Succulents & You

Propagating New Growths

Good thing you had some leftover potting soil from when you first planted your succulents, right?

For me, this is one of the most rewarding things about growing succulents. Being able to take a few leaves from a dying plant, and grow entire new succulents from them? Amazing. I've only actually done this once, as I wanted to save a dying plant I got from a friend.

There are a few ways you can do this, but the first step is to take some leaves from the plant. It should just be a quick, gentle twist to pull off. Getting down to the base of the leaf is always the best, as the leaves tend to die when broken before the end.

Now, some plants will propagate from leaves; others require cuttings, which is when you use scissors to cut off an actual piece of the succulent, stem included. Experiment with your plant, and see what works best.

The leaves/cuttings have to dry out a little before you try planting them. They'll end up soaking up too much water, as their ends are still open to the world, and haven't closed over.

For the leaves, I've seen people actually bury the ends in the dirt, but I haven't seen the outcome personally. What a lot of others recommend is actually setting the leaves on top of the soil, making sure the ends don't actually get into the soil.

For cuttings (which I've never done), you should bury them, as they are more of a grown plant than the leaves, and can handle this. They should start growing new roots relatively fast

Despite what you may be thinking, you have to water the leaves and cuttings every day. They're not a full grown plant, so they don't have the same level of water retention. Let the soil dry out before watering again, especially for the cuttings, but make sure you don't let the leaves dry out too much.

The leaves should start making new succulents anywhere from 2-4 weeks, depending on a variety of environmental factors. It is normal to lose some, and not get successful plants from everything you put down.

That's really it for propagating. Leave a comment if you've tried any different methods, or, if you've tried these, how successful was it? 

I linked a video above that shows the basics of propagating. Follow it or don't, that's up to you, but I like having a visual aid when I'm learning something new, so I decided to put that up there.

Good luck!