I purchased a philodendron pink princess which the grower had propagated from tissue culture in fern leaf fibre. It has been the most beautiful & healthy plant I have ever had as a seedling. It has grown into a wonderful strong healthy plant. On the other hand I purchased a Hoya Sarawak cutting that had been grown in tree fern fibre & I lost a growth shoot due to I’m sure the fibre drying out too quickly. I saved it thankfully (it’s one of my faves) by potting it in a chunky Hoya mix. My personal opinion is it does dry out too quickly yet everyone says they use it for moisture retention 😵‍💫😵‍💫 Best wishes from New Zealand, it’s great to hear our country being mentioned 🥰🇳🇿Thoroughly enjoying your channel, lots of interesting information you share 👍👍

I repotted my cebu blue pothos today and took it out of the harsh glare of my grow light because of you 🌺 😁

Hi Dave… I’m not a hoya guy, they’ve always turned me off for feeling so stiff, plasticy, and artificial. You caught my attention with the staghorn fern video and your incredible fashion sense and wit keeps me watching and coming back for more. Three months later, I’m now seeing hoya in a different light and willing to give them a chance. I do have one hoya, a polyneura, its just one long stiff straight-as-a-board vine. I’d like to prop it with hopes of having a full pot someday. Would you recommend perlite/water or your perlite/coir/chip mix for polyneura propagation?

I purchased a gorgeous enormous Wayetti in like 5 pounds of soaking wet peat, as a rescue. Trying to restart it , may watch it die instead

Haha I was disappointed because I thought you weren’t going to tell us the history 😂

I love to experiment with substrates! I’m so glad that you had some success with the Monstera at the end, it’s always such a disappointment when the roots don’t fire. One thing that I have decided is to not purchase plants rooted in moss, it’s honestly dreadful to deal with. Great experiment! 🎉

I’m also propagating P. Brasil and Manjula pothos. I have great success putting the cuttings in water until the roots are barely 1/2 inch long and then put them in my chunky, soilless potting mix. That little starter root acts as an anchor to secure the cutting in the potting mix. I love listening to Let’s Talk Hoya with Adam, Lydia and Jessie 😊 The episode with Doug Chamberlain was great- he’s very entertaining. Thanks for all the hard work you’re putting into your channel! You’ve quickly climbed to the top and are my favorite Hoya- tuber 😄

I have a serpens and it was slow to start putting out growth (likes a bit more water than most hoyas, kinda like a linearis) It's pretty easy going in my experience. Mathilde is super easygoing as well and can even withstand a little drought if you underwater.

Hello! Enjoying your channel -where do you get those great growing cages? Are they metal?

Thanks for sharing.

I am amazed at the difference between water propagation and substrate rooting. I never paid attention to the root health just the root length itself. I have used spagnum moss. In propagation and it works nicely but you cannot separate the root away from the moss, and I had the same problem as you. I will definitely try your methods. I have wondered how other substrates would work to propagate and you answered my questions. Do you have your prop boxes in front of a window?? Thanks Dave. Great content

That is such a great tip to sit the terracotta pots in a plastic pot 👍👍🇳🇿

Poor, poor Lexi.

Thank you for doing this comparison. I havent come across a youtube video totally dedicated to propagation so it's appreciated. It's a big learning curve especially hoyas. In my opinion all of these products, including leca which has a 30% water retention, they all are terrific if you can figure out what works for each type. I am trying to learn to layer the substrate and thats where the fluval is of benefit because yeah it has nutrients and it also anchors the roots seek it. Don't put much leca on the top layer put it on the bottom. Its like dealing with marbles rolling on the floor. When you get your hoya serpens you will gain a new appreciation of the spagnum. And I have gained more respect for perlite. And a shout out for vermicullite. I am enjoying challenge with the small leaf hoyas. My big leaf beefy veiny one are outside in the heat.

*OOOOOH…* *PROPAGATION🌱CORN🌽* 😍🤤😍🤤😍🤤😍🤤😍 *THANK YOU!😭🥰😭* Btw… After many prop. deaths😭, I found that Manjula cuttings🪴like fluval or pon (with a bit of fluval mixed in).

Don't like fluval s. Too expensive and only one of my hoyas liked it. Spagnum moss is ok but hard to remove off the roots. I just prop in water and water with leca and a few in perlite. Im tired of trying to find the right substrate to grow them in let alone propagation medium. I did witness some very healthy looking props using tree fern fiber on YT. I do plan to order a bag soon. Thanks for this educational video! Dee, NY

Thanks for taking the time to conduct this propagation experiment. It has also been my rent experience with water propagation for pothos, micans, and scindapsus. There were nice healthy roots, but they immediately declined, losing a significant amount of each plant. I was crackin' up @ 32:15...dang, that's a very big bag. I could only imagine you chuckling at the people who purchased it, knowing how surprised they would be😂

i just looked up Doug Chamberlin and immediately saw a vid on flat mites. Have you done a vid on flat mites? I'd sure like to see that.

Thanks for doing this!!! I learned some things on propagating. I propped wetsticks in sphagnum moss & didn’t enjoy picking it off the roots. I’m gonna try perlite propping in prop boxes. Is that the medium or super coarse size perlite that you got? I have that brand marked to get next.

