You love plants right? We all do and we want more! But how do you get more without breaking the bank? Propagating! Using plants to get more plants is so much fun and it can even help you make your existing ones look even bigger or fuller. There’s a lot of ways to propagate and some plants do it differently, but I’m going to show you the easiest ways to propagate “stem” plants.
What do I mean by that? Well the plants that we’re going to use are plants with a easily identifiable “node”. The node is where leaves and roots will come out of and it’s how these plants can be propagated. Common vine plants such as pothos and philodendron will have a nub or root spot and that’s all we need to get started.
Using a sharp pair of clean scissors or pruners identify the node and cut about 1cm below it.
This is all we need to get started! Method 1: Water The first method is the easiest and many people have already experienced this before. First you get a container of water, then you submerge the node into water. You can remove the bottom leaves so that they don’t rot. All you have to do then is change the water once a week and wait until the roots are at least 2 inches long and it’s ready to pot up. Method 2: Rooting hormone If you want to go straight to soil you can apply rooting hormone to the node to jump start root production. Simply take the node, dip it in water and then dip it in rooting hormone. Shake off the excess and then it’s ready to plant. You’ll want to keep the soil damp so that the roots can form and over the course of a few weeks or months you can adjust the plant to it’s proper watering needs. You might often see some leaves wilt and die off. Don’t panic. Just focus on getting a healthy stem and new leaves should sprout just fine.
The use of a heating mat encourages stronger root growth. It warms root zone 10 - 20 degrees above room temperature to increase success rates of seedlings, clones and cuttings.
-Sean Church-Bornkessel
