bonsai Jack. I also added a handful of BabiChip. I switched to the smaller size coconut chip hoping it wouldn’t take as long to absorb a little water. Periodically, I’ve been soaking these pots in a bowl of water to get the mix to rehydrate. The bark fines should add some acidity and the pumice provides aeration. I ended up with the substrate mix below.
I added substrate to the orchid pot and soaked it into water with Rapid Start for about 20 minutes. I drained it and dumped it into my potting tub and potted it up. Now I have a nice little Hoya Rotundaflora in a much better substrate mix. Hopefully, I’ll get some good growth from it now.
You can’t tell from the picture but I’m not particularly fond of H. kerrii. I know it’s an internet sensation. People love it in all it’s variegated forms. I’m just not that crazy about this one. Why? Because the leaves take so long to harden off and until then the slightest touch can knock them off. It takes even longer to start growing another.
The one on the right is the first one I purchased from Hirt’s Gardens back in the spring of 2021. It was just a leaf and as many Hoya lovers will tell you these are usually zombie leaves. Without a bit of node they will never grow a vine. However, after nearly two years mine grew a vine. I’ve been knocking off new leaves ever since. It even grew another bit of vine and I knocked a leaf off that one, too. All I have to do is look at it and the leaves fall off.
The remaining 3 plants arrived as one single plant from Pistil’s Nursery in March, 2022. It was rooted in sphagnum moss and the leaves looked a bit sallow. I tried to get most of the sphagnum off the roots but it’s nearly impossible. After a while I was plucking off more roots than sphagnum with the tweezers. It lived long enough to push out 3 new leaves but then took a turn for the worst. I lost the lowest leaves to yellowing and rot.
I snipped the remaining stem and leaves into 3 sections. I dipped all three in rooting hormone powder and stuck them in separate cups of Fluval Stratum which was soaked in 1 tsp of Rapid Start added to a gallon of water. I drained it off so there was just a bit in the bottom and then stuck the cuttings into the stratum.
I let the stratum dry out between waterings. I hung the cups in the grow tent close to the grow light to root. This worked really well. Once they started growing leaves and the leaves hardened off I figured they had roots. I dumped them out of the cups and potted them up in a combination of coconut husk chips and ABG mix. I hung them back in the tent at first and this was a mistake.
I would take them down to water but in the process of unhooking them from the gridwall panel I kept knocking the new leaves off. I moved them to shelves in hard to reach areas and just put some water in the trays once a week. As long as I don’t touch them they’re fine. They should do well over the summer when I can open the windows let the heat and humidity climb while they bake in the west facing windows.
Plain old ordinary Hoya carnosa is one of those plants that does well any time of year, any place, under just about any conditions in any potting mix. Above is what it looked like April 2022 when I bought it and planted it up in a 4″ pot in regular potting mix with a little Jack’s Gritty Mix mixed into the soil along with some extra perlite. I purchased this one from Pistils Nursery and this tiny plant was popular last year so this is all I could get. Below is what it looked like after growing in the window a while.
Below is what it looks like today after having been potted up an ABG mix and coconut husk and growing in my grow tent all winter. I’m using it to shade my H. retusa which doesn’t like the harsh glare of the grow lights but loves the humidity inside the tent. I’ve been moving things out of the grow tent but it’s still too dry for H. retusa. Otherwise, I’d have this carnosa in a window by now to take advantage of spring light and lengthening days.
I soak this one in a bowl of lightly fertilized water once every two weeks to hydrate the coconut husk and hang it back in the grow tent. H. carnosa is a very attractive no-fuss plant that is great for beginners and makes for a wonderful addition to any plant collection.
This is shaping up to be a fabulous little plant. I ordered this October 1, 2022, from Land of Alice. It has thrived in the grow tent all winter. I keep it under a carnosa for a little shade. I still have it in the same little pot it arrived in which is a kind of self watering pot. There is space at the bottom for a little water and the rest drains out. It’s potted in coconut husk and perlite which is how it arrived. I didn’t want to repot this one until it grew more roots. It’s nowhere near root bound, yet.
I water this once every two weeks with lightly fertilized water and make sure the coconut is soaked. I let it drain a bit and then hang it back up in the grow tent. In the summer I think this one will do well on a shelf. On my work from home days I like to turn the central air off, open the windows and turn the ceiling fans on. It’s a bit warm and humid for me when it gets up to 84F and 77% humidity inside the house, but the plants love it!
