Viewing post #292256 by AlohaHoya
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You are viewing a single post made by AlohaHoya in the thread called Hoya Resurection.
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| Hmmmmmm. Lots of food for thought, there, Dom. Being basically scatterbrained, I will just chat: I dislike clay because as it is porous, the roots tend to cling to it...and so when the clay pot dries, so do the tiny roots...and they dry in such a way that they die. There are some hoyas, I find, that like to really be pot bound, and they are the pubicalyx/carnosa group. I use plastic pots, sometimes inside a clay pot (but then if the clay pot gets really moist it can give too much moisture to the pot inside...hard to balance that). I like plastic because it is easy to squish the pot to loosen the root ball to either water more thoroughly or tip out the plant. Those that are tight in the pots, I squeeze the pot to loosen the roots and then water...and it finds it's way down the pot. The only drawback to letting a plant get too rootbound, is that the whole rootball/soil gets so tight the water just runs down the sides of the rootball or wets the top 1/3. Often I will tip those plants out of the pot to check the moisture...and if still dry, I soak the pot for a few mins in a tub of water. Conversely, a thoroughly moist rootbound plant doesn't dry out quite as fast. Some, like the magnifica/calycina/albiflora clan really do appreciate more room around their roots, and they like to be fed a lot too! Generally, when I cannot squeeze the pot I pot it up. The roots can sometimes squeeze the plant UP in the pot...then it is time to repot. Yes, I have found plants self correcting themselves: tipping the plant out, expecting to find a rotting mass of roots, I find some dead roots, but also little white new roots...usually towards the top of the pot. I cut off all of the old carpy stuff and repot...careful not to overwater. I was just thinking about this whole thing the other day in the greenhouse when I repotted a plant and found some of the vines that were wound around and around the trellis had actually rooted in the pot. I had an AHA moment in that I thought, If when the plant is growing and it has to be wound around something, the first circle around should bring the vine in contact with the pot surface so it could root... Then if rootrot set in and the original plant is not able to be saved, another is there, in the making...already rooted. In the wild, the plant roots all along the vine where it touches the tree/branch etc. it is growing on. Leap. The net will appear. |
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