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Growing Succulents and Cacti from Cuttings

Growing Succulents and Cacti from Cuttings Featured Image
Got succulents and cacti? Then share them with your friends! These fleshy plants are some of the easiest to propagate from cuttings. So, if you have a special succulent house plant or garden succulent you want to propagate to swap or share, it’s easy to do.
Plants from deserts and other arid lands rarely experience reproduction from seed because water is not plentiful. One common arid plant adaptation is quick rooting of stems and leaves as a means of spreading and reproducing without the need for seeds. For this reason, many dryland plants root quickly from leaf, stem, or tip cuttings. Here are some easy methods for propagating different succulent and cactus types at home.

Leaf Cuttings

Jade plant leaf cuttings
These jade plant leaf cuttings show the progression of rooting and plantlet development.

Common succulents with large leaves, such as aonium (Aeonium arboreum), jade plants (Crassula spp.), and kalanchoe (Kalanchoe  spp.), are all easily propagated from single leaves. The process is simple, and the needed materials are few. Here is what you will need and what to do:

Materials

  1. Succulent leaf cuttings
  2. Sharp knife
  3. Shallow pots with bottom saucers/tray
  4. Perlite or porous growing mix
  5. Grow lights or a bright window
  6. Rooting hormone with an anti-fungal additive (optional)

Method

Succulents with large, fleshy leaves for leaf-cutting propagation
Succulents with large, fleshy leaves are perfect for leaf-cutting propagation.

Use a sharp knife to gently cut healthy leaves from the stem. Dip the bases of the leaves into rooting hormone; rooting hormone hastens the rooting process and reduces rot but is not necessary. Gently moisten the perlite or potting mix and nestle the bases of the leaves into the mix, making sure the bases are partially covered. Place the pots in a spot with bright, filtered light and keep the perlite or mix lightly moist to almost dry. Over a matter of weeks, the bases will root and small plantlets will appear. You can pot them up once they have several leaflets.

Pups

Orostachys
This Orostachys has developed stems of pups that can be cut from the mother plant and rooted.

Many succulents with rosettes, like Agave, aloes (Aloe spp.), Dudleya, tender stonecrop (Echeveria spp.), Gasteria spp., Orostachys, and hens & chicks (Sempervivum spp.), reproduce by sending out stems of new rosettes, called “pups”. These are very easy to snip from the stem and root in fresh, porous mix. In this case, no rooting hormone is needed. Just a small pot of mix will do. Nestle the base of each pup in the mix, and keep the mix lightly moist to dry, and the pup will root in no time.  [Click here to read an article about starting agave pups.]

Stem and Tip Cuttings

Cutting paddle stems of prickly pear
The cut paddle stems of prickly pear will quickly root into whole new plants.

Succulents with smaller leaves, like sedums, or no leaves, like cacti, are best propagated by tip or stem cuttings. Tip and stem cuttings require most of the same materials as leaf cuttings. With tip cuttings, you remove the very tip of a growing point. Simply cut or snip off the tip, remove several of the bottom leaves, dip in rooting hormone and nestle it in perlite or potting mix. Stem cuttings are comparable but you cut a larger stem for a larger, more robust start.
When taking cuttings from cacti, always wear thick gloves. Cut a candle, side stem, or pad from the cactus, dip the cut base in rooting hormone and nestle it in a pot of perlite, which is faster draining and better for cactus starts. In a matter of weeks it should root.

Potting Cacti and Succulent Starts

Colourful succulents
Once your cuttings have rooted, you can transplant them into their own pots of mix.

When your cuttings have set root and begun to grow, it’s time to plant them. Choose small pots that are the right size for each plant, and fill them with Black Gold Cactus Mix, or Fafard Professional Potting Mix amended with a 2:1 ratio of perlite. Both mixes are perfect for growing cactus and succulents. Cover the roots of your new starts, water them in, and keep them just moist to dry. During the winter months, water them very little to none to avoid root rot.
Once you learn how to propagate succulents, swap them with other succulent lovers to add new, exciting plants to your collection. These easy-to-grow house plants are always welcome to any plant lover.

Cacti and Succulent House Plants

Kalanchoe blossfeldiana
The colorful Kalanchoe blossfeldiana blooms for a long period in winter. (photo by Jessie Keith)

If the ideal house plant existed, it would be a specimen that combined eye-catching good looks with the ability to survive on a diet of almost total neglect. That kind of perfection is unattainable, but succulent house plants come close.

