How to root Hoyas on a budget!

What you need:

An aquarium. This is a 10-gallon tank and it cost about $16. I'm sure they're cheaper elsewhere. This will house plenty of starter plants and about 6 larger cuts.

One bright ass light: $15. This is a "special" compact fluorescent bulb that is self-ballasted and supposedly has the full spectrum for plants to use for growth. It's certainly bright! You can probably get a regular CFL for about $10. It beats buying the large T-5 fixtures, which can get costly.

Pots. The big pot is going to hold my mix and the plastic solo cups will be the pots. I like the clear cups because I can see what's going on immediately. They're $3 at any supermarket for about 16.

Bamboo skewers. $2.

Your choice of soil. I use a lot of components, so I lose money on this...but I'm still experimenting and improving my mix.

Hydroton, orchid mix (fir bark, charcoal, pine bark) and Organic Mechanics mix. Have I mentioned that if I can't find OM mix, I usually go elsewhere?

And of course, Hoya cuttings! Lots of people trade for them but I don't have much to offer yet...so I am buying these outright. I am considering selling cuts or actively trading out cuts if they get big enough next year. 

 I am missing the submersible aquarium heater. You can get one online (50W) for $9. You may also want to get some plastic with cutouts or just use plant saucers turned upside down to line the bottom of the aquarium. You need to make space so that the bottom of the pot doesn't touch the water. More on that later. So this will cost you about $50, but most of this is an investment. You won't need another aquarium, heater, or other materials for quite a while. The bulb will last over a year and most of them are energy efficient. We're trying to stay green here!

Hoya fungii, Hoya surigaoensis (H. sp EG00897), and Hoya latifolia (!!!!!!!!)

Hoya macgillivrayi and Hoya cv. Pinkie.

I've modified the mix by added larger grade orchid mix as well as hydroton. Use you favorite mix, of course.

An example of the mix. I've tried to pare down the big chunks - they're solid!

The cuts in the new aquarium.

I don't know if you see what I did here, but the pots are on top of the overturned saucers. The bottom is lined with about an inch of water. Until I get my submersible heater, they will have to thrive in the humidity.

Sprayed with a dilute Superthrive solution and ready to be bagged.

Not very elegant but it should work very well inside. :)

I'm looking for a different fixture to put the bulb in (with a reflector). I bought this batch because it had H. surigaoensis and H. latifolia in it - I need more big-leaved Hoyas in my life. Fungii and macgillivrayi are duplicates but there are several macgillivrayis so I may just have a different one anyway. Hoya Gods, let them grow!

For ~$50, you too can have a ghetto aquarium setup. But hey, it beats spending over $75 more on a T-5 fixture and aquarium hood.

Goodnight!