Water propagation is easy! It's a budget friendly way to build your IG worthy plant hoarding collection—you know you want to. It is also a great way to collect rare plants since asking for cuttings of curated plants from someone’s collection is easier than finding a full rare plant out in the world.

What Type of Plants can be Propagated?

Most houseplants can be propagated in water.

The softer the stem the better the chance for propagation. Think of a houseplant stem like a pothos which is easy to propagate vs a hard stick like clipping from a hedge which takes a lot more effort and is much more involved.

How to Propagate Plants in Water: Step by Step

1. Cut the Plant

• Decide where you want to cut a clipping from the mother plant.
• The more leaves on the cutting the better.
• Plants with aerial roots or nodes are easiest to propagate.
• Find the plant node or arial root and cut below the plant node leaving preferably at least 1/4 inch to 1 inch of stem.
• Be careful to leave a clean cut and not crush the stem of the plant.

2. Place the cutting in a Propagation Vessel 

• Place the cutting into room temperature water right away.
• You may need to remove a bottom leaf or two to have a stem with 1/4-1 inch length.
• You can use a clear glass with full light coverage that will prop up the cutting while allowing roots to be submerged like our Water Propagation Vessels.

3. Care for Your Cutting

• Make sure that the stem and any nodes remain under water as water evaporates.
• Place it in a windowsill or other sunny spot making sure that the cutting can get light from all sides.
• Change the water weekly or sooner if it looks cloudy.
• Room temperature water is best. Tap water is fine but if you have water that is too harsh to water your plants you can use filtered water.
• You can run the plant stem (and roots when they appear) under running water to gently clean the cutting.
• Watch for the roots of your plant to grow! Different plants take different amounts of time to root. Some take a week and others can take months. As long as the clipping still has leaves and looks healthy, it can still root!

• Keep the soil moist but not wet until new growth appears letting you know the plant is established.

Thanks for reading and happy growing! 

Let us know how your propagation went at care@tierrasolstudio and make sure to sign up for our Plant Killer Email List in order to receive notifications about future how to’s like these!

xo,

Seana