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greentoe357

rooting Dischidia

greentoe357
10 years ago

There is much less info online about Hoya's relative Dischidia than about Hoyas themselves. I am going to root some cuttings of D. ruscifolia, and because I was waiting for the right opportunity to try semi-hydro method in comparison with the mix I normally use (http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hoya/msg0200083716157.html), I thought "why not try now?"

I could not find anything on Dischidia in semi-hydro. Anyone has experience or an opinion?

Denise, Google brought me to your 8/23/2009 post (http://greengirl58.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html) where you said you had had challenges rooting most Dischidia species. Any advice for me? And broadly speaking, I'd appreciate Dischidia growing advice as well, for ruschifolia and others. I think those with bullate leaves are particularly cool-looking.

At the same time, I am also going to compare rooting Hoya DS-70 in both my mix and semi-hydro with growstones (pictured), so wish me luck.

By the way, if anyone wants DS-70 or Dischidia ruscifolia for trades, I am all for it.

Comments (13)

  • greedygh0st
    10 years ago

    I've rooted them semi-hydro, but not kept them there long-term.

    I had the best success group-rooting Dischida by just lying the vines out flat on top of damp coir and bark, with a lid over the flat.

    But I have significantly more trouble keeping them alive after I move them to open pots. The ones that have done the best for me are those I keep mounted in an aquarium. It seems to me that high environmental humidity paired with a medium that dries out completely between waterings is the combo that works for most of them.

    I do have some in pots, but it seems like they are more 'staying alive' than 'flourishing,' so I might have to either move their pots into the aquarium or rethink my strategy.

    Denise took me to see the Dischidia grown at the university and it was the most inspirational plant experience I've ever had. :) Talk about dream results!

  • teisa
    10 years ago

    Greedy Ghost!!!!!!!!! Where have you been??? I put out a missing person post on you a few months back!
    Seriously girl you gotta keep in touch! This guy Greentoe wont even know who you are. Ill have to explain your just a woman that owns about 400 species, lol!

    Anyway Greentoe, here is 1 of 2 Dischidia I grow. This one I've had 4 yrs. It was larger and I repotted it 6-9 months ago. Denise told me they do not repot easily. And boy they don't like a repot. I lost about 1/2 of it.

    I believe it is D. Ovata. I grow it in bark, perilite, and hydrotom.

  • teisa
    10 years ago

    This Dischidia, I am unsure of its name. I found a 2 leave piece on the floor at Lowes. After about 6 months I now have this.

    It is also growing in Hydrotom, perilite, and bark.

  • greedygh0st
    10 years ago

    Hey Teisa :) Thanks for the warm welcome back and for putting me on a Hoya missing-persons milk carton.

    I just had some changes at work that left me pulling longer hours and with less time to check in with my Hoya buddies.

    Annnd then at the same time I kind of hit a point with my collection where I wanted to slow down on acquiring new Hoyas and figure out where I was with those I already had. (haha)

    But now it's spring and I'm feeling the bug to do some maintenance and keep improving the plant setup.

    Anyway, I hope everyone will forgive me for

    A. playing hooky
    B. being slow to respond to emails
    C. hijacking the Dischidia thread!

    This thread did inspire me to fix up my Dischidia aquarium better, tho, so maybe I'll post some pictures after I'm done. :D

  • Denise
    10 years ago

    Tiesa, looks like your mystery Dischidia is probably nummularia, or sometimes called D. minor. It is one of the EA Dischidias, so that would make sense.

    That's funny, GG - seems like your experience is the opposite of mine! Too much environmental humidity and mine turn to mush. But I do have some that want to take a serious nose-dive in winter, so those may do better in a more humid environment...

    Some photos... this one is D. acutifolia, one I struggle with...

    One I've lost quite a bit of this winter, D. acuminata...

    But the fasciated form of acuminata grows like a WEED!!...

    D. nr. Burma grows well under any conditions, though mine got a little dehdrated this winter. I plan to whack it back and re-root a lot of it this spring...

    D. nummularia's form changes dramatically depending on the conditions you grow it in...

    D. aff. oiantha Schltr. - I have a couple different forms of this, one is the one they call Geri...

    The easiest one of all to grow, D. oiantha...

    And the variegated form...

    My favorite is ovata, both for form and flowers...



    It grows best for me in small pots and in seashells.

    And an unknown shingle type Dischidia that I grow in with a Hoya now...

