When you receive a succulent bouquet, you immediately add a trendy touch of zen to your space. As you gaze at your Bouq’s bright blooms and luscious succulents, you start to wish you could keep it around forever.
But wait, you can! By propagating the succulents, you can make these plant gems a permanent part of your life. And the best part? It’s easy enough for anyone to do.
All you need is a succulent and a little bit of know-how. Follow our advice, and before you know it you’ll be planting a succulent that will keep you company for years to come. So, let’s dive in and learn how to propagate succulents!
Select a Starting Point
The first step in getting started with succulent propagation is choosing a tissue to begin propagating. Generally, you’ll start with a leaf, cutting, or offset, aka baby plant.
The method you select to propagate succulents depends on the species of plant you’re propagating as well as your personal preference.
If your plant produces offsets, start with these baby plants! If you’re dealing with a long-stemmed succulent, it’s easy to propagate your plant using cuttings. And if you have a plant with a lot of lush succulent leaves, it’s a good plan to start with a leaf.
Leaf
Many succulents are made up of plump leaves we know and love. The easy to care for jade plant and trailing burro’s tail are just two examples of succulents with plenty of individual leaves.
What’s amazing is that each of these leaves can form a whole new succulent plant! To obtain your starting material, simply wiggle a leaf off from the base of the stem. Be gentle and avoid pulling too hard! Your goal is to obtain the whole leaf; a broken leaf will decrease your odds of successful propagation.
Once you have a cleanly cut leaf, set it out in the open air to dry for three to four days. Once the cut has formed a callus (the plant equivalent of a scab), the leaf is ready to plant!
Put the leaf on top of the soil and spray it with a water bottle to give its first watering. You’ll want to keep the soil just a little moist. Keep an eye on it – a quick squirt with a spray bottle every few days should provide the right amount of moisture.
Your leaves will start to sprout new roots within the next few weeks. During this time, don’t touch the leaves! We know you’re excited to see their new growth, but pestering the little leaves can halt their progress.
Once you see spouting roots, start misting the leaves and soil more often. While you don’t want the soil to be soaking wet, you do want it to be moist. Misting the leaf every day will do the trick.
A few weeks after the leaf has formed roots you can move it to a container of your choice. Gently dig up the leaf and its new roots, and place your succulent in its home. All you have to do now is care for your new plant!
Cutting
You can also propagate succulents from cuttings. This method works best for varieties with long stems, such as Echeveria.
If you’ve welcomed the gorgeous Showstopper or Wild About U Bouqs into your home, you’re well on your way to adding a new potted succulent to your plant fam. The long-stemmed succulents you received are perfect for propagating via cuttings.
To get started, use a sharp knife to cut the stem an inch or so below the rosette. Once you’ve made a clean-cut, let the cutting sit out in the open air for four days. During this time, it will callus over to protect itself from any harmful microbes.
Now, it’s ready to plant!
Pick out your plant’s new home, place the cutting in soil, and water just a little bit for the next few weeks until the roots start to sprout. Viola! You have a new plant.
Offset
You can also propagate succulents from offsets, aka pups. If you have a potted succulent hanging out in your home, you might begin to see small plants forming at the base of the larger parent plant. These little guys are known as offsets.
Offsets can also appear at the edges of some succulents’ leaves.
After you see these baby plants appear, wait three to four weeks to allow these little ones to grow up. At this point, they’re ready to head out on their own.
If the offsets are growing at the base of the plant, all you have to do is dig them up. Once you have the plant and its roots, you can plant it in a new container and watch it grow.
If the offsets are on the base of the leaf, they’ll need a bit more help. Gently pull the little ones off of the larger plant and place them on a paper towel in a dry spot. Wait three or four days until the pup forms a callus at its base.
At this point, you can place the offset in a pot of soil and begin misting it every day. Within a few weeks, it will grow roots and you can care for it like any other potted succulent.
Keep These Tips in Mind
Before you start to propagate your succulents, check out these tips. Because while propagating succulents is easy, it’s not foolproof!
Form a Super Callus
If you’re propagating succulents from a leaf, cutting, or leaf-born offset, you’ll need to help the plant form a callus (the plant version of scar tissue) before you pot it up.
A callus is essential for keeping out bad guys like bacteria and fungi. Just like scabs keep us healthy, calluses keep plants healthy. If you plant your new succulent before it has formed a proper callus, you put it at risk of getting sick.
So, how do you help your plant form a proper callus? Patience! Because succulents are such rockstars, they know how to protect themselves. All you need to do is give them the right environment and enough time to form a callus.
Place your leaf or cutting in a dry, sunny area, and leave it be for at least four days. At this point, the plant will have activated its superpowers and formed the protective callus. We told you succulents are cool!
Choose the Proper Soil
Once you’ve propagated a new succulent, you need to give it an environment it can thrive in. In the wild, succulents live in hot and dry deserts. They love spending their time soaking up the sun, and they don’t mind living through a drought.
To help mimic their natural environment, choose a succulent potting soil that’s well-draining. If you were planning on using that old potting soil you have on your shelf, put it back! Instead, opt for a soil blend labeled for succulents. This succulent soil drains quickly, which prevents root rot and unhappy plants.
Pick a Container that Your Succulent Will Love
After you’ve followed all the steps of learning how to propagate succulents, you need to make sure that your new plant has a good home to settle into!
Since succulents absolutely hate sitting in wet soil, it’s essential that their containers have drainage holes. After all, you don’t want to suck the life out of your new plants.
Give Your Succulents Some Sun
Unlike most houseplants, succulents can thrive in direct sun. They love lounging by a sunny window on a plant stand or hanging out on a windowsill.
If your home doesn’t get a lot of sun, don’t worry. Most planted succulents will survive just fine in a room that gets indirect sun. Just don’t leave your new plants in the dark.
Don’t Overwater
One of the reasons succulents are so popular is that they can survive some serious neglect. While some plants will die if you forget about them for a few weeks, succulents will thrive.
Going away for a week? No problem, succulents can handle it. Neglected your plant parent duties because of a crazy schedule? Succulents don’t mind.
Even if you are around all the time, you don’t need to water succulents very often. Since these plants are from the desert, they like it dry. To keep them happy, water them every one to two weeks.
A Gift that Keeps on Giving
Yes, bright blooms are gorgeous. But if you’re looking for a gift that will brighten someone’s day and keep them smiling for months to come, consider succulents that bloom.
They’re all the rage and perfect for people without a green thumb. And now that you know how to propagate succulents, you can pass this knowledge onto your friends. You can also check out some more tips on caring for succulents.
If you’re lucky enough to receive a succulent yourself, you can get started propagating succulents! Before long, you’ll be planting succulents everywhere and basking in your own plant oasis. Or at least have one plant pal to keep you company.
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