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an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.

Succulentpart3

see part one here! and part two here!

About two months ago, following this awesome tutorial, I trimmed the leaves off my "leggy" succulent plant in an attempt to propagate (grow tiny new plants) from the cuttings. I am sharing my progress in real time, to give you (and me!) a REAL idea of how long this takes.

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The biggest change is that my original cut stalks now have decent sized florets growing out of them. There were originally six stalks. One has shriveled up, three have great little blooms and two have tiny blooms. It won't be long now until this pot holds a real plant again.

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The tops have grown substantial roots, enough that I decided to replant all six of them in another pot.

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I buried their roots and hopefully they will start to take hold.

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The leaf cuttings remain pretty boring. All have roots, but very few have the beginnings of new plants (as shown above).

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I transferred the best looking ones to their own small pot and we'll see what happens there.

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I am going to keep the other cuttings in my pie tin for one more month to see what happens – if nothing, I'll trash them and move forward with my other little guys.

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I've moved all the pots (and the entire plant stand) outside for now (less baby interference out there) and I'll continue to keep you posted.

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This week on ELISE GETS CRAFTY, I'm chatting with Kayla Aimee about getting a book deal and making time to write. Subscribe on iTunes or stream the episode here.

 

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15 responses to “adventures in succulent propagating / part 3.”

  1. Susan M Avatar

    Great photos and yip-pee for the new podcast!!!! They have been so informative and I especially loved last weeks episode. When you mentioned to think about your over all goal money wise and think of how many “things” you have to sell in order to reach that goal was super eye opening and like, well, ya why didn’t i think of that! Love them and thanks for sharing all your knowledge with us.

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  2. Lauren Avatar

    I did some propagating in FebruAry and thought something was wrong because it’s taking so long. Still the ugliest plant in our house.

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  3. Paige @ Lux Per Diem Avatar

    succulants are some of the most alien looking little plants, but not I want to try and start growing a bunch!

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  4. Jennie Avatar
    Jennie

    When I took flower arranging in college (I know, I know…I needed some credits senior year to stay full-time and wanted fun…took this and golf LOL), we did a propagating section and the instructor had us actually put the leaf cuttings into the dirt (just the bottom tip, so they all kind of “stand up”). My plants have done this naturally a few times at home and grown full new and thick plants. You might try that on just a few and see if it works for yours. We are in very different climates, though (I’m in Indy), and I’m not sure if that matters?

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  5. Mary Avatar

    I was inspired to start the propogating adventure after seeing your first attempts on Instagram. I’ve noticed some of my succulent leaves are taking to this better than others. Half the varieties did great and almost all of their leaves have beginnings of new plants. The other half (the ones with more rounded leaves) aren’t doing anything. Based purely on this experiment it seems like some varieties do better at different parts of this process than others.

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  6. Martina Avatar

    I starting doing the leaf propagation around the same time as you and of the 6 leaves that shoot out a ton of roots only one has a new leaf buds on it. I thought I was doing something wrong but now I guess it just takes forever! I’ll keep going so 🙂

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  7. Jody Avatar
    Jody

    Last month I bought a new donkey tail. It was in a hideous container. I tried my best but I still lost a few leaves during transfer. I just took all of them and laid them a top dirt in a pie plate. All of them have sprouted baby plants and roots. The last few weeks I’ve been lightly misting once a week, but other than that I haven’t done anything else. The baby plants are so cute!

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  8. Anna Kristina Avatar

    How often are you watering? Once they started budding leaves, I started watering just a little every few days, making sure the soil is dry between waterings, and mine are growing well (still tiny though). Timing could depend on the variety, but maybe try watering a couple test cuttings, to see if that makes a difference?

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  9. J3SS1C4 Avatar

    Wow, it’s hard to believe that those cuttings are starting to turn into real plants again! It’s always fun when you take a cutting of something and it takes off like that! It’s quite magic! 🙂

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  10. Emily Avatar
    Emily

    My fave podcast to date! I have been a fan of KA for years (since we were all on 2Peas!) – I think she is both hilarious and inspiring. Plus, it has always been my dream to write a book – so I thought you asked fantastic questions and she had informative content to share! thanks, Elise!

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  11. Welcome Home Taylor Avatar

    I love seeing this in real time! So cool!
    xoxo
    Taylor

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  12. Sydney McFerron Avatar

    always wanted to try this hmmmmmmm. gonna try it. Thanks!
    narwhal kisses,
    Sydney
    indie-and-co.com

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  13. Katherine Avatar
    Katherine

    Waiting for my leaves to grow little babies, too. It’s a boring process until you happen to check one day and find little guys growing!

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  14. tammy Avatar
    tammy

    I was following along with you on this. I had leaf cuttings from a friends plant, so no stalks. All of them looked awful except one. I got annoyed and pitched them all one day. :/

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  15. kristin Avatar

    I love succulents. I’ve started collecting them and am gaining more with time. Great post.

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