Gadenin日本語Get the appThree methods, three different reasons
Leaves give you the most plants for the least material and take the longest. Stem cuttings give you one presentable plant in a season. Beheading is the method you use when the plant has stretched, leaned out of its pot and lost its shape, which sooner or later it will, and it happens to produce a cutting as a by-product.
All three work best in spring or early autumn, when the plant is actively growing and temperatures sit between about 64F and 77F (18C to 25C). Material taken in deep winter sits and does nothing, and material taken in high summer heat tends to shrivel before it roots.
The one thing common to all three is the drying step. A cut or detached surface must callus over into a firm dry scar before it touches compost, and because these tissues are so full of water that takes longer here than on a thin-leaved succulent.
| Method | Time to a potted plant | Success rate | Use it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole leaves laid on dry mix | Four to eight months | Moderate, and slow to start | You want several plants and are not in a hurry |
| Stem cutting with a rosette | Six to ten weeks | High | You want one good plant this season |
| Beheading a stretched plant | Six to ten weeks for the head | High, plus offsets on the stump | The stem has lengthened and the plant is leaning |
Leaf propagation, and why patience is the whole skill
A pachyphytum leaf must come away with its entire base intact, including the small growing point at the very bottom where it joined the stem. Rock the leaf gently from side to side until it releases, and do not pull it straight out. A leaf that tears, or that leaves a sliver of tissue behind on the stem, has no bud on it and will sit firm and green for months without ever sprouting.
Lay detached leaves on a dry surface out of direct sun for five to seven days, which is longer than most succulents need, until the base has dried to a hard scar. Then rest them on the surface of dry gritty mix in a shallow tray, base touching but not buried, in bright indirect light.
Give no water at all until roots appear, which typically takes three to six weeks. Then mist the compost surface, not the leaf, every few days so the roots have somewhere to go. A tiny rosette follows the roots, usually one to three months later, and it grows very slowly at first because the mother leaf is enormous relative to it and releases its water grudgingly. Leave the mother leaf attached until it withers away by itself, which can take most of a year.
Do not clear the tray early. Pachyphytum leaves routinely do nothing for two or three months and then start. As long as a leaf is still firm rather than papery or squashy, it is still alive and still worth leaving where it is.
Beheading a stretched plant, step by step
Given enough time every pachyphytum lengthens its stem, sheds its lowest leaves and starts to lean sideways out of the pot under the weight of the head. This is not a fault you can correct by watering or feeding differently. The remedy is to cut the head off and root it, which resets the plant to a compact rosette sitting on the compost and rejuvenates the old stem at the same time.
- Cut in spring or early autumn with clean snips Take the rosette with two to four inches (5 to 10 cm) of stem below it. Cut cleanly in one action rather than sawing, and hold the plant by the stem below the cut point so your hands stay off the leaves entirely.
- Strip the lowest leaves and keep them Remove the bottom few leaves from the cutting to leave a bare inch or two (3 to 5 cm) of stem to push into compost. Rock each one off cleanly and lay them in the propagation tray rather than throwing them away.
- Dry the cut for a week Stand the cutting upright in an empty pot or a jar, somewhere dry, shaded and airy, for five to ten days until the cut end has sealed into a firm dry scar. A thick stem full of water takes longer than you expect, and planting it early is the main reason cuttings rot.
- Push it into dry gritty mix and leave it dry Set it an inch (2 to 3 cm) deep, deep enough to stand up, and prop it with two or three stones if it wants to fall over. Give no water for another week. Bright indirect light, not full sun.
- Begin light watering, then normal watering once rooted After that week, moisten the compost lightly every week or so. Roots come in two to four weeks in warm weather. A gentle tug that meets resistance means it has rooted, at which point switch to the usual full soak and long dry cycle.
- Keep the old stump and water it as usual Leave the cut stem in its pot in good light and water it as you did before. Within a few weeks it branches from the leaf axils below the cut, usually giving two to four new rosettes, and that stump becomes a fuller plant than the original ever was.
What goes wrong
Three failures account for nearly everything. A leaf that stays firm for months and then shrivels to paper without rooting was torn at the base and never had a bud. Anything that turns translucent, yellow and soft was kept damp, either buried in compost or misted before it had callused, and there is no saving it. A cutting that shrivels from the top down while the stem stays firm has simply not rooted yet and is drawing on its own reserves, which is normal, and adding water at that stage causes rot rather than helping.
The other common disappointment is a leaf that roots well but never produces a rosette. That is nearly always too little light or too little warmth. Move the tray somewhere brighter and warmer and many of them start within a few weeks.
Label every tray and cutting with the date it was taken and where it came from. On a plant whose propagation runs across half a year, a tray of identical fat leaves is unreadable after a month without a label, and once you have recorded how long roots and rosettes actually take in your own conditions you stop giving up on batches that were simply running to schedule.