Succulent Propagation from Leaf and Beheadings
If you are going to behead your succulents, you might as well propagate your leafs as well. This is going to be a very image heavy post including pictures of succulent beheadings and succulent leaf propagation. Succulents are one of my favorite plants because you can throw them inside, outside and probably in the freezer if you wanted to (note: do not throw your succulents in the freezer, only an idiot would do that). The point is; succulents are easy to grow and it is extremely hard to kill a succulent whether they are inside or outside. We live in the greater Sacramento area (Zone 9B) and whether our succulents are inside or outside, they love life. We have about 20+ potted succulents and we do not plan on stopping our collection any time soon. Take a look at our Succulent Propagation with Leaf and Beheadings below. Please comment or ask us any questions you would like. Thanks : )
Where to start with Succulent Propagation from Leaf and Beheadings
To behead or not to behead, that is the question!
This guy is huge, the beheading will come at another time. For now, lets stick with the overgrown, gangly succulents.
Our Entry Way Succulent Garden (Little Inspiration)
We also have our lovley spider plant which has been with me since 2008 and a fern which was a recent gift. Oh, and the pig. Jeannette loves that pig.
Beheading the Succulents!
Simple, cut the stock of your succulent towards the bottom but still leave enough room for sprouts to grow from them.
Notice the stock cut off in the middle (Be Careful, you will lose some leaf)
Use your best judgement, you know your plant better than we do. : )
Succulent Propagation with the leaf (4-8 Weeks)
Once you have beheaded your succulent, you want to strip the leaf off the stock and lay them out on some nice soil.
The are many others who say you need cactus mix and perlite but your everyday average soil will be just fine.
- Keep a mist bottle close at hand through the process.
- Well Lit – Indirect Sunlight
- Keep the soil moist but not soggy
- Dip tips in Root Starters (Optional)
Close-Up Succulent Propagation with the leaf
Succulent Propagation Stock Beheadings in Glass Jar (4-5 Days)
Once you have your beheadings in glass jars, let them hang out in a bright, well-lit, indirect sunlight location. You want your beheadings to sit out and callus over at the bottom of the stock. It might take longer than a week for your stock to start showing signs of roots, but be patient, it will come sooner or later.
Growing Succulent Beheadings in a Glass Jar with water or move them to soil?
You can do both. After your succulents have callus stocks, you can fill your glass jar with water (JUST BELOW or AT LEVEL) to the callus stock. This will force your succulents stock to reach out and grab the water. Drink little succulent, drink!
Transplanting your Succulent Beheadings to soil
After your succulents have a callus stock, you can move them to soil. We have a couple weeks to go so let’s see what happens.
Succulent Propagation Beheadings – (NO WATER YET!)
Let your succulent beheadings hang out in the glass jars or your location of choice until they start to root on their own.
Succulent Beheadings Taking Root (33 Days Later)
Well, it has been over a month and about half of the succulent beheadings have started to take root. I didn’t use anything to help them root. They just started to root on their own. We still have about 15 beheadings that have not rooted yet. If they do not start to root on their own in the next couple weeks, I will transplant them. You will notice some of the succulent leaves will start to die off. This is the stock, taking the nutrients from the leaf. Succulents store water in the leaf and stock so they can survive for a long time with not water.
Succulent Leaf Propagation (33 Days After Cutting)
I really feel like if these were in a better lit location, they would have produced more. We got a couple weeks of dark clouds and rain, so I had to move them into the shade. If you have a well lit location, you should have more activity going on.
Succulent Leaf Propagation (33 Days After Cutting)
Succulent Beheadings (Transplanting into Solo Cups)
Succulent Beheadings – After Transplanting into Solo Cups
Succulent Leaf Propagation into Seed Start Pots
Some leaves will make it, some will not. With the leaves that start to root and produce another crown, move these to seed start pots.
Succulent Leaf Propagation From Leaf (61 Days Later)
This is hard to believe but still, 61 days later, the leaf propagation is still not complete. Looks like we are getting closer to transplanting the succulent leaves into their own pot. However, I feel like we still have another couple months to go before we have some leaves really taking off.
Also, it is the middle or winter here in Sacramento, so that might have something to do with the succulent proagation taking so long.
This container finally starting to really show some growth. This is going to be an exciting bunch of leaves to transplant once everything starts to take off and the main leaf dies.
Succulent Beheadings Propagation (61 Days Later)
After you transplant your beheadings into soil, you can then let them go just like a normal succulent you would buy from your local nursery. How fun right!
