Kia ora Hoya whanau

The terrible weather (let’s face it, the last month has been a shocker) means more time inside and it’s a great time to give your hoya a health check. Let’s get ready for Spring growth.

In this month’s blog we’re going to cover how to do a hoya health check, and do a deep dive into coco coir vs fern fibre.

But first, we want to acknowledge the passing last week of one of the world’s hoya collecting pioneers, Ted Green.

Passing of Ted Green

Ted Green lived to the age of 100 and even introduced the similarly legendary, Dale Kloppenberg, to the hoya genus. Ted collected for over 45 years and introduced 13% of the hoyas being traded around the world today, having collected many specimens in times when it was easy to move hoyas around the globe. A number of his plants have made it to NZ and some lucky NZ collectors visited his tropical paradise in Hawaii. We will write more about Ted and his Hoya legacy in a future blog. In the meantime, enjoy his namesake (& one of his many discoveries), Hoya greenii. 

Ave Atque Vale, Ted Green.

How to: give your Hoya a Health check & get ready for Spring

In the next few weeks we’ll be running a free online seminar on giving your hoya a health check. Message us here to express your interest and we’ll schedule a couple of time slots around times that work for everyone.

In the meantime, now’s a good time to check:

• Pot size – hoya like to be very snug in their pot. If the water isn’t draining quickly (or you can see roots coming out of the pot), this signals that it’s time to repot as the pot is full of roots which are preventing water from draining out of the pot quickly. If you’ve not repotted a hoya before, please message us and we will give you some tips. If you are repotting, we highly recommend Bioleaf Hoya mix – every hoya in our personal collection loves it.

• Roots – are they all healthy & plump or are they thin & hair-like? Give the outer casing of your hoya roots a gentle tug, if it slides away to reveal a thin, hair-like root then investigate further for possible root rot. Also check for any root mealy bug.

• Trellising needs – from Spring onwards, your hoya are going to speed up their growth. There are many trellising options available or you can let your hoya trail. Using a trellis encourages more leaves along your vines. Trellis don’t have to cost the earth (we have some that cost less than $2) or you can get creative and have a trellis making crafternoon. There’s a hoya trellising makeover at the end of this blog too if you’re looking for hoya glow-up inspiration.

• General plant health – how are your hoya’s leaves feeling & looking? Watch out for floppiness and any dehydrated, leathery looking leaf texture. Any sign of mealy bug or aphids? Message us here for our mealy bug recipe (works best if caught in the early stages). Wellington collectors struggling with bug issues can take advantage of the specialised spray treatment service available at HoyaHoya. As approved spray technicians, we have bug management options not available to home collectors that will eliminate (rather than manage) mealy bug. Enquire here.

If you can tick these small tasks off now, you’ll have happy hoyas and be ready for Spring (29 days to go!). 

One of our Hoya bilobata is flowering for us right now and we have great hopes for the flowering season ahead.

Research topic: Coco coir vs Fern Fibre

Hoya collector Dannii asked for the low-down on fern fibre vs coco coir. Thanks for the great suggestion, Dannii - it’s the perfect research topic given you’re probably thinking about Spring hoya propagation.

The short-answer to her question is that Fern Fibre is the way to go. For the long answer, first let’s first talk about what fern fibre and coco-coir are, and then we’ll discuss why fern-fibre is best.

What are coconut coir and fern fibre?

Coconut coir is a natural fibre that is extracted from the outer husk of the coconut.

Fern fibre (in NZ) is a natural fibre from the trunks of the NZ native fern, the Dicksonia fibrosa (Kaponga), aka golden tree fern.

The reasons why we think that fern fibre is best:

Sustainability

Fern fibre in NZ is sustainably harvested from privately-owned plantations. This is regulated by the NZ Government to ensure harvesting is conducted responsibly, ethically and sustainably. Many inspections and permits are required. Its manufacturing involves low levels of manual labour and those workers are protected by NZ labour laws and given health & safety legislation protection.

The majority of coco-coir is produced in India and Sri Lanka.  It involves heavy manual labour and is reliant on a cheap local workforce many of whom are not protected by robust health & safety legislation or paid a living wage.

Coco coir also needs significant processing. Salt, tannins, and other nasty compounds need to be removed. Chemical buffering is used to displace sodium, ph balancing is needed and then calcium nitrate is added. This process requires input chemicals and it produces waste products. Coco coir processing requires a lot of water, which is a limited resource in India, and leaves water polluted after processing. In our opinion, it’s pretty ugly.

Performance in our Hoya nursery

We ran trials using both coco-coir and fern fibre.  We found that coco-coir was less effective at moisture uptake leading to water pooling and root rot. Whereas fern fibre proved to be a fantastic propogation medium with excellent moisture retention quickly producing thick, healthy roots, and we had no issues transitioning propagations to our Bioleaf Hoya mix (which is a better long-term nutrient rich growing medium).

Cost

Comparing price tags alone, coco coir does offer some savings and can be as little as 1/3 the price of fern fibre.  But in HoyaHoya’s eyes the price tag isn’t really giving you the true cost of the product when you consider the environmental and societal costs of coco coir. You only need to lose one cutting to root rot (due to its heavy moisture retention) and the price tag isn’t looking nearly as good.

Appearance

We know ‘appearance’ seems like a silly reason to prefer fern fibre over coco coir, but stay with us on this. The thin hairs of the coconut husk look remarkably similar to the thin, hair-like look of a rotted hoya root. When you’ve got a hoya that’s not performing & you’re examining its roots, you need to be 100% sure what you are looking at, not questioning “is that a rotted root or is it my propagation medium?!?” We don’t need that kind of stress in our lives… and neither do you!

So the long answer to Dannii’s simple question is: Fern Fibre all the way for us here at HoyaHoya.

A quick price scan today reveals that HoyaHoya provides the cheapest, fern fibre for sale in NZ. Bargain!   Stock up on yours here. We offer 2L, 5L, 10L via the webstore and can also provide the jumbo 40L on request (but sadly not for our $10 urban, $15 rural delivery flat fee or the accountant will have kittens!!).

We hope you enjoyed the August blog and learned something new that will help your collection.

We’re going to leave you with some easy links (that will keep the accountant happy):

🍃 Clear pots and hoya mix if you’re repotting: 90mm and 120mm

🍃 And the cheapest fern fibre in NZ is available right here

🍃 Beautiful trellis options are here

🍃 Ceramic collector pots ($11-$14) with matching nursery pots are also available here

🍃 Express your interest in our free online seminar on giving your hoya a health check

And finally, check out our Hoya carnosa exotica ‘Krimson Queen’ (a collector can never have too many 😂) that have just had a trellising glow-up. They’re featuring our special circle hoop (a bargain at $12) and new ceramic collector pots (which come with their own nursery pot inner too).

Happy Hoyas!
Matt and K-J