This is a wonderful, easy going little plant. It’s a good grower and I look forward to seeing some sun stressing on the leaves and maybe even a bloom this summer.
This is one of the first Hoyas I purchased in 2020 and it came from Hirt’s Gardens. It was in a 4″ pot and contained eight rooted cuttings. I still have this plant in a 6″ pot. I’ll have to check it this year to see if needs repotting. I suspect it doesn’t. This one is not a rapid grower. It does require a fair amount of light and dues better in a sunny window than under a grow light.
Since this is one my first Hoyas I wasn’t sure how to pot it up. I used equal parts cactus soil and potting soil with some homemade pon (pumice, red lava and zeolite. It’s doing fine though it didn’t grow much last year. Sometimes Hoyas are like that. I had it under a Sansi grow light and when I moved it to a shelf in front of a window it suddenly grew several new leaves. It also grew new leaves sitting in the bottom of the grow tent but overall I think it does best on a shelf in the window. I keep turning it around so the side with the fewest leaves faces the sun. However, the leaves on this plant follow the sun and within a couple days most of the leaves have shifted to the sunny side of the pot.
This Hoya carnosa krimson queen I purchased 9/9/21 from Greener Forest Co. on Etsy. Carnosa varieties are easy to care for and this plant has been no exception. It arrived with no white leaves but grew several pinkish red stems. Someone on Planet Hoya on Facebook suggested using more red light so I purchased a GE Flowers and Fruit LED grow light and over the summer last year it produced almost entirely white leaves. They don’t live long but they are beautiful while they last.
Chlorophytum comosum ‘Bonnie’. This is one of those plants, eh? If you have one you have 1,000. The reproduce in the pot. They dangle offshoots in every direction. I try to be careful not to knock the babies off while moving and watering plants but they just drop at random. I can’t throw them away. So, I propagate them.
And propagate some more. You can see the water here is getting a bit murky and I have some algae on the roots. I rinsed off the roots in slightly warm water in the sink. I’m reusing another T4U pot. This one is a taller 3″ pot. I put some Bonsai Jack’s Gritty Mix in the bottom. It helps to keep the potting mix from leaching out the drainage holes. I fill the pot up part way with Fox Farms Happy Frog. It needs no soil amendments for spider plants. I fill the pot with soil around the roots and give it a good water. Since this plant already has a thick root system I used a systemic insecticide. I use BioAdvanced 12 Month Protect and Feed 32-fl oz Tree Food. It’s good for a wide variety of pests and as an added bonus it kills fungus gnats. I use one teaspoon per gallon of water. I wanted a weaker solution so as not to harm the tender roots on my houseplants but I a few fungus gnats reappeared at the 6 month mark and I had to water again with the Bioadvanced.
Now I have a nice little plant to take to work and set in my window.
There is no subject more confusing to new houseplant enthusiasts than choosing a grow light. I read dozens of websites on the subject. Some were just link farms back to Amazon. Others were blog posts where the author rambled on in a vague noncommittal way with links back to Amazon. Others were way too technical. All I wanted to know was which light to buy if I want to keep my houseplants alive over the winter months. It’s now 2.5 years after I began my houseplant journey. I’ve purchased several grow lights during this time. I’ll list them below along with what I’ve learned about grow lights.
You’ll probably wonder why I have so many grow lights. I got carried away with my plant collection. I have nearly 200 house plants. I live in a townhouse in an 8-plex in a middle unit so I only have windows on one side. My three big windows face west in the summer but the winter months are a bit short on light. Either my plants learn to live in the dark or I run grow lights about 8 hours per day which is more than enough to keep them thriving.
The first grow light I purchased was one of the popular Amazon models, the EZORKAS Grow Light, 80W Tri Head Timing 120 LED 9 Dimmable Levels Plant Grow Lights for Indoor Plants with Red Blue Spectrum, Adjustable Gooseneck, 3 9 12H Timer, 3 Switch Modes. Over 14K reviews with 79% of reviewers giving 5 stars to this product. It must be a winner. I set this up in my garage to get some bulbs growing for spring. There was a warning on the box mine came in about what to do if the product burst into flames. That was a little disconcerting but I plugged the light in anyway. I did not find this light to be any more effective than just the little bit of sunlight streaming through my garage windows in early spring. Also, this is some seriously blurple light. If for any reason you’d like the police to drive by your house more often just put one of these in your garage. With all that blurple light shining through your garage windows you’ll attract the attention of the police in no time.
