Kaile Judge - Student Choice - Plant Propagation

 Succulent Plant Propagation 

Succulents are one of the more common house plants because of their ability to be cared for easily. Many people like these plants because of their vibrant green colors and the fact that they only need to be water about one or so a month. Being a plant lover myself, I have learned that buying plants can really cost a lot of money, especially in the springtime when planting flower gardens and making pretty arrangements to go around the house. Due to this, I have begun propagation, and one of the easiest plants to propagate is the ever loved succulent. 

The first step to propagating a succulent is to have a nice and healthy one taken care of like this one (it is all curvy because it is stretching towards the sun).

Once you have a nice healthy plant, you can then take a leaf off of it. Typically you should take one towards the bottom, these leaves are older, and when you take one off the bottom, it will allow the plant to grow taller. You will want to take the whole leaf off and be sure not to rip it halfway.

After you take one, or however, many you want off, you must lay them in a shallow dish of soil, and you can slightly cover them if you wish. I personally use a butter dish for this that I found at a thrift shop, only 97 cents, no need to buy anything fancy. 

Once they are situated in their soil, you will want to gently mist them with water about every other day and make sure they are in a warm area with lots of sunlight. After a few weeks of doing this, you will start to see roots coming out of the bottom while the leaf begins to get wrinkles.

When the roots begin to form, you can remove them from the shallow dish of your choosing and plant them just below the soil in a more suitable container for growing succulents, like a terracotta pot. Continue to mist them when the soil is dry, and make sure they get plenty of sun and remain in a warm environment. After a few weeks or months of this, a baby succulent will begin to grow from your adult plant's leaf. 

Continue to take care of your new succulents as you would with an adult one. After a few months, they will begin to grow larger, and one day you can start the process again with these new ones.

I have always found it quite amazing that a whole plant can be born from one dying leaf.