I have had great success with propagating/rooting house plants in water, inspired by this thread. Snake plants, Hoyas, philodendron, and a wide variety of others. I've just chopped my fiddle leaf fig by half (to encourage branching, as it finally reached the ceiling) and now have six cuttings in water currently just starting white root buds from their stems.
I've been doing some research, and it seems 'water roots' are different than 'soil roots'.
That makes sense. As plants destined for soil, what is the optimal length of root to establish in water prior to potting into soil? Has anyone done any experiments? Do these 'water roots' turn into 'soil roots' quickly?
The trouble is, you bung them in a glass of water and unexpectedly, they root. You pot them into soil.They mature into healthy young plants. Now what? Where do you put them? Do you need another three or even six or even one?.
Give them away B3. We do it because we can and they are free plants. It's a bit like why do we climb mountains - well I don't but others do - but you know what I mean.
I don't really know why but I have an addiction to raising, or attempting to raise plants from cuttings. I'm often left with a dozen or so plants that I didn't really want but it's easy to pass on them.
The ones I had to many of last year were the hardy kiwi fruits which are simplicity itself in water.
As to the question how long do you leave them in water, I have had most success when potting on as soon as the small roots begin to develop. If you leave them to long then they can be hard to transition but I think as they are just starting to develop, they are much easier. If you have really long roots then I would keep the compost pretty wet during the transition but I don't know if they have to essentially grow a new root structure to deal with the soil conditions or if the water roots can actually transition on their own. It's is interesting but although sometimes harder I've seen evidence that soil grown cuttings develop into bigger plants faster, probably due to the extra oxygen.
Thanks everyone! I suppose with six I have opportunity to experiment. One potted into soil each week, then I can see how they do across the year. Not a great experiment though, I expect the cutting from the top with the active growth point will do best.
Crassula definitely roots better in soil. I tried both. The water ones rooted - eventually but the soil ones are romping away. Too many! I'll leave them out the front for passers by .
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I always leave them in the water until there’s a lot of root, then gently lay them on a small layer of compost and trickle the rest over the top.
Now what? Where do you put them? Do you need another three or even six or even one?.
The ones I had to many of last year were the hardy kiwi fruits which are simplicity itself in water.
As to the question how long do you leave them in water, I have had most success when potting on as soon as the small roots begin to develop. If you leave them to long then they can be hard to transition but I think as they are just starting to develop, they are much easier. If you have really long roots then I would keep the compost pretty wet during the transition but I don't know if they have to essentially grow a new root structure to deal with the soil conditions or if the water roots can actually transition on their own. It's is interesting but although sometimes harder I've seen evidence that soil grown cuttings develop into bigger plants faster, probably due to the extra oxygen.