The other day I did some pruning of the terrarium succulents, leaving me with lots of propagation material.
Here's what I did with this pile of trimmings.
I started by removing the dead leaves from the echeveria:
They didn't pull off as easily as I had hoped, so I didn't get all of them. Enough to get some clear lengths of stems though.
Pretty pile of leaves!
This one looks a bit shriveled:
Not sure that it will be okay, but I hope so.
Both large pieces of the kalanchoe...
...were cut into smaller pieces:
I wasn't putting much effort into this, nor was I being too careful. They are succulents after all, and my experience with them told me that almost every part will root and survive.
The cats were getting curious:
I think they liked the fuzzy leaves, or maybe the kalanchoe has an attractive scent when cut?
Now planting... so simple.
The echeveria stems were all put into the same pot:
Except for the biggest rosette:
And a couple of stems:
The kalanchoe were put into individual pots...
...but I also crammed three or four or five into bigger pots.
I used a standard peat-based potting mix with a little more perlite added, and a lot of course sand -- drainage is pretty important, even though these won't be getting too much water on my growing table.
I'm hoping to have a really nice succulent display on the deck next summer.
(Note that I'm procrastinating on removing the cactus from the terrarium. I suppose I'll have to do that soon though...)
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It's cool how resilient succulents are and how well even small cuttings do. Looks like you'll have a great deck display next season!
ReplyDeletePeter: you're right about that! I especially love it when new plants grow from a single leaf that had fallen. :)
ReplyDeleteYou're gonna have a succulent forest next summer. Love the shot with the curious kitties!
ReplyDeletePropagation is one parts of gardening I enjoy most, it looks like you are going to be very successful this coming year.
ReplyDeleteSucculents are my new favorite - so resilient, so many varieties, and all so unique!
ReplyDeleteLoree: it's weird that they both jumped up as soon as I started cutting the Kalanchoe.
ReplyDeleteCharlie: Me too -- I love making new plants (to keep or give away).
Lisa: They can't be beat when chosen correctly -- although choosing incorrectly is fun too if you like bringing plants indoors for the winter. :)