The next two lights I purchased were from Lowe’s. I chose a Utilitech 5.69-in 1-Light Silver 33-Watt LED Grow Light which I hung from the ceiling over a ledge using a 3M Command hook. This held up surprisingly well for two years before the hook pulled off the ceiling and the light fell onto my plants. I should have used a hook. This light is intense. The only plants that could tolerate this light well were Aeoniums.
Aeonium Voodoo. It’s 19″ tall not including the pot with a 14″ rosette. Grown entirely under the Utilitech grow light.
The other grow light I chose was the Good Earth Lighting Grow light 24-in Plug-in LED Under Cabinet Light Bar Light which I attached using 3M Command picture hanging strips. They stick well to shelves and so/so to metal framing. I have nine of these lights and I’ve grown a wide variety of plants under them including Peperomias, Pileas, Aeoniums, Sansevieria, Agleonema’s, a small Fishbone Cactus and even a baby Croton. These lights have performed well, are only 20 watts and my plants are happy. The only things that disappointed me were no red light and at the time of purchase the lights were two feet in length. There was an 18″ model but my Dakota bookshelves from Menards are three feet in length. My plants tend to grow towards the light. Over time I’ve realized that these lights are best for low and medium light plants. Bright indirect light plants need a bit more light to grow strong stems and display more color. Good Earth has now come out with newer models with timers and red light. The lights I have were $36 at the time of purchase but have dropped in price considerably since then. I see the Good Earth Lighting 1.7-in 2-Light White LED Grow Light is $60. Something to think about.
As I added more plants and more shelves I finally found a three foot grow light I wanted to try. The BoostGro LED Grow Light Full Spectrum 5000K Daylight + 660nm Red Linkable Indoor Plant Lighting Fixture (3 FT, Black) fit my shelving units perfectly. They put out a little more light for some of my higher light plants. They have some red light. I use them in in the windows to supplement my meager winter light and elsewhere to give my plants a boost of needed light. I like these lights. My Hoyas like this light. My Fishbone cactus likes this light and has been growing throughout the winter. When some of the other grow lights wear out I’ll probably replace them with this one.
Next came lighting the top of the open bookshelves. I didn’t want to put holes in the ceiling for hooks because I’d end up with holes everywhere. I decided to try the Sansi PAR25 15W LED Grow Light Bulb. I used the Aulock Adjustable 15 to 37.4 Inch Reptile Lamp Stand and Tadpoles UL Listed Hanging Pendant Swag Light Cord to hang these along with some twisty ties from the junk drawer to secure the cord to the stand. It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing look but it is very functional and I didn’t have to put holes in the ceiling. This is one of my favorite grow lights. I can group plants on a shelf with different lighting needs from low to medium to high light. I use them in the window to supplement the what little light I get in the winter. Even my Hoyas respond well to this light.
There came a point when I decided I to do some propagation and grow some plants from seed. For these activities I turned to the GE Grow Light for Plants, LED Flood Light Bulb For Seeds and Greens and GE Grow Light for Plants, LED Tube Light For Seeds and Greens. I love these lights for bright filtered light loving plants. These lights are a little intense for some medium and low light plants and I’ve had to move them to the edges of my plant shelves. My Hoyas and a number of succulents are loving these lights. I’ve grown Cannas from seed under these lights and catnip for my boy. I’ve propagated a number of plants under these lights. These are fantastic lights and I’ve been really happy with these.
The next grow light I purchased was the Relassy LED Grow Light for Indoor Plants. I moved four large Hoyas to a table in front of a window but I knew the wee bit of light shining through in winter would not be enough to keep them thriving. I’m hoping these will grow peduncles and bloom in the spring. This light was worked out well. I clamped it to the table and adjusted it until all four plants were getting some light. They’ve continued to grow new leaves all winter. I haven’t seen any peduncles, yet. Sadness!
The last grow light I purchased was the Mars Hydro TSL 2000 Full Spectrum Dimmable 300W LED Grow Light. This is a powerful grow light for the plants that I’m growing. I have it dimmed down as far as it will go in my grow tent and still I have to use some H. carnosa varieties up top to cast a bit of shade on some plants below. I’m running this light 12 hours per day but I think I can take it down to 10 hours per day and give my plants a longer break. It’s a fantastic light. All my Hoyas have been growing leaves under this light. H. gracillis grew two peduncles. H. carnosa compacta is growing a half dozen new bits of vine. I think I might prefer this light it a 5′ x 5′ grow tent. I don’t know. I need to fill the existing grow tent first and then I might think something different.
My little townhouse glows in the dark!
