Collecting succulents can be addicting. Not only are they the epitome of low-maintenance beauties, blending and complementing any aesthetic requirement it is asked of, whether indoor or outdoor, but they’re also incredibly effortless to grow and multiply.
Here are three basic ways to increase your succulent collection from parent plants – yup, no seeds required.
Succulent Propagation Technique No.1: Offsets Or Pups
Succulents are amazing because they give birth to offsets, also known as pups, abundantly. You’ll see these tiny plants shooting off from the succulent parent plant itself. Once you spot offsets on your succulents, gently pull them off from the base of the succulent. You’ll notice that these little baby succulents come with roots, a good sign that they’ll make it and won’t die when you replant.
We’ve seen success in repotting succulent offsets immediately. However, other succulent experts recommend a prepping procedure, which involves letting them dry and waiting for the end part to callous and heal.
Succulent Propagation Technique No.2: Leaf Cutting
Leaf cutting is another effortless way to multiply your succulent family. This propagation technique is especially applicable to succulents with mature fleshy leaves you can snap off clean from the base clean, such as echeveria and other rosette-forming succulents.
- Using a clean, sharp knife or even just your bare hands, take matured leaves from the succulent parent. Do your best to make a clean cut and avoid damaging the leaves as much as possible.
- Wait for your leaf cutting to dry and callous. This can take more or less a week.
- Put the leaves on top of soil. Do not replant them just yet.
- Mist with clean water every other day, specifically at times when the soil is parched and dry.
- After a couple of more weeks, you’ll see that some, not all, of the leaf cuttings will display new sprouts at the spot where they’ve been cut.
- Plant the promising new baby succulent, with the source leaf buried into the soil. And voila! A new succulent at no additional cost at all.
Succulent Propagation Technique No.3: Stem Cutting
Do you have a rosette-forming succulent that has gone a bit too tall, with the leaves high up an outstretched stem? If you answered yes, lucky you, because this means your succulent plant is ripe for stem cutting.
The next steps are easy. Simply cut the succulent cleanly as close to the base as possible. Wait for at least four or more days before you repot your cutting to allow the cut rosette to heal and recover. After that, repot using an optimal succulent potting mix. Give it plenty of sunshine, but not directly. It will usually take a month for the cut succulent to grow roots in its new pot.
The source plant, on the other hand, you’ll see that after a few weeks there will be tiny buds of leaves sprouting from where it’s been cut. Give at the typical tender loving care every succulent need and leave it alone to thrive and prosper.
Read this informative guide on how to water your succulent.
What Type of Succulent Should I Grow?
The Rodale’s Organic Life, an authority site on all things gardening and agriculture, has listed down 7 types of succulent varieties that they consider the easiest to grow and propagate. These include:
- Aloe
- String of Pearls
- Hen and Chicks
- Paddle Plant
- Jade Plant
- Zebra Haworthia
- Donkey’s Tail
Several succulent bloggers from all over the world also rave about:
- Sedum morganianum
- Kalanchoe daigremontiana, otherwise known as the “Mother of Thousands”
- Graptoveria ‘Fred Ives’
- Graptopetalum paraguayense
- Graptosedum ‘California Sunset’
On the other hand, Rodale has hailed living stone daisy, feather cactus, and lithops as three of the hardest succulents to grow and take care of.
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