How to Propagate Jade Plant With Leaf Cuttings

Did you know you could easily grow a brand new jade plant from just a single leaf? Yes, all you need is some soil and a leaf and you can create brand new life. Amazing, and this is the easy process. If you're a good guy or gal then you'll be pruning your jade plant fairly regularly. And this is the perfect time to make some cheeky leaf cuttings. If you've never pruned your jade before then get to it. It's the cheat code for getting a big bushy plant with a nice thick trunk. And we all want a nice thick trunk, don't we? Instead of grabbing your pruned stem and making just one cutting, why not get far more bang for your buck and make hundreds? Well, maybe not hundreds but at least 10. Enough to turn your home into a semi-jade jungle anyway. It's dead simple too. You'll actually be amazed at how simple this is. The only slight snag is that it does take a long time to get a fully fledged plant. We're talking years. But who cares? We're on this planet long enough after all, aren't we? So, grab your pruners and hack a nice large piece of stem off. Don't panic, it will grow back. Plants always grow back. In fact, it'll grow back extra bushy. Look, wherever you make a cut, two new stems will grow back in its place. Pretty neat, eh? It is a good idea to spray your pruners with hydrogen peroxide to kill off any nasties from your pruners. We don't want to fail before we've barely begun. And don't do all this to a dehydrated plant. I'd aim to water the plant a week before. You'll get better results. Next, we just simply remove the leaves. And we use our good old thumbs and fingers for this part. Try not to be too much of an ape like I tend to be. Pull off the leaf as near to the stem as possible. This is where the root making magic will happen and we want as much leaf tissue as possible. Now the school of thought here is to leave the cuttings to callous over for a few days. Callous over just means letting the wound at the end kind of scab over. It's meant to stop excess moisture getting into the tissue through the wound, rotting the cutting and ruining the propagation. But I actually don't do this. Partly because I'm lazy and partly because I live in a house with a wife that loves to play tidy up rumba and an inquisitive three year old that loves to put anything lying around in his belly. I've done this process lots of times and I get good results without doing this. But the choice is yours my plant friend. Just don't try and sue me if it all goes wrong. There, that's my disclaimer done. The next step is to grab something to put your cuttings in. I like to use these large plastic saucers that plants normally sit in so that I can get a bunch of leaf cuttings in together. But feel free to use whatever you have. It doesn't have to be especially deep or anything because jade roots aren't that substantial. We're not rooting monstera here. Now you could dip the cuttings into some rooting powder at this stage if you want. But in my experience they root just fine without it. Grab some soil next. No need to mess around with sphagnum moss, soil would be just fine. Make it a mix suitable for succulents though. You know, nothing too heavy that is going to retain water. This succulent mix from Cybotanica, link in the description by the way, has bits of perlite and bark to make it nice and light. Perfect. Fill your tray with a nice even layer of soil and pat it down a bit. It's a good idea to get it reasonably level but certainly no need to get the spirit level out. And then we just simply lay the leaves on top. That's it, nothing more. No soil on top or anything. Just let them sit there. All they need is slight contact with soil at the cut end and roots will be hungry to grow. It really is amazing isn't it? But jades really are the easiest plant to propagate. It even looks quite pretty. If only Mrs Shuffle thought the same. Now the mistake here would be to grab your watering can and splash water all over the cuttings and soil. This is OTT my plant friend and likely to drown your poor fellas. The soil doesn't need to be wet, just moist. And to achieve this give everything a few spritz with your trusty spray bottle. The soil does not want to be soggy, just lightly damp. The next step is to stick them somewhere where they can soak up some vitamin D. Not in direct sunlight though, this will fry them to a cinder. The perfect place is actually under a grow light. You have total control of how much light they get and for how long. You're basically playing God and who doesn't love that? The soil will dry out, particularly if you have them in a tray with a wide surface area like this. So make sure you keep on top of spritzing them. You don't want them to dry out too much. For reference I spray every two or three days but don't fret too much about it. As long as they're not bone dry or sopping wet you should be fine. And as if by magic here is one I made earlier. Look at that, pretty cool right? It took about three weeks for roots to develop and then about another week or two for the green growth to show its face. If it's been a couple of months and you're still not seeing any action then try popping it in a clear plastic bag to raise the humidity. This always helps move cuttings along. I do just love them when they're this small. I really do feel like I've given birth to a litter of green pups which is obviously not scientifically possible. The aim of the game is to now nurture them into adults. Wipe their nose, wipe their bum and above all show the patience of a saint. When they're big enough and ugly enough to fend for themselves just simply prise them out of their nursery and pop them into their new home. Well not quite. You still need to mother them don't you? Which can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming. I mean how much light do they need? Bright indirect light right? Not quite. They'll throw their dummies out of their pram if you do that and in this video here I explain why as well as a bunch of other mistakes you need to avoid with this plant. So make sure you check it out as well as subscribe to this channel of course.