Question about dropped leaves

14 years ago

Here's a question I keep meaning to ask but forget to... When a hoya decides for whatever reason to drop a new baby leaf before it ever really gets started, does it ever grow a leaf from that spot again, or will it always stay bare? Buotii, subcalva, and brevialata in particular have these bare stems/vines where they jettisoned their newly emerging leaves. I haven't had hoyas long enough to know. It does look like my heuschkeliana cutting is growing new leaves from spots where it had lost them, though.

I just realized that in a little over a year, I went from 1 hoya, to 21 hoyas. Ha. No wonder I am running out of room.

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Comments (2)

mdahms1979
14 years ago
New leaves or new vines can grow from the old leaf scar or the leaf axis but they generally grow well after the rest of the growth matures. I have a few Hoyas that drop their new leaves and most often it is due to lack of water. My Hoya wayetti has many bare spots and the leaves on that particular Hoya never seem to fill in after the young leaves drop.

I was potting up some cuttings from 4" pots to 8" pots with trellises yesterday and I came to the realization that I also have no room for new plants. I guess I am going to have to shrink my wish list down to just two or three at most.

Mike
quinnfyre
Original Author
14 years ago
Ah! That gives me hope; there isn't much other growth to mature right now, at least for subcalva and brevialata. They are both in more of a waiting stage. Subcalva has one leaf that is not quite full size and is that weird color between bronze and green. The new leaves on subcalva are quite interesting, going from deep burgundy to almost hot pink, mottled with gold and green before it settles down to a mature green. I added more potting mix to subcalva and the new growth from the last node on decided to ditch me. It's ok, though, because that bit was in standstill ever since the winter started, and was pretty much bare anyway. So the only bit left to mature is that one leaf.

Brevialata is still thinking about liking me again. It got dry a couple times while I was overwhelmed schedule wise, and it dropped leaves. But I have it where I can easily see it now, and all the leaves are so firm they feel like they're fake. There is nothing on that one that isn't full grown, so it's just waiting to go again. It does look like it's starting the tiniest nubs of something at a couple of the leaf scars, so we'll see.

Buotii has never stopped growing, and could pretty much fill in the bare spots just by growing, so that I can keep wrapping it around the trellis and hide the bare spots. It also is starting a couple of somethings in between two sets of leaves. While I would love to think they are peduncles, I think it is just branching. Which is also happy news. I love buotii.