Deending on your location and the type of cutting, bottom heat and external humidity may be needed. I don't like water rooting, personally, as the stems tend to rot for me. With planting in the mix I put my plants in, I don't have to worry about over-watering or too much moisture causing rot. I just dip the cutting in rooting gel, plop it in my mix, water once, place it on my heat mat, and wait. I usually water once every week or two, misting twice daily with my mister. It took only a week for most of my last group of cuttings to root. Auctioned them on ebay as cuttings, but by the time they were sold and ready for shipping (5 day auctions, made the cuttings two days prior to listing), all but three had nice multiple roots!

I don't care for water rooting myself, but cloning gel is what seems to seal the deal for me. What kind of Hoya are looking to root?

I want to try cloning gel, the powder doesn't seem to do much for me. I have had good luck with perlite, and am switching over to an approach more like what Aurorawa described. Water rooting is over rated, in my experience often takes longer too.

Thanks everyone.

What is cloning gel? Is it necessary?

And tawnygrissette probably hoya carnosa, they are cheapest cuttings on eBay.

I have about a billion carnosas that I could send you cuttings of, I might even have some started plants too. If you're in the states and you're interested, feel free to message me.

Cloning gel isn't necessary, but it sure helps. I use CloneX, which contains hormones, vitamins & minerals that accelerate the rooting process. Carnosas are typically very easy to root tho!

AS, keep an eye out at your local Lowes and Home Depot too, you can often find big fat and sassy hanging baskets of hoyas grown by Exotic Angels, and at a good price. Also, carnosa is a great place to start, like tawnygrissete said its easy to root. If and when you get hooked, be sure to check out Joni's website at SRQ Hoya, she has a nice selection of cuttings and also shares info on how difficult they are to root and stuff. And of course, we love any excuse to talk about Hoyas here on the boards. ;-)

And to date, I have rooted about a dozen species with only one loss (lacunosa can be a challenge to root as I discovered) without the benefit of the gel. It's one of those, you don't need it but once you use it you will never go back things, and great especially when/if you chose to get into some of the more expensive cuttings. And I am impatient, it can take 4-6 weeks for my stuff to root, occasionally longer and I want to shorten that window.

Hmm thanks for the information guys. Do you use the cloning gel for other types of plants as well?

Thanks for all of the new places I will now check out, Kim.

Tawnygrisette I would message you but I don't know how!?

I use cloning gel for all kinds of plants, and root accelerator too.

If you click on my name, it will take you to my profile, and then click "Message" under the banner. Or you can email me at tawnygrisette @ outlook dot com. :)