Citosa,

I would just trim the end a bit, stick it in the rooting medium so that the first set of leaves are slightly under the soil and the node they're at is at the soil line. Roots will form along the vine, too, but I think they tend to form more aggressively at the node. So if you do it this way, you keep those two leaves, but the node will still have a chance to root. When I do this, I use some nice sized stones to hold the cutting down until it roots, because the leaves will try to push it out of the soil.

Denise in Omaha

Minimum recommended for hoya cuttings is one node, 2 leaves, but from what I see it's better 2 nodes, 4 leaves for the newbies (until one gets the hang of it).

FYI, don't know if apparent (if so, pls,. disregard), bare, leafless vines tend not to root.

As long as we're on the topic of rooting... I recently rooted a set of cuttings from TG in sphagnum moss, in a rooting aquarium and last night they were all ready to be formally potted. Except then I had this huge wad of moss the size of my fist, with (in some cases) very fragile roots threaded throughout.

How much moss was I supposed to use, and do you generally pot them with much of the moss still around the root bundle? I ran into this situation where the moss balls were as big as the pots they were going to go into lol.

Sphagnum moss only lasts about a year and then it break down so it would be best to carefully remove as much moss as possible. I grow many of my moisture loving orchids in moss and it can be a pain in the butt always having to repot. I occasionally root small Hoya cuttings in sphagnum and then leave what is attached to the roots and pot them up in my regular mix. I have some cuttings still in their moss and they dry out too fast once the moss begins to break down and the cuttings suffer because of it.

Mike

For this very reason I root Hoyas (and other plants) in a very loose bark-based mix.
The mix falls aways from the roots easily, making root-maintenance and re-potting
much less of a chore.

Josh

I root cuttings right in the pot/mix they will be grown in and it works perfectly. Moss is great for hard to root plants but not necessary. I agree with Josh, easy is better because too much fussing with plants is where I tend to run into problems.

Mike

Thanks for the thorough, excellent responses, both of you. I'm definitely going to try rooting in a bark-based medium & pots next time. All of your points make a lot of sense.

I was able to tease away the majority of the moss and potted them with the small remainder attached, so thanks for the info about the lifespan of moss.

Your recommendation to use it only with hard-to-root cuttings made me laugh because it sent me back to the days when I was new to aquariums and n00bs kept getting admonished to do their research on a fish BEFORE purchase.

Naturally, the same logic should apply to hoya purchases, but it's so very hard to resist adding some impulsive (uneducated) acquisitions to an order - and then I overcompensate once they're home because I don't know how tricky they're going to get on me.

In a nutshell: I don't usually know if I've got a hard one in my batch.

You might reasonably be wondering why I asked your advice and then continued to use moss on 20 new cuttings in the other link. This is because I had already set up half of them this morning before posting and then when I came home to do the remainder, I panicked that I wasn't going to be able to fit them all in pots in my two rooting aquariums.

See? No room at the inn.

Why didn't I think of bark-medium (vs moss) in baggies for my crowded situation? Would that have worked? Maybe it's late and I'm not making sense anymore...

I would not worry about the moss, it does work very well to root and you already have those cuttings in the rooting aquarium. I would suggest trying maybe one cutting in a pot with the mix you are going to use and then see which method you like best, both have their advantages.

Mike

Always the calm voice of reason, Mike. Yes, try ONE cutting with the new method and see how you like it. It all sounds so logical now.

My old 40 year old Hoya carnosa died recently but I managed to get two cuttings, with four leaves each and cut the ends with a razor, dipped them in Rootone, and set them in a mix of African Violet soil and succulent soil mix. I misted daily and though it looked dubious at 1st, both cuttings took hold. The dessicated leaves plumped up and darkened. It took about 6 months when Jose 2.0 put out new leaves. We then carefully transferred him to his new pot, wateerd him, and hung him back in his favorite window and since, he's growing so fast its amazing! His leaves are HUGE and dark, and the original odd shaped leaves on one branch from one of the cuttings are still there-now dark and healthy and the he's grown vines!All in a mere month and a half!!
I wish you luck with your cuttings!!!

Thanks for the advice! Sorry it took me a few days to get back to you.

I've done as you suggested, Denise, and left the leaves on. Now comes the difficult part: waiting! The leaves of one of the cuttings have gone fairly soft, so I'll watch those closely for signs of firming back up. At least it'll be easier than checking the vines for new growth (if that's where they'll start up).

Thanks again.

Good luck, citosa! Let us know how it comes along.

Yes, leaves will start filling in those bare vines, but I agree it's much faster gratification to watch the leaves you already have perk up.

In my experience carnosa roots generously with precious little encouragement. I used to water root mine and they'd be hard to remove from the bottle a week later. Hope that's encouraging - I always like a little reassurance, myself. ^_~

A small update of coolness:

My two cuttings rooted and got re-potted, though I might change them to a slightly less porous mix, since the leaves get soft a bit faster than I like. I discovered the first tiny, new leaves on one of them today, though!

But the real reason I'm posting is the cutting I took from the same plant later on. I stuck it in with some 'Rubra' (I think) cuttings about a month ago and then got busy and left them mostly alone. Until today, when I decided to take off the bag and maybe pot it in with the two others.

Except ... it grew a peduncle, of all things! With buds that are pretty far along too, so I went eeek and left the bag on. My camera is dead, but I'll try to borrow one if the buds look like they'll open. But really, how cool is that?

Answer: very cool.

Thanks again all.

lol!! The answer is indeed very cool. Congratulations, citosa.

It seems like my hoyas also get the most brilliant ideas when I am blowing them off.

Well, I used to swear by Jiffy pellets, but recently I have been sticking the cuttings into well-draining soil with a bit of rooting powder in a baggie and getting some really good results. It helps that my flat is very warm most of the time so most of my plants don't need extra heat from the bottom to help them root. I have rooted Hoya mindorensis, Hoya macrophylla and Hoya lyi (sp square?) successfully this way. I found that sometimes the Jiffy pellets would be too wet and the cuttings would rot as a result.
I have never used moss, but I have certainly received several cuttings with moss around them. Not sure if it helps at all.