    I have a few others I haven't taken photos of. Dischidias are hard to find, and if anyone knows of a good source, please post it!

    Denise in Omaha

  • teisa
    10 years ago

    Denise,
    Wow those are pretty! I knew you grew alot of different types but Wow!! I love the last unidentified one! I also love D. Pectinoides and would love to find it for sale. If you have any growing in shells, please post!! That is my plans for my little d. Nummularia.

    GG, it is so good to have you back!! When I ask about you someone said they thought you went to a different forum :(

    GT sorry to stray away from topic on you post! Forgive me plz?

    Teisa

  • greentoe357
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Denise, I am glad D. ruscifolia is one relatively easy to root in spring/summer.

    > I have the same trouble with Dischidias I have with lacunosa - it's always a race to see which happens first, rooting or rotting.

    Well, the difference between "double O" and "double T" is subtle - maybe the plant is misreading your intentions? :-)

    But seriously, in my VERY humble experience (having rooted ONE lacunosa and NO dischidias :-) ), I think the solution to this may be an extremely fast draining mix coupled with elevated humidity. Then there is more of the rooting and less or none of the rotting, hopefully.

    > That's funny, GG - seems like your experience is the opposite of mine! Too much environmental humidity and mine turn to mush.

    I think it's all in walking the fine line between runny drippy foggy smelly heavy stale kind of humidirt (haha this typo is so appropriate, I am not even going to correct it!) - vs. invisible but measurable aired-out no-condensation kind of humidity.

    > I've never considered trying to grow Dischidias in semi-hydro because they don't seem to like very much water and quickly go downhill if any water is left in the saucer.

    My semi-hydro knowledge is even more theoretical than rooting, but roots in s-h will only be in water if the plant wants them to go there. The plan is to stick the cuttings so they are entirely above the water line. When watering, the water drains instantly (see my pic above for how huge the growstone chunks are). In any case, I'll tell you how it goes. I wanted to try semi-hydro when I have well more than one cutting and so would not miss them if they die, and the opportunity is here with this big Dischidia basket I bought.

    > I had the best success group-rooting Dischida by just lying the vines out flat on top of damp coir and bark, with a lid over the flat.

    GG, I've seen this advice for some Hoya (smaller leaved short internode varieties mostly), but never tried it and wondering about it. So, they root from every node and every possibly internode space on the stem - great. But then how do they grow the above-ground parts after that - only from the growing tip at the end of the vine? Or do they make stem offshoots at every node?

    > This guy Greentoe wont even know who you are.

    LOL oh, I know who GG is. Not personally, but virtually, for sure. Also because I've been going through the old Hoya posts over the last months (on page 25 now! You know, because I have that kind of time.)

    Denise! Those are GREAT pictures of your Dischidia! Quite a collection you have there!

    Teisa, that looks like a very nice plant, even after halving in size.

    > GT sorry to stray away from topic on you post!

    No problem at all!

    By the way, is it "dis-KID-ee-uh" or "di-SHID-ee-uh"? I'd rather my plant name sounded like an aggressive "you sh1tting me?" than a tame "just kidding!"

    This post was edited by greentoe357...

  • greedygh0st
    10 years ago

    @ Denise

    It could be your growing space stays more humid than mine to begin with. I definitely do let my mounted Dischidia dry all the way out between waterings, otherwise I have mush problems, too.

    Your Dischidia look fantastic! I have a long ways to go before I'm as successful as you.

    @ Teisa

    Nah, I'll never switch forums. I do browse other forums, but it takes time to get to know a new group of people and establish yourself as a familiar and trustworthy person. I'm an introvert, and I HATE that part, so I rarely move once I've found a home. ;P

    @ Greentoe

    lol @ humidirt

    I do think you're right about there being different variables in play in conjunction with humidity. I bet my Dischidia would do even better if I introduced a proper terrarium fan.

    Regarding rooting Dischidia/Hoya horizontally:

    In my experience, they primarily continue their growth from the end of the vine, just like they would have if you'd rooted them vertically. I've seen pictures of Hoyas rooted looped around the circumference of a pot, who sent up multiple points of growth, but even though I've tried it a number of times, I can't think of an example where this has happened for me... yet. Now, with mounted Dischidia, yeah, it does seem to make them branch along various notes faster. So, really I think you have to know the plant and its propensity for branching to begin with. Either way it does give them a nice root structure.

