A little about air humidity for hoya growth.

Do hoya plants need increased air humidity for growth? And what is increased air humidity and what is normal air humidity, which is necessary for hoya plants to grow?

This summer, I paid special attention to the issue of air humidity in which the hoya plants in my collection grow (not take root!!!). On warm summer days, when all the windows at home were open, very often the air humidity in the rooms reached as much as 70%, and in fact this figure (together with sufficient daylight and amount of light) also shows why a large part of hoya plants feel good in the climatic conditions of Latvia and grow well and bloom well in the summer.

But as is usual with hoya plants - again not all:), because hoya plants are very different. For example, my hoya Undulata stood in the room on a shelf under a plant lamp in the summer, grew a little, gave one new leaf and stopped. It has now been transplanted into a self-watering pot and placed in a display case in Milsbo and is growing 4 new leaves at a time. For example, I also tried growing the hoya Waymaniae Borneo in the summer on a shelf in the room under a plant lamp, a couple of new leaves sprouted, but with such a poorly concealed lack of enthusiasm that I decided to take and root the cutting in good time. Currently, both the mother plant is growing a couple of new tops and sprouting a couple of leaves, and the cutting has also rooted and sprouted one new leaf and continues to develop further only because both seedlings are placed in a display case in Milsbo and are growing in higher humidity.

For example, the hoya Linearis, which is my first year's plant right now, because I only bought it at the beginning of the year and I have already taken a couple of cuttings, felt very sad during the hot days of this summer and completely curled its leaves (read, needles:)), but this seems not to be related to the humidity of the air, but more to the temperature, but more about that another time.

However, the hoya Latifolia or Incrassata or Finlaysonii grew and some also bloomed without any problems, even Lacunosa Tove showed its first bloom at a relatively small height and age.

Accordingly, there are hoyas that are less sensitive to the humidity of the ambient air. And vice versa - there are hoyas that will not grow and at best will wait patiently until more suitable living conditions are provided in the form of increased air humidity (75% and more) :)

The good news - there is a fairly large list of hoyas that grow in lower air humidity conditions (40%-50%, which is usual for us in the winter period), and they are also said to be easy-to-grow hoyas.

However, there is a very large list of hoya species and varieties that will not be able to be persuaded to grow a single tendril, let alone to sprout a new leaf and fully develop, and which, if they do grow on our windowsills, will be very reluctant and very, very slow, until one day they will most likely have to be saved anyway, by re-rooting the cutting and finding a way to maintain higher humidity for growth (I currently have a sp. Perak, which is even placed in an additionally closed bag in the Milsbo greenhouse cabinet). And these hoyas are usually those very expensive hoyas - for example, hoyas Undulata and sp. Perak and Waymaniae Borneo and Archboldiana variegata and more and more ...

I currently have several hoyas in my collection, because of which I actually bought an Ikea greenhouse cabinet Milsbo in August of this year. By slightly improving this greenhouse cabinet - by gluing the doors with rubber seals and putting in plant lamps - I can currently maintain air humidity at around 75%-85% with the house heating on, but in the mornings, when I turn on the plant lamps, the air humidity reaches as high as 95%-99%. There are many videos on YouTube on how to set up such greenhouse cabinet, I won't go into detail about it here, I will just add that I am very satisfied with this purchase - a stylish greenhouse cabinet with practical use and the ability to grow rarer hoya species and varieties in the collection, and my cuttings also like to root here and it seems that, for example, hoya Phuwuaensis also likes it very much, because after transplanting into the self watering system, I jokingly put the hoya in the greenhouse cabinet. Phuwuaensis immediately started growing a couple of new whiskers, sprouted several new leaves, and started to ripen its first flower bud now, in November:), although growing on the windowsill, it would have already gone into hibernation until spring, or rather, right now the hoya is trying to show me in every way that it can slowly grow on the windowsill, but still, higher humidity and a longer light period are what it has been dreaming of for a long time:)

And in conclusion - in my opinion, such a greenhouse cabinet is absolutely not needed for either the hoya Carnosa, or the hoya Pubicalyx, or the various hoyas in the Finlaysonii group, or .... and many other hoyas, which grow well in a room environment with normal humidity around 50% and usually reach very impressive sizes over the years. However, naturally slow-growing hoyas or miniature hoyas will be happy if you can provide air humidity above 70% and then it will be more interesting for you to watch the growth of the hoya, as new whiskers, new leaves and the most important reward for the hoya grower - the flowering of the hoya will appear more often:)

Good luck!

You can watch Diana's Hoyas Youtube video about the Ikea greenhouse cabinet Milsbo here

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