Easy Ways to Propagate Succulents at Home

If you are someone who loves succulents, you would love to know how to propagate succulents. Instead of learning it by trial and error, better to learn succulent propagation from the ones who already know.

Today, we will discuss how you can propagate succulents at home through various cuttings. Depending on the variant of succulent, you can propagate the succulents from cuttings, leaves, and offsets, whereas, some can only be propagated from cuttings. Let's jump in! 

3 Main Propagation Techniques for Succulent

Speaking simply, propagation is a process of reproduction of a new plant using a parent element. This element could be a cutting, leaf, seed, or offset. There are 3 main techniques that you can use to try to propagate your succulent at home:

• Soil Propagation

This is a common propagation technique where you place the said succulent element on the top of well-drained soil in a pot.

• Dry Propagation

It is an easy way to propagate succulents at home without too much effort. In this technique, you place the element on a tray to propagate.

• Water Propagation

In this process, you need to put the succulent element in water for rooting.

Propagation With Succulent Cuttings

Let's look at three different ways you can use cuttings from an existing succulent plant to produce a new one.

The most straightforward answer to your question of how to propagate succulents is doing it by leaf cutting. You can propagate the most succulent plants using their leaves.

Steps of Propagating by Branch Cutting

1. Pull a leaf from your succulent gently by twisting it. Make sure that you get an entire leaf and the little nub from where it is attached to the step should also be included. This is an important step as if somehow you snap the leaf in half, this technique won’t work. A perfect leaf element will be U-shaped on the end.
2. To allow the leaf’s ends to dry out completely, set it on a paper towel for a few days. If the ends are not dried completely, the leaf will rot instead of growing.
3. Once the end is calloused over, place the leaf into a bed of soil (shallow). To get the best results, use soil specifically formulated for succulents or cacti.
4. Set the pot in a well-lit space that does not receive direct sunlight. Either mist the leaves a few times a week or lightly water the soil.

You will see the roots growing within a few weeks.

In most succulent plants, you can remove leaves from a stem, cut them, and replant it in another pot. You will see new leaves growing from the spaces where the leaves used to be. This technique is especially useful for plants that have grown too leggy due to the lack of sunlight.

Steps of Propagating by Stem Cutting

1. Using a very sharp knife or a pair of clean scissors cut through the main stem or a branch from the parent plant you want to propagate.
2. In a pot, set some soil to grow new plants.
3. Now, carefully remove all leaves from the stem and let them dry over a paper towel for a few days. When the spot where leaves were grown previously starts to show new growth, plant the base of the stem in the pot you set and water lightly.

Water the plant every few days for the next few weeks. You will see the new plants growing in the spaces from where you removed the leaves within some weeks.

This technique is about replanting branches and offshoots to propagate a succulent plant.

You can remove a full branch of certain succulents like jade and replant it to grow a new plant. This technique can be used in case the original plant is damaged or broke, or has grown too large for its space.

Some succulents like Hawthorne produce small offshoots that you can remove and repot to grow new plants.

Steps of Propagating by Branch Cutting

1. With the help of a sharp scissor or knife, very carefully cut a branch or offshoot from the mother plant.
2. Place the cut element directly into the soil. If potting a branch, cut a few leaves from the base and push it deep into the soil so it can support itself when forming roots. For offshoots, you can remove some outer leaves (not necessary) and plant their base in the soil.
3. Water the potting soil every time it becomes dry. The process of developing roots is slower and you might not need to change the pot for up to a year.

This technique is a little riskier if not done correctly, it can cause major damage to the original plant.

Conclusion

Once you know how to propagate succulents, you can grow many baby plants from a single plant you already have. The process of getting a succulent element to propagate is an interesting process and as a succulent lover, you would definitely enjoy it!