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rachels_haven

Rooting Philodendron Cutting Upside Down?

rachels_haven
10 years ago

Hi all,
So today I picked up a heartleaf philodendron that was "free to a good home" that could possibly be between 5-10 years old and had loads of sparsely leafed vines longer than I am tall. It was in a pot that was too big and deep, and to be quite honest, the plant had very, very few roots, so I cut the healthiest vines up into one foot segments and am rooting them in water to be repotted later. The problem is, some of the vines were rooted in multiple places at once, and I couldn't tell which side of the cutting was "closest" to the growing tips, and sometimes there were multiple-this plant really didn't make sense! It was all over!
Anyway, my question goes like this: So when you root cuttings, you're supposed to put the end closest to where the root was is supposed to be in the water or rooting medium. Does it matter for heartleaf philodendrons? Does the side closest to the root side have to be in the water for it to root, or does it just have to have nodes in the water since as the plant grows it roots many times? Some of the vines were multiple places on the vine, and I couldn't tell by leaf orientation which side was "top" of the plant, and which side was "bottom", it almost looked like the vine changed its mind from time to time.

If anyone has any experience with this kind of thing, I'd love some pointers, especially on the rooting upside down thing. Personally being able to do it seems counter intuitive to me, but I'm relatively new to simple and tough plants like philodendrons and pothos so anything could happen (stupid, I know, but my houseplant specialties lie elsewhere, supposedly because philodendrons were too "easy"). If the answer is no, all cuttings must be side closest to the tip direction pointed up to root, I've got about 35-50 cuttings to figure out which way was up and switch. I'm over here asking myself what in the world I got myself into.
Feeling crazy and trying not to,
R

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