You get your upper body workout with just lifting that perlite bag!!!!!

I prefer mid cut for propagation as they have high chance of more than one growth point on some cuttings I tried and the steam of the top cut mostly dry out in my care. Im so inconsistent in watering my plants due to many reasons 😅 but my first excuse is too many smaller size plants and too little time to tale care of them. I'm doing really good on plant care since I retreated my self from fb plant groups other wise i used to buy at least 3 to 10 hoya cuttings every week due to low self control 😊.

Also.... Thank you for the podcast recommendation! I was able to find the channel and promptly subscribed.

Couldn't a person not remove sphagnum from roots and just put in substrate of choice? I might have to try it myself, but not on a hoya. Also so glad to hear you thrift. I find ALL my terracotta pots in thrift stores.

Great, I am really interested in substrate, since I am in the process of switching plants (8 so far) into diy pon. - ok yikes, what happened for your grower friend w/ pon?? What about interviewing her?

Loved, loved, loved this video! Sphagnum moss - I buy from a nursery (🇨🇦) that all their plants arrive in moss and i can spend up to 30 min taking it apart when my plants arrive. I have become not a fan LOL I will keep ordering from them however. I recently moved and my plants were shuffled around a total of 3 times in a 1 month period before we could get into our home and they have all revolted. I have been struggling with them since. 7 months now. I did order plant nutrition from said nursery above - They used to have MSU but its now banned in Canada, so they have an alternative they now use and i am giving it a try. Its very discouraging. Some plants i could yeet without being sad about starting over, some would make me extremely sad. So i will keep trying and reassess next spring. Learned a lot from the results of your showdown - Thank you!

PS my friend farms veg quite successfully and uses vermiculite by the bale.

Vermiculite! I can buy it bulk. I moisten it and put it in one of those food clamshells for humidity. Add cuttings, put the clamshell in decent light. Voila, roots!

Hi! I’ve been enjoying your KZfaq videos! I too love Hoyas more than anything else. My husband is also from Iowa. Raised in Little Sioux! Hello from Texas Sober Plant Guy! Please keep those videos coming!!

Davie have always used either perlite but have switched to coco coir not peat e cause peat keeps roots to wet when transplanting. I have had better success with the coco coir even on hoyas. The thinnest leaves of my cibi blue did great they came rootless but all survived with rooting hormone and coir. I am switching my hoyas to your kind of mix. So thanks for the info and I'm sure Amazon thanks you too as was the only place to find #3 perlite lol, Thanks again love the videos and your Iowa sense of humor.

I don’t use this but as soon as plant roots in water they have to be switched to perlite to finish.

As a woman I have met a LOT of men who was sure I knew nothing especially about sailing. Some were trying to be helpful and some were sure they knew it all. I quickly learned to agree with everything they said and to thank them profusely.

I been growing houseplants for about 3 or 4 years now and I’ve only recently been more successful with propagating. This was because I started doing what worked for me and ignoring what seemed to work for people on the internet, lol. Water propagation seems to work best for me. I had been trying to the sphagnum moss method and I just cannot do that one! My props ALWAYS rot in that! It’s either too wet or it dries out and I can’t get it wet enough again without drenching it, ugh. I have rooted some things in soil as well (Thanksgiving cactus, lipstick plant). Recently though, I was trying to propagate my entire Hoya collection to share with my mother. I just put them in water so I could see the roots and know when they were ready to pot up (I also put them in my 20 gallon plant terrarium for the humidity). I did put some of the lighter pieces into water with perlite because they kept falling out of the jar and the perlite helped them stay in it better. The only one that didn’t get any roots during the month I had them in there was one of the pieces of obovata and all of the Krimson princess. I thought it was strange because the other piece of obovata (both mid-cuts) had so many roots that I had a hard time getting them to all fit down into the pot (they were growing horizontally). When I saw your video about propagating Hoyas, I just stuck those into my normal well draining potting mix that I use (normal indoor potting soil plus equal parts perlite and orchid bark). Thanks for the video(s)! I find your channel informative as well as entertaining. Have a good day!

I really like tree fern fibre for Hoya….. not to root cuttings in though, I put them in after rooting. Why I love tree fern is because when overwatering, the tree fern dries out faster than a soil mix but even when it is watered again too soon, it has so many air pockets that the roots don’t rot (of course there should not be a layer of water in the cover pot). Tree fern fribre changes colour when it is dry(ish), so during a heat wave it is easy to see which plants need an extra sip in between watering sessions. Most of the Hoya that I grow in the windowsill and some in the tent are in a soil mix though, and they seem fine, they grow slightly slower but that may just be the type of Hoya. What changed the way I propagate: adding perlite to moss, it prevents the moss from compacting too much. Another thing is sticking easy to root plant cuttings, especially with fine roots (like begonia), straight into soil mixes Plants that are easy to remove moss from: Alocasia Piper The moss just slides off the roots

I adore Fluval statum, but it is very costly. I highly recommend mixing with perlite or leca to reduce the cost. I think they also have the added benefit of improving aeration.