    I can't remember how far back I went into the archives when I first joined. Years and years and years. Totally worth your time, imo. :) Try to skip over the posts where I"m being an obnoxious noob, tho.

    Pronounced "diss-KID-ee-uh" I think

    This post was edited by greedyghost on Wed, Mar 19, 14 at 14:56

  • greentoe357
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    > I bet my Dischidia would do even better if I introduced a proper terrarium fan.

    Yeah, I hear computer fans work really well for this - small, gentle, easy to hide, quiet...

    > I think you have to know the plant and its propensity for branching to begin with.

    Makes sense, thank you.

    A few more things about horizontal rooting I've been wondering about but forgot to mention... Many Hoya / Dischidia species leaves tend to grow in all sorts of directions around the stems, and the petioles are often brittle or inflexible or both. So, it's not like I'd be able to lay it perfectly on the mix surface: stem in contact or even under the mix, leaves are perfectly above. Burying some leaves will likely rot them, but leaving everything on top of the mix will mean a gap between the stem and the ground, and so aerial roots will need to reach that ground and go in, which seems like asking the plant to waste much of its rooting energy. Aerial roots do not grow long - they may stop not "knowing" the ground is right there. Do I cut off those leaves that end up under the stem then? Seems sort of counter-productive, as leaves are the energy factory for the cutting's rooting process. The cutting may be weighed down by rocks or clipped to the mix, but all of the above still applies, except now you may be crushing leaves, breaking more petioles and obstructing light with that rock or breaking the whole stem with the clip.

    Then there is the issue of the pot size. Laying a cutting horizontally will mean you need a much bigger pot than the 2-3 inch diameter if you stick it in vertically. Hoyas grow better above ground and flower sooner when they are root-bound (rumorposedly), so again a big pot seems counter-productive.

    Finally, if you wind a cutting around the pot, then on top of all of the above and it being harder to weigh or clip down, you now also have the walls of the pot limiting the growth of roots (they can grow in, but not out - unlike if the cutting is vertical).

    The more I think about this horizontal rooting business, the more I think it's deeply problematic. BUT I am listening carefully if someone thinks my understanding is wrong or if I am missing something.

  • greedygh0st
    10 years ago

    Yeah, I wouldn't go so far as to change your pot size or cut off leaves to accommodate horizontal rooting.

    The way I usually approach it, is I try to maximize the nodes that come in contact with the soil one way or another. So, if I can get 2 or 3 underground, that's good. If the vine is flexible and it works to lay part of it along the soil (looped or diagonal across the pot), that's good. Sometimes with really rigid cuttings with far-spaced nodes, I'll wrap sphagnum moss around the bottom nodes and stick it in an aquarium and worry about potting it once there are roots and there's more to hold a larger section underground.

    You can't force a cutting to do what it isn't built to do; it's just good to have a whole bunch of strategies in your tool belt, so you can give each cutting a setup that works well for it.

    I don't know that the roots really care whether they have to spread toward the center of the pot or away from the center of the pot. They just go where there's real estate to grow into. But I do think that having several root systems can be advantageous to the plant if one is compromised. (Idk why one would be compromised and not the other, but maybe one pulls through and the other doesn't)

    Here's a picture of a Hoya chlorantha var. tutuilensis by kellyknits, which was rooted in this way. She said it took a while to root, but it ended up producing new growth from 4 different points in the end, which I think is grounds to at least try rooting branching Hoyas in this way.


    Source: Kelly Knits Flickr

  • puglvr1
    10 years ago

    Wow, NICE collection of Dischidia Denise!!

    GT, I've never tried rooting Dischidia myself...

    Teisa, love your watermelon Disch. that's the only Disch. I own...

    GG, Love your H.chlorantha, the leaves are very colorful.

  • wickerstone
    9 years ago

    Yes, nice collection, Denise. My collection took quite a hit this winter. Living in Maine, growing can be difficult, and I found out when I lost power at Christmas for four days. I lost half of my dischidia collection. I only have about 20 different ones now, but am looking to rebuild. So if anyone has a clipping they'd like to part with let me know, I most likely will buy it. I also found growing them on boards was harder than I thought. Like Greedyghost said, they seemed to be just living rather than flourishing, so I just recently took them off the boards and into pots, so this little topic here was interesting to read. Thanks for your knowledge.

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