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Plant Propagation

Propagating Indoor Plants

16 years ago

I'm helping my daughter's Girl Scout Troop with a badge and one of the tasks is to grow your own greenery by either seed or propagating from another plant. All of these girls have grown plants by seeds in school so I want to show them how to propagate from an existing plant. The trouble is I've never done this myself.

Can anybody suggest a sturdy and relatively inexpensive plant I could use...maybe some instructions on how to do this? We will be doing this project in mid to late fall but the plants will remain indoors so I'm hoping that will not create a problem.

Thanks in advance to any and all advice/suggestions. I really want these plants to grow for the girls and I also don't want to kill off the parent plant in the process.

~Mary

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Comments (5)

bern_2007
16 years ago
Hi I've started many plants by cuttings. Ivy, fushia, begonias, impatients, geraniums, are all good candidates. Take about a 4" cutting from the parent plant, strip the bottom part of its leaves, leaving a few leaves at the top.
Where the leaves were attached at the stem, these are called the nodes, this is where the roots will form. Some use rooting hormones to stimulate roots production. I sometime use it and sometime don't. You will need a soilest mix with lot of vermiculite or coarse sand. Insert your cuttings pass the nodes, and water well, and make sure, you have holes in the bottom of your container for drainage. Your soil should be moist and not soggy wet. Depending on the plant you use, it could take 2 to 4 weeks for roots to form. keep soil moist at all time. You can cover the cutting with a plastic bag loosely, to keep in moisture, but it's not really necessary. hope this helps with your project.
dampflippers
16 years ago
Spider plants are easy- they grow baby plants at the end of runners.
Tradescantia is very forgiving. This and impatiens (Bizzie Lizzy) can be rooted in water so they can see progress.
Some of the cacti are very easy. Christmas cacti can be propgated by breaking off a couple of segments and planting those. Hummock forming cacti like Rebutia are also very easy. Wear gloves, break or cut the babies off the parent, allow to dry for a couple of days before planting in sandy soil.
Or what about ornamental ivies? They will root in water or soil very quickly.
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Hi! My name is Karen and I've posted some questions on the geranium forum and got some good advice, but noone is terribly chatty over there so I was wondering if this is a good forum for me to join. Are you taking new members?? I'm in IL and we started over 700 (agh!)pelargoniums, or whatever they are called. We call them geraniums. Anyway, I was told to pinch and went to town and I hope I did it right because I have some sad plants. And it's about time to start hardening off...and I haven't a clue what I'm doing! We have two portable greenhouses outside with heaters in them and we put the impatiens and pansies, I think, in there. But the geraniums are inside under grow lights and in sunny windows (as sunny as it gets during the long awaited IL 'Spring' if that's what you call it!) Can anyone help me keep them alive?
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riptidefrog
16 years ago
You could also try a pothos. im always making cutting of mine and rooting them in water. They seem to root fairly quickly and i have never had one die yet.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
16 years ago
coleus impatiens or begonia [not the bulb type] .... which will be frosted down in a few weeks outdoors .. can be rooted in water ... or in a small indoor greenhouse [take home food thingee] ... or a baggie over a pot ...

use any of the above names with 'propagation' and enter it into google ... for millions of 'how to's'

ken
dampflippers
16 years ago
Another thing to try is succulents.
Many of them will grow a new plant from one leaf.
Just pull off a plump healthy leaf, and lay it on some sandy compost or even just on a dry plate. Very soon it will start to grow roots, and then a new little plant which can be potted up. Eventually the old leaf will dry up and die.
eg Echeveria

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