How to propagate houseplants

One of the easiest ways to liven up a home is to introduce more plants. From there, some plants can be propagated by pulling off a leaf or cutting a stem and rooting them in either water or directly into soil.

For people with a house that’s already full of plants, propagation can be a good way to share your greenery with others.

According to Kate Grenert, the plant care expert at Flourish, a Sebastopol and Petaluma-based business that primarily sells houseplants, some of the easiest plants to care for and propagate include pothos and heartleaf philodendrons — both of which can be propagated by sticking a vine cutting in a glass of water.

“Other plants, such as spider plants and Pilea Peperomioides, produce offsets, or baby plants, that you can just separate from the mother plant to start a new pot,” Grenert said. Getting started

One of the most common ways to propagate a houseplant is through cuttings.

“The area you take a cutting from can differ from plant to plant, but tip-cuttings are most common — this is the tip of the plant where the new growth is emerging,” she said. “This part of the plant already has a growth point, so you are just manipulating the plant to grow new roots.

“For a tip-cutting, you will want to cut your plant in the internodal space along the stem, between two leaves. It’s best practice to let your cut callous over before placing in your rooting medium. Then place your cutting in water or lightly moist potting soil in indirect light. You can speed things along by providing extra warmth via a seedling heating mat, humidity using a cloche or humidity dome and/or using rooting powder on cuttings placed in soil, but these aren’t necessities. If using soil, keep the soil lightly moist at all times. This method requires a little more attention at the start, but the advantage is that you won’t need to transplant your new plant right away,” she said. Plants propagated during their active growing season — spring and summer — are easier to propagate, since they will likely root faster.

Some plants, like peperomias, begonias and some succulents can be propagated in a different way — from pulling off a leaf and letting roots grow from there.

You have a rooted cutting — now what?

“When water rooting, it’s ideal to transplant when your roots are a couple of inches long,” Grenert said. “If you wait until they are much longer, the plant may have a harder time transitioning to soil. We are definitively guilty of letting our waterpropagation roots grow longer than they need to be because it’s so fun to watch the roots develop.”

Grenert said that, as an alternative to potting a cutting with roots, people can add nutrients to their plant water to grow the plant hydroponically.

Growing forward

After a plant has been rooted and planted into soil, it’s important to pay closer attention to it while it becomes established. This involves not letting the soil get too dry while also being careful not to overwater.

“Increasing the ambient humidity around the plant will help it to adjust. A bright bathroom or kitchen works great for this,” Grenert said. “Once the plant is more established you can move it to its permanent spot in your house and let it acclimate to the light and humidity there.”

“There are so many different methods, materials and techniques, so experiment a little to find out what works best for you in your environment,” Grenert said.

“You won’t have a 100% success rate, but part of the fun propagating is experimentation.” — Zoë Strickland