Glad you found a method and the medium that work for you! Good stuff.

The trick, as I see it, is to maintain the delicate balance between keeping the medium moist enough for roots to grow, but not as soggy and water-logged that the cutting rots. The plastic bag trick (or an aquarium or a Rubbermaid container with clear cover) helps if humidity is less than ideal. The choice of the mix is hugely important, too, and an individual one, which makes it sort of difficult but also interesting.

Like many others, I find that rooting them in semi-hydro creates sort of a fool-proof environment in the pot where it's constantly humid because of that reservoir with water, but the water drains freely because of the side drain hole. Sounds like just what the doctor ordered. :-)

Clear pots also help, I think. I am baffled by the idea of tugging on the rooting cuttings, however gently, to check if they are rooted (because you may be ripping off the very roots you are trying to grow duh!), and yet I also want to know if they are rooting or not. With clear pots, I can SEE the roots, and I can see how extensive they are.

Basically, these are all my rooting tricks that I can think of right now.

Yes, clear pots are ideal. I have had to learn to curb my tugging impulses, it was awkward for me when I made the switch from water to soil rooting. And I am moving more and more to semihydro. I have found curtisii roots super easily for me in moist long fiber sphagnum moss.

my sister roots only in water. it works for her but I think it takes longer. I use a commercial mix Fafard 3B (although now the name has changed/bought out whatever) and I can't remember ever losing one. Knocks on wood (head).

(the Fafard contains peat moss, pine bark and perlite-sometimes I add more perlite)

We use a lot of cypress mulch around here. I notice one grower using that to grow in. I'm not sure if there is anything else in there. But I have started mixing in cypress mulch with the Fafard for better drainage especially in cases where the hoya will be outside and get a lot of rain in the summer.