Water Propagation: Beginners Guide
Depending on the plant you have, there are several ways to multiply your plants from your existing plants through plant propagation. For most plants, propagation is done best in potting soil. However, there are also plants that grow well through water propagation. It won’t always be successful, but it’ll be extremely satisfying when you can watch your baby plants grow!
How to Do Water Propagation
There are several materials you need to prepare before you proceed with water propagation. These include:
- Small glass jar or bottle
- Water in room temperature
- Scissors or pruning shears
Which Plants Work Best for Water Propagation?
Although most plants work perfectly for water propagation, not all do. Those plants that belong to the Araceae family are the ones that thrive best with this particular method as these originated from plants that grew in swamps or by water. You might not be lucky enough to water propagate a prickly pear cactus, for example, since it doesn’t like being in water.
This means that it can be fun to experiment as long as you are okay with trial and error. However, if you want the best chance of success, you can water propagate the following plants:
- Pothos
- ZZ plant
- Anthurium
- Philodendron
- Monstera
- Peperomia
- Spider plants
- Croton
Here are the steps on how to propagate your indoor plants in water:
- Look for a root node below the leaf or stem juncture in a healthy branch. The root nodes of trailing and vining plants can be found right under each leaf. You should cut a couple of inches before these root nodes as this is where new roots are going to grow. Your cutting should be at least 3 inches in total with a few sets of healthy leaves.
- Put the cutting in a bottle with room temperature water while its cut is still fresh. Place the cutting into an area where it can get lots of indirect bright sunlight.
- This is the time to wait. One of the biggest parts of water propagation is patience. Don’t expect your new plants to grow in just several days. Hold out for a little longer. There are plants that can root really fast while others may take longer. Practice patience. You might have to wait for another week.
- Change the water on a regular basis. Make sure there is no murkiness in the water.
- Let the cutting stay in the water until its roots reach a length of at least 2 to 4 inches. Once so, pot the cutting in fresh soil in a small planter and care for it regularly.
Things to Watch Out For
If you want to transplant plant cuttings from their glass container to a planter with potting, you might want to wait until the roots are at least an inch long or more. It can take up to 4 to 6 weeks. After you pot the roots in a fresh potting mix, you can now saturate the mix with water at room temperature and put it in indirect bright sunlight. Allow the mix to dry out in between watering sessions.
Water lacks nutrients and the longer the cutting sits in water, the higher the risks for possible fungal infections. Change the water regularly to avoid this problem and add a small amount of fertilizer monthly or so during summer and spring growing seasons.
Thanks to water propagation, it is now easier than ever to re-grow your indoor plants with no need to buy again. Give it a try today and enjoy more greens soon!