repot or not

15 years ago

Hi,

So I bought a hoya (Sulawesi) as well as a dischidia (million hearts) at my local Home Depot store. As I am well aware of the improper care of plant handling at these box stores, I got the two plants home and come to find out they are both waaaay over watered. They weigh about 5 lbs each and are in fairly small pots. Not that I think the pots are too small for the plant, I think the plants are suffering from a severe case of over watering. I did take the D. out of the pot and there is a fair amount of roots, they have grown to the sides of the pot. They are very thin in size and not a whole lot of them, so I don't think it is root bound. But in my opinion, they need to be put in a pot (even if it the same one) with a different soil medium. Until I find out some advice here I am not going to do anything, but in the meantime, I took the plant out of the pot and sat it in a basket (unlined) so it could dry out some. Is this OK for now? I had to do something, everday I am clipping away yellowing leaves I think are due to the over-watering issue. I will look at in a day and keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't become parched. As I realize there is a certain amount of shock these plants go thru when they get shipped and then getting them in your home, however, these yellowing leaves were there when I saw the plant in the store.

As for the Hoya, it is very wet as well, the roots aren't as big and I can't see them when I removed the pot. I am assuming they are probably clippings they stuck in a very short time ago, before they shipped it out. One more thing about this hoya, it has 21 long, leafless stems shooting out of the soil, which I am assuming will eventually get leaves on, so in that case should I just let them be for now? They sure take away from the plant, in my opinion.

Anyway, I have a mixture of soil and perlite ready to plant them in when the time is right. My question is, how do I go about repotting them? Should I gently rinse them in water to remove most of the soil? I don't want to use a bigger pot, but there is no room in the previous pot for more soil. Any advice/tips would be helpful. TIA

Comments (2)

Denise
15 years ago
If you want to repot them, you can wash away some of the old soil. My D. ruscifolia is in the original soil and I find they almost always come as you descibe - completely waterlogged. I usually just don't water them until they've pretty much dried out. Which can be a month or more, depending on the time of year and warmth. I think the ruscifolia would be hard to repot, which is why mine is still in the EA soil.

As for the incurvula/brevifolia, if it's one of those that seems more like cuttings stuck in the pot, I would just take the lower soil off, trying to leave the rooted cuttings as much intact as possible, and just replace the lower soil. Disturbing the roots can set them back. That's what happened with the speckled lacunosa I got awhile back. It was a potfull of rooted cuttings and I pulled them out, shook them off and repotted them in my soil. It was apparently too much stress and I ended up losing about half of them...

When it comes to those long, leafless stems (on any of the Hoyas), I give them awhile to see if they're going to fill out, and if they don't in a reasonable amount of time, I whack them off. Just remember that it never really hurts to prune a plant back, and it usually results in more (and more compact) growth. I'd rather look at a tidy plant myself...

Denise in Omaha
cpawl
15 years ago
Hi You got EA plants right? this is what I do when i buy EA plants. i right away take the bottom saucer off, and stick paper towel up through the bottom holes. this wicks the water out of the soggy soil. i usually have to change the paper towels 5 or 6 times until the paper isn't getting wet anymore. i find this is all i need to do with EA plants i don't transplant them. i have about 5 or 6 different EA hoyas and they are all doing well in their original soil and pot. The one and only time i did transplant an EA hoya i killed it:( i hope this helps

Cindy
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