I received these beautiful Hoya elliptica cuttings in a trade with a local plant friend. She had kindly put them in stratum. This is my first experience using this grow medium but I hear it is similar to pon. Strata is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil. The consistency of stratum is pellet like but easily crushed between your fingers. I believe it is the same as tephra. It is also commonly used in fish tanks. Stratum does require a reservoir of water. I had the cuttings in stratum for 2 weeks and I wasn't super impressed with the root growth. The smaller cutting didn't make it and the larger one did grow roots but nothing too crazy. I personally feel I get better results from LECA. The last few days of it being in stratum I did put it under a heat mat but I am not sure it really helped. Once I took the cutting out of stratum and potted it up, I decided to sanitize it. I took a microwave safe dish put the stratum in with some water and let it go for a minute and a half to two minutes. After that, I rinsed the stratum carefully.
Overall, it was fun to try a new grow medium. It is possible that maybe using a H. elliptica for a test subject wasn't the best since it tends to be a finicky Hoya. I might try again with another Hoya cutting at some point.
1 Comment
Marie
1/19/2023 12:32:50 am
This is my experience with woody hoya stems. I have had more success with thinner stems and philodendrons.
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