Hello plant lovers!
About a year ago I received some Philodendron cuttings from someone that had been propagating them in water. This got me so excited that I started researching how I could propagate houseplants myself. I've been doing this for a couple of months now with varying succes.
In this blog I'll share my experiences with plant propagation with you.
There are a couple of different ways to propagate plants. Every type of plant has its own way how how you can propagate it. Some plants even propagate themselves by growing new plants alongside the motherplant.
Other plants need you to take cuttings, like a stem or leaf, and try to make it grow roots in water or soil.
Some plants just grow bigger or broader and allow you to split the plant into multiple parts, each with its roots, to grow new plants.
There is also leaf propagation, layering, grafting, tissue culture and seed propagation, but I haven't tried those with my indoor plants yet.
I think this is the easiest plant to propagate. This was the plant I received a cutting from about a year ago and it grows so quickly. I've already propagated two cuttings that have grown roots. I've given these cuttings away recently.
Today I took another cutting from the plant. Cutting a stem doesn't harm the plant. It even causes the plant to grow new stems. Your plant will become more 'bushy' this way.
I've done some research about cutting stems and I was told to cut the stem just below the so-called 'air roots'. This is where the new roots will grow out when you put it in water. You can see the brown buds on the bottom of the stem.
All you need to do is put the stem in water and wait for the roots to grow. This will happen in a few weeks. If the cutting has developed secondary roots (roots emerging from main roots), you can put the cutting into soil.
You do have to keep the soil quite wet for a couple of weeks, so it can adjust to it's new soil.
I'll keep you updated in future posts about the progress.
Last year I already propagated one cutting of this nice green houseplant. This cutting has a more woody stem. The last time it took quite a while for the plant to grow enough roots to be planten into soil, but I managed to keep it alive after its 'transplantation'.
I'm regularly pruning the bottom leaves to make it grow taller. I want it to grow into a little tree, just like the motherplant.
After this succesful attempt I took another cutting from my Ficus today. I removed the bottom leaves and put the stem in a bottle of water.
Be sure that you use a clean and sharp knife or scissors when cutting plants.
Let's see if I can grow this into a new plant too.
This is a plant I spotted at the office. I really liked the pattern on the leaves, so I decided to take a cutting and bring it home. I've put it in water a couple of months ago, but it has only developed a few tiny roots until now.
I did read that the plants also stop growin during the winter months, so that might be the cause of the slow root developments.
I hope that, now spring is arriving, this cutting will start growing its roots again too.
Not all my plant propagations turn into a success. I had this cutting of a very cool pickle plant which I had put in water. It really took a long time to grow roots. The roots were very fragile, but did grow very long. After putting it in soil and keeping it wet for a couple of weeks it seemed to do just fine. It even grew some new 'leaves'. But after a few months it started to die. Finally ending up as a dried out plant. Even though I did water it enough. And I also placed it in a spot with a lot of light which was said to be necessary. Well, not all propagations will go well.
I'll just keep on trying.
I do know there are more people doing plant #propagation. I鈥檓 curious about your experiences. Maybe we could share some tips and tricks on here.
You can share them in the comments or in a new blog. When you make a new blog about #propagation, you could use the #propagation hashtag too. If you like you can mention me too in your blog.
Happy gardening!
I'm an amateur photographer with a love for indoor gardening, craft beer, and cycling. As the owner of the Cycling Community and the creator of the Topcomment initiative, I focus on fostering engagement and bringing like-minded people together.
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