Propagating Succulents
With everyone staying at home there’s been a recent rise in gardening, especially indoor gardening. Succulents are not only out of this world beautiful but they are extremely easy to grow and reproduce without very much garden know-how.
It’s so easy anyone can do it. I have a hack for propagating any young plants (even seeds) that’s free, biodegradable, and often overlooked.
Waste Not, Want Not
That’s right. Those paper towels and toilet paper rolls most people throw away. I’ve started farms with these just by saving them and having friends save them for awhile. By the time you want to plant your succulents, you’ll have a stockpile just waiting to be filled and watered.
This is the unruly garden I started with, neglected for more than 6 months. This can be a rotating door of plants for anyone interested in starting a massive succulent garden or selling them. I plan to do both.
For Propagating Succulents You Will Need:
-toilet paper or paper towel rolls
-soil
-worm castings
-water
-succulent plants
-plates
As my garden aged, I gently broke off pieces off the succulents and just left them at the top of the pot. If you have succulent plants you can dedicate a pot to this purpose. Just set a bunch of loose “leaves” on top of the soil and keep moist in a shady place until you see growth. Then proceed with the rest of this tutorial.
This is fairly simple and can be done for cloning all plants and starting all seeds.
The rules are the same. Keep moist and out of the sun until they have roots.
And the process of growing succulents is fairly simple.
Start by preparing the soil. Use about a quarter to half the amount of worm castings to soil depending on your soil source. The more organic matter, the fewer castings needed.
Adding a little water to the soil mix will help water distribute evenly when you water the plant which will, in the long run, allow for faster growth.
Once the soil is ready, firmly (but not too much) fill the rings. You can use taller pieces for trees and things, but for growing succulents just use a regular toilet paper roll torn in half. Set the filled ring carefully on a plate with extra care to not spill out any of the dirt. Just a regular kitchen plate will do.
Then this just needs to be moved someplace out of direct sunlight where you will remember to water it.
The speed of your success depends on your ability to keep the plants watered consistently. They should need water every day. For a small waterer hack, just poke holes in the top of a small pop bottle and fill that with water to squeeze over the little babies like a shower. Do this daily and you’ll have rooted plants quicker than you will know what to do with them.
This process can be done indefinitely so long as you have a demand for succulent plants either to sell or within your garden.
Succulents also make great gifts to people. So you could start propagating succulents for Christmas gifts for your whole family right now. If there comes a point where you have too many succulents, just stop this process and start composting extra leaves.
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