Why are my Hoya leaves turning brown?

The name ‘Hoya’ first came into light because of a gardener in Duke of Northumberland named Thomas Hoy. The name is derived from his name because he was the only discoverer of this plant in the 18th – 19th century times.

Hoyas are sometimes called as Wax plants because of their outstanding draining facilities and waxy and succulent-like leaves. The Hoyas are one of the safest and easiest plants to grow and they have their own and purest draining facilities.

Hoyas are the vine plants that have green and broad leaves. There are many names to the Hoya plant according to the features that are present in it. Some popular names of Hoya plants are as follows-

• The Wax Plant (as mentioned above), because of its waxy appearing leaves,
• Hindu Rope Plant, because of its hanging stems and sometimes roots,
• Wax Flower Plant, because of its waxy appearance on its flowers too, and
• Fragrant Wax Plant, because of its constant body plants being waxy.

Proper feeding of the Hoya plant:-

Hoya plants should be feed properly so that the leaves of the Hoya do not get brown very soon.

The brown leaves of the plant can cause the plant great decay or damage. Hoya plants can be given compost feeding at regular intervals so that they get all the nutrients from their soil itself.

Hoya plants should be given the proper amount of

• Water,
• Soil setup,
• Moisture,
• Humidity,
• Sunlight, and
• Relative temperature

When getting feed up with all these things in proper and needed quantities, a Hoya plant would grow and progress much more than your expectations and would continue growing till it attains its maximum growth limit.

Till then, you need to be very careful about what is provided by you to the plant. If you provide water, you should make sure that;

• If you provide water to Hoya plant, you should make sure that you do not overwater or underwater the plant,
• If you are providing the plant with sunlight, then you should be careful that the plant does not get too much exposure to the sunlight,
• If you are providing moisture to the plant, then you should make sure that the amount of humidity provided by you does not exceed the normal limit; and
• If you provide temperature quotient to the plant, then you should keep in mind that too high or too low temperature may surely disturb the growth of your Hoya plant.

If the above measures are taken into consideration correctly, then there is no need for you to worry about the growth of your Hoya plant as now no one can stop it from growing brighter and wider.

Unique characters of the Hoya plant:-

Hoya plants are the most popular and easy growing plants that are the indoor and outdoor plants too. There are many unique characters of the Hoya plants. They can be stated as below-

• Easy indoor dispositions of the hoya plant:

 The fanciness of the Hoya plant is the most important character that attracts most plant-lovers towards itself.

Many surveys and researches have said that the plant is one of the easiest and best indoor keeping plants and has kept its reputation going the same for ages.

• Wheel-like clusters of flowers are fragrant as well as delicious:

The flowers of the Hoya plant are in clusters such that the shape becomes wheel-like. The flowers are very delicious to eat and also very sweet in their smell too.

These features of the Hoya flowers make it special and different from the flowers of all other plants.

• Variations in the size of the leaves:

The size of the Hoya leaves varies greatly. This affects the rate of transpiration of the plant and also its process of photosynthesis. Large leaves absorb more light and moisture from the atmosphere than the small leaves.

Therefore, variations of the leaves are the major characteristic of the Hoya plant that is unique and different in itself.

All these unique and special characters of the Hoya, we can say that it is a very different plant and as an indoor plant it is mind-blowing and outstanding. But, there are some things that even the Hoyas need to face sometimes.

Sometimes, Hoyas may also need to face some problems such as-

• the weakening of the leaves,
• Low growth rate of the plant,
• Softening of the stems of the plant, or even,
• Leaves of the plant starting to appear brown.

There may be many reasons as to why the above problems take place with the Hoya plant and what is the solution to the above problems, but those reasons, without knowing, would not being the solutions.

So, let us know about at least one problem caused to the Hoya in detail.

Why do my Hoya leaves started turning brown?

This is one of the most difficult and crucial problems of the Hoya and does not have a lot of solutions to it too. But the precautions can be done not to let the leaves turn brown.

I thought of a lot of reasons why my Hoya would suddenly give brown leaves. Some of the reasons were true and some did not suit the scenario. But the reasons that suited the scenario of brown leaves perfectly were as follows-

Different varieties of hoyas need a different type of care

There are many types of Hoyas present all over the world. But, all the Hoyas do not need similar treatment and care. Some Hoyas are sensitive towards sunlight, whereas some can tolerate as much amount of sunlight as is given to them without any burn or complain.