Native to dry climates and situations, succulents have evolved over the millennia into efficient water-storage vessels, hoarding precious moisture in fleshy leaves and stems. The sheer number of available species and varieties is enormous and includes sedum, aloe, euphorbia, sempervivum, jade plant, hens and chicks, kalanchoe, many types of desert and jungle cacti, aeonium and living stones. Shapes, sizes, and colors vary widely, from the complex rosettes of “saucer” aeonium (Aeonium tabuliforme) to the statuesque beauty of a mature jade plant (Crassula ovata). Succulents practically beg to be shown off and grow equally well in standard containers, grouped in dish gardens or mounted as living wreaths.
Some of the most interesting and colorful types are described below.

Suite of rosette echeveria succulents
A suite of rosette-forming succulents for indoor growing. (photo by Maureen Gilmer)

Thorns and Rosettes

A relative of the common holiday poinsettia plant, crown-of-thorns (Euphorbia milii) is among the most popular of the many euphorbias. Evergreen, shrubby and succulent, it reaches about two feet tall as a houseplant. Crown of thorns is also true to its name, featuring intimidating thorn-covered stems. Rounded flower clusters with large, petal-like bracts in shades of red, yellow, orange, white or peach help compensate for the prickles.
If you prefer rosettes to thorns, try tree houseleek (Aeonium) or hens and chicks (Echeveria), both of which bear flower-like rosettes of fleshy leaves in colors ranging from silvery gray-green to reddish bronze. Some species, such as Mexican snowball (Echeveria elegans) are also noted for their showy, bi-colored flowers

A Cast of Many Cacti

Not all succulents are cacti, but all cacti are succulents. True cacti are members of the Cactaceae family and many of the best known are covered with the protective prickles for which the clan is famed. Handle household cacti with care and keep them away from children and pets. Prickles aside, cactus family members boast interesting shapes, colorful flowers, and undemanding natures, making them excellent houseplants. Traditional favorites include the shaggy “old man” cactus (Cephalocereus senilis), an erect, columnar plant covered with long white hairs. It has the potential to grow tall but does so very slowly.

Succulents in pots
Succulent collections such as these need to be separated and repotted after a year or so, if each plant to grow successfully.

Little Bolivian cactus (Rebutia puchella) is part of the genus sometimes known collectively as “crown cacti”. Growing only about six inches tall, it bears batches of vivid orange blooms in summer and succeeded handsomely in a small container. Another low grower with bright carmine-pink flowers is rose pincushion cactus (Mammillaria zeilmanniana), which features a rounded form and summer blooming habit. Like Bolivian cactus, it is small. A four-year-old specimen is likely to be only four inches across.
Many mammillarias, with their appealing rounded shapes, succeed as houseplants. In addition to the rose pincushion type, popular species include snowball or powder puff pincushion cactus (Mammillaria bocasana) and silver cluster cactus (Mammillaria prolifera), featuring a plethora of small, silvery globes sporting bright red blooms.

Holiday Cacti

Though they are part of the cactus family, holiday cacti (Schlumbergera spp.) are rain forest natives. Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter cacti are closely related species, distinguished from each other by bloom time and leaf shape. Many commercially available varieties are hybrids. All holiday cacti all feature sprawling, succulent “leaves” that are actually flattened stems. The bright flowers produced at the stem tips run the gamut of the color spectrum, with the exception of green and blue. In the fall and winter, holiday cacti are sold in bud, ready to bloom for the celebration season. They can easily be kept and nurtured for years afterward.
Holiday cacti need somewhat less light and more frequent watering than their prickly cactus cousins. Position away from direct sunlight and promote flowering by placing pots on trays filled with pebbles and water.

Holiday Cactus
Holiday cacti (Schlumbergera spp.) are some of the must colorful succulents for the holidays.

Kalanchoe

Another succulent that lends color to the winter houseplant array is kalanchoe (Kalanchoe blossfeldiana). The upright plants are distinguished by fleshy, scalloped leaves that set off the clusters of small, bright flowers held above them. The flower color range is roughly the same as for holiday cacti and double-flowered kalanchoe varieties are widely available. Related to the jade plant, kalanchoe is a medium-sized specimen, growing up to eighteen inches tall. Under normal home conditions, the blooms last up to six weeks.

Succulent Care

Good succulent care begins with high-quality, free-draining potting medium, like Fafard® Cactus & Succulent Potting Mix. With the exception of holiday cacti, most succulents thrive on at least four hours of sunlight per day and relish the low humidity of the average home in winter. Indoors, position the plants in your sunniest window. The quickest way to kill succulents is by overwatering, so let the potting mix dry out thoroughly between waterings. Feed only during the active growth period—spring and summer—and use either a specialty fertilizer according to package directions or general-purpose fertilizer diluted to one-quarter strength.