My last piece of advice for anyone choosing a grow light for the first time is to consider the lighting needs of your plants, consider the price of the light itself and consider your electric bill. A 300 watt light will draw 300 watts from the outlet. A 700 watt light will draw 700 watts from your outlet. A 15 watt light only draws 15 watts from the outlet. Start small. See what makes your plants happy.
I chose to set up my grow tent with gridwall panels hung from S-hooks with nylon cord. I then zip tied the panels to the frame for further stability.
Let me just start off by saying that the extension poles were not necessary for my purpose. This is a really tall grow tent. It’s about 8′ high with the extension poles and barely slid under the drop ceiling. I knew before I put the canvas up that it was a bit too tall but I was too tired of working with the frame and ready to move on. First I forgot the poles. Then I added the poles in without completely disassembling the top piece of framing. Then I decided the extension poles were too much. Ah, to heck with it. I decided to put the canvas up and think about it later.
I managed to do all this without any help. I’m 5’6″ and if I were any shorter I would have needed help or at least a taller ladder. There are a number of good videos on YouTube for assembling the tent so I won’t get into too many details. Overall, it went together easily. It was a bit of a struggle to start the zippers between the top cover canvas and the back wall canvas. Here’s where two sets of hands would have been helpful. The interior bottom insert is a nice feature. So far, my tent has been waterproof. I’ve used a garden sprayer in there and a little water drips behind the insert but the bottom below the insert mostly stays dry with just smattering of water droplets around the edge.
After that came gridwall panels. My grow tent is 2′ x 4′ x 8′. The gridwall panels I chose are 2′ wide. I debated for some time whether to buy 5′ or 6′ tall panels and then decided on two 5′ panels for the sides and two 6′ panels for the back. This makes no sense but I wanted to see what the paneIs would look like in the tent. Now that they’re up I see that four 5′ panels would have been just fine. Because the tent is 8′ tall I needed to drop the panels down. I hung the grow light temporarily so I could measure how far down to hang the panels.
I was going to use bungee cords to hang the panels but a guy at Lowes recommended nylon cord with a safe working load of 110 lbs. Excellent choice! I purchased the orange bungee cords (36″) anyway to help hold the panels up while I worked with the cord. This worked out well as I would not have been able to hold the panels up with one hand while securing the rope with the other. I chose a figure 8 loop knot which was easy to tie, untie and retie until the panels hung evenly. The cord was cut to about 40″ and I made figure 8 loop knots at each end. I hung one end a cord from a 2″ S hook I hung on the top bar of the frame, pulled it through one of the top grids of the panel and hooked the other end of the cord to the same hook. There are two S hooks and two cords per panel.
After the gridwall panels were hung I used zip ties to secure the panels to each other and to the frame. They are there to stay. I had hoped to drop the panels down 14″ but by the time I was done messing around and the rope pulled tight the panels were hung 18″ from the top frame. This is where the extra height came in handy. There was plenty of room above to hang the light and still plenty more room to drop the gridwall panels a few inches below the light with 15″ to spare between the 5′ gridwall panels and the bottom of the tent. There’s plenty of room at the bottom to add plants I don’t want to hang on the wall.
If I had to do it again would I still add the extension poles? Probably. I like having the extra space.
Once the gridwall panels were done I rehung the grow light. I sprung for the Mars Hydro grow light with a dimmer switch. It shipped FedEx and arrived in 3 days. I was happy about that. I added two small fans for air circulation. I have them on a digital timer. They run 10 minutes on and 20 minutes off. The grow light is on a basic manual timer and runs twelve hours on and 12 hours off. I use the dimmer switch and have it as dim as I can get it without turning it off. I added a humidifier which sits outside the tent and is only needed after I’ve had the tent open. I repotted most of my hoyas in orchid pots. I’ll talk about the potting mix and pots in another post. The larger pots I hung on the gridwall using 2″ S hooks and for the smaller pots I used small clips with hooks. I used two hooks or two clips for most pots for stability. Pots under 4″ hang fine with one clip.
Because my potting mix has very good drainage I water once a week. I use a garden sprayer for 1-2 weeks and then I pull all the pots out of the tent give them a good watering, drain them off and put them back. I tend to rearrange a lot depending how well the plants are doing. I move them up closer to the light, farther away, out of the shadows, into the shadows, out of the corners, into the corners. I think my plants would do better if I’d leave them alone but I’m having too much fun messing with them.
Below are some photos of my assembly. I’ll add a separate post with links to some useful videos and supplies.