Some Hoyas have thick foliage so it can absorb a lot of sunlight and water-content provided to them. They are called the tolerant species of the Hoyas. But, in these cases, while providing the sunlight, you should exactly know which plant is tolerant and which is not.

If the plant is not tolerant towards sunlight, then the leaves will immediately get affected by the extreme sunlight and turn brown soon.

I made a huge mistake in this area as I did not think it important to know what are the features of the Hoya plant that I was buying. This made me think that the requirements of my Hoya are common and that’s where the plant started to revert to me.

Suddenly, my Hoya leaves started turning brown and I had no idea as to why be this happening. After very long research, I got to know that my Hoya is turning its leaves brown because it was getting too much exposure to the sunlight and that seemed very bad for my plant. Therefore, as a precautious step, always get all the details of your Hoya before buying it and before starting to grow it in your house.

Lights affect hoyas the most

Like the other plants, Hoyas are also not light-resistant plants. They strongly support the light-quotient and needs a lot of light as a support for its growth. But, some species of the Hoyas can also be the poor tolerating species. Some species need bright sunlight while some can adjust with the optimal sunlight too.

The species that need bright sunlight should be kept in such a place where the sunlight is directly received by the plants and the species that need optimal sunlight can cope up with the indirect sunlight or even with the artificial light.

I recently found out that my Hoya was of the type of species that needs optimal or artificial light to grow. But, I provided the plant with direct and constant sunlight and that was one of the reasons why my Hoya leaves turned brown.

Exposure of sunlight from the eastern side of the window can result best for the Hoyas. That way they also get enough light and do not even exceed its normal sunlight tolerating limit.

Before knowing the importance of the right amount of sunlight for the plant, I kept the plant in front of an open window so that it may get direct sunlight. This did not help the Hoya grow, instead, it turned the leaves of the plant to brown very quickly and soon.

So, make sure that you know that how much and which kind of light is expected by your Hoya and provide the same kind and amount of light to it so that the leaves of your Hoya won’t turn brown as it happened to my Hoya plant.

Hoyas need normal temperatures

It is misinterpreted usually that special plants like Hoyas need a special kind of temperature, without which it would not be able to grow nicely. But that is not the real case.

The Hoya plant needs only the normal temperature that can be usually provided to all the other plants and that matches exactly with its surroundings and its atmosphere. Room temperature would be the best temperature that could be provided to the Hoya plant.

I tried to provide my Hoya with a good temperature quotient, much more than the normal or room temperature. But that did not work for my plant. This is one more reason why my Hoya leaves started turning brown.

The temperature required by the Hoyas should be directly proportional to the room temperature otherwise the plant would face constant and unreasonable fluctuations in its body temperature too. So, be careful about providing reasonable and stable temperatures to your Hoyas to keep the leaves from turning brown.

Weather conditions

Hoyas are very particular about their weather conditions. They cannot tolerate too much cold or hot climates and needs to be constantly kept in moderate temperatures and weather conditions. Three factors come under the weather conditions that influence the routine of the Hoya plant.

I looked upon all the three weather factors closely once I got to know the importance of the same. These factors are – Humidity, Moisture, and Winds. These factors strongly affect the weather suitability of the plant as it either helps the plant grow or stops its growth by even a slight change that causes it.

Humidity should be constantly maintained beneath the plant pot so that it absorbs it whenever required. I thought it would be a great idea if I constantly maintain humidity beneath the plant. I kept the plant pot in a tray of pebbles filled with water and maintained the water level in the tray continuously. This idea helped me to a great extent.

Moisture and air sources are the other 2 factors that are needed the most by the Hoyas. Without moisture and air around the plant, my Hoya started to dry-up very soon and this gave me a big shock. But when I started to provide it with the required amount of air and moisture, the plant started gaining its beauty back and the browning of the leaves also stopped.

Water supplies and actual requirements:

Initially, I did not know how to water a Hoya plant so I did it normally 1-2 times a day. But that didn’t help my Hoya as it started overflowing. Then I reduced the watering to 1-2 times a week. But that made my plant face scarcity of water and the leaves started paling and turning brown.

After long and crucial research about how much water does a Hoya requires, I found out that it requires to be watered 2-3 times a week up to the brim of the soil, i.e. the upper surface of the soil should be completely in water. Leave the soil as it is for a week.

A perfect balance in the level of water is the code to grow a successful and brown leaves-free Hoya.