I guess you have to look at it from a money making point of view - the more cuttings they stick in a pot, the more it will look like a full "plant". I think that this is also the reason alot of people lose these "plants" to overwatering - you look at it and think it is a big plant and treat it as such, when it is really what you said, a big pot of cuttings with a whole lot of wet soil underneath. Also, if one cutting happens to start to rot, the rot spreads to the rest of them. Combine those things with the wetting agent that most growers use in their soil and you have a recipe for disaster with any of their plants. And, as you have seen, they are a mess to repot!!

I stopped repotting them myself, and since I can't resist buying them, I have taken to watering my EA plants VERY lightly, just enough to wet the top couple inches of soil and that's it. Just a thought, if you wanted to sell plants on ebay, think of all the little plants you could make up with one EA hanging basket!

I found out the same thing when I repotted my hoya.

It happens a lot and it's not just EA plants. I once bought a pothos in a six inch pot that was just cuttings. I also bought some chinese evergreens that were newly rooted. I don't remember the grower names. The new sans moonshine I have from Hosta Farms is newly rooted. The disappointing thing about the EA plants, is that they're cuttings, yet they're more expensive than the same sized plants from different vendors. In the same stores, no less.

Recently I have seen a whole bunch of EA plants that were actually ROOTBOUND! I never thought I'd see that, since I'm used to seeing them like you stated (just a whole pot full of rooted cuttings). But my kentiana that I found in May was so rootbound that I saw roots sticking out of the bottom. So maybe that is the trick...when you're looking for EA hoyas, take the saucer off and see if roots are sticking out. Then you'll know that it's not mostly soil...in fact, there was practically NO soil in the kentiana I bought (just roots)!

Gabi

This is why I typically repot EA plants. If they have a shallow root "system" (i.e., rooted cuttings...) I fill the bottom of the pot with something like packing peanuts. This way, you still get the "big plant" effect but you're less likely to overwater.

Like Ines, I can't resist them when I find one I don't already have. Repotting out of that terrible soil seems to resolve the problem for me.

Denise in Omaha

Yay I was just going to try to find out if you guys repot EA plants but I didnt even have to search. I bought 2 a week and half ago and the soil was wet when i got them and hasnt even begun to dry... I think I will repot them tonight... probably back in the same pot just without the soggy muck they are sitting in.