Succulent Plant Propagation

The Art and Science of Making More Plants

Succulent plants are easy to propagate; many can be rooted from a single leaf, others will root quickly from a stem cutting. Increase your collection by taking pups from Aloe, Gasteria and some other succulent plants.

Many succulent plants can be grown by seed propagation, either from your own hybridization experiments, or bought from other growers or suppliers.

You can take a leaf from most Echeveria, Sedum and many other succulent plants and use vegetative propagation methods to root it, or 'behead' your overgrown Echeveria to get more plantlets.

Succulent plant propagation is almost like magic!

Seed Propagation

Succulent Plants from Seed

When your Echeveria or Aloe produce a long flower stalk with little colourful bells on it, you can take a paintbrush and transfer the pollen from one flower to another.

Only those closely related plants will successfully interbreed, so use two different Echeveria or two different Aloe.

It's only possible to transfer the pollen from flowers that occur at the same time. This is a long term prospect as it can take months for the seed to ripen, and then more time yet to get it to germinate.

I've had pots of Echeveria sitting for months, and then finally one day had some tiny baby plants germinate, so patience is the name of the game with this method of succulent plant propagation!

Vegetative Propagation of Succulents

'Beheading' Your Echeveria

Sometimes one of your Echeveria will get long and gangly, with a nice rosette sitting up on top of a long woody stem. This calls for beheading!

Simply take the top part of the plant with the nice rosette off, leave it to callous in dry potting soil, and it will root. Don't discard the long stem though, you can use that for more succulent plant propagation

In time, little plantlets will form, usually at the top of the stem, but sometimes all down it.

Wait until these have at least four to six leaves of their own.

Cut the little plants off with a razor blade, leave them on the top of the soil as usual, and once rooted you can pot them up separately to make more succulent plants to trade.

Other types of rosette forming succulent plants benefit from this treatment too.

Propagation by Pups

Simply locate the point of attachment of the pup, and either cut it off with a razor blade, or gently twist to remove it. You can pot these up right away, and in most cases they will root within a few weeks.

Succulent Leaf Cuttings

Try to get the very bottom of the leaf stalk, as it may root further up, but will be reluctant to form a bud and new growth.

Place your leaf or leaves on top of the soil in the parent plants pot.

Leave it for up to a couple of months to callous and root. You'll see little pink roots forming and sometimes they go down into the soil by themselves, other times they wave around in the air and don't have a clue.

At this stage, I usually help them out by putting them in their own pot, making a little depression in the center of the potting soil and then covering the roots.

Try not to bury them too deeply, as sometimes the tiny emerging bud will have trouble getting to the light.

Caring for Your New Plants

Only water once the roots have started to go deeper into the soil, at which time don't tease it, give it a good drink. Then leave it to dry out almost completely.

I can't give you a guideline of how long to leave the cutting as every house is different.

If you have dry air - air conditioning or a wood stove - water sooner.

If you have high humidity, then you may not have to water at all.

Use your judgment and above all, have fun with your succulent plant propagation.

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