If you plan on importing more than 12 plants you will need to first get a permit to import plants and plant products through the United States Department of Agriculture. It is completely free to get this permit. I will say that it was a little confusing to navigate. Make sure whoever you are importing from is reputable and follows USA laws and regulations for importation. If the proper documentation is not there USDA will incinerate your plants. It can take anywhere from a few weeks to months from the time you place an import order till it gets shipped and arrives to you. From the time my plants shipped via Dragon Courier it took 6 days to get to me including being held up an additional day due to it being a holiday. I did not take any pictures of unboxing the plants. Each plant had its roots wrapped in sphagnum moss and then the whole plant was wrapped in paper. I unwrapped all the plants and discarded the moss. My order arrived in pretty decent condition considering it had come all the way from Thailand. I still soaked my plants in a mixture of Physan 20 and Superthrive for about 6 hours. Everyone who I talked to who imports Hoyas seem to have their own routines for what to soak them in and for how long. Amanda Law said to not soak the plants for more than 8 hours because it can lead to cell burst in the leaves. Click here to check out her video about importing Hoyas. After the Hoyas had sufficiently soaked, I trimmed off the dead roots. Some of the Hoyas had salvageable roots so I potted them directly into soil. If I could go back and do things over, I would have just cut off all roots and re-rooted everything. I noticed a few days later that some of the ones I potted in soil weren't looking great root wise. Other Hoyas I did cut up and put in LECA to root. Remember to cut your Hoyas into smaller sections to root as it will be easier for the plant and take less energy. Even though my order did come in decent condition I did have leaves yellow and fall off of various plants for the first few days. I wasn't super concerned by this because the plants had been put under a lot of stress and had a complete change of environment. Not to mention sometimes USDA heat treats the packages coming in. It has been probably about a month or so since I received my import order and most of the plants have acclimated well. It is normal to lose a few. Some I still have rooting in LECA but most are potted up and, in my tent, now. I quarantined my import plants longer than I normally do. Additionally, besides the initial soak in Physan 20 when they arrived, I wiped down all the leaves with insecticidal soap before I did anything with them. I would rather be extra safe than deal with root mealybugs or any other pest.
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