Succulent Propagation Essentials

I'm Debra Lee Baldwin, author of three books about succulents and how to use them in gardens, pots, and landscapes. In this video, I'll show you common ways that succulents propagate, whether you help them or not, and whether you like it or not. When it happens, you may be delighted or dismayed. Delighted because you get free plants, dismayed because you have too many. Today, we're focusing on what you're likely to observe while tending succulents in your garden or pots. I don't talk to my succulents. I listen to them. They're good at telling me what's going on with them. It all comes down to observation. For example, you may have noticed how leaves of sedums, graptopetalums, pachyphytums, and pachybarias fall off if you merely brush against them. This is infuriating, but consider the plant's perspective. They're trying to grow clones of themselves from their leaves. This is Sedum rubrotinctum aurorae. Now, if you can take a succulent cutting, and when you push on the leaves, they pop off easily. That plant is telling you it wants to propagate from those plump, juicy little leaves, and that tissue right there at the tip is meristem tissue that is capable of producing little beak-like leaves and little thread-like roots that will grow a whole new plant, just like mom. You know that little snap you hear when a leaf pops off? Okay, so you see what we've got here? We've got a little tiny bit of tissue that was attached to the stem, and that's where new leaves and roots will form. And if you want to propagate it from its leaves, you can just gently twist, and that's less likely to damage that very important growth tissue. Toss fallen leaves on the ground or the soil of a pot underneath a mother plant, because that's what they would do normally. Sedum morganianum, commonly called the is one of those with leaves that easily fall off. Here, it's planted too low in a pot, and as stems grow up and over it, the rim of the pot is shearing off the leaves. Here's another example of succulents that rooted where they fell. Oasis Nursery in Escondido, California sometimes sells nursery flats filled with tiny rooted sedums. Little pieces of the plants strewn over a tray filled with soil start readily and crowd together. Such flats are good as filler for potted succulent arrangements, flower beds, and window boxes. Now if you have a succulent and you push down on its leaves, and this is a sedum too, but you can really push on those leaves. You can brush up against them. Now you can probably propagate this from its leaves, but that's not the main way the plant wants you to do it. It would rather you used the meristematic tissue that's along its stem, those bands, and you can see that better on these jade plant cuttings. Jades will prune themselves. This is a golem jade that has dropped a stem. They do that, and you can see where it's got new little roots that want to go downward, and the whole cutting is going to kind of curl up into a U, where the leaves go up, and those little roots go down, and you'll find it on the floor beneath your plants. And sometimes you'll just find pieces of your succulents that are feathered with little roots, and they're telling you, plant me before I dry out. Now this is a tephra cactus articulatus, or paper spine cactus. You just sort of push against it, and there, it comes right off. Now what it's trying to do is what a lot of opuntia or paddle cactus want to do. This is very closely related. They want to latch on to a passing animal, coyote, bunny, person, and get carried over to another spot where they can fall off en route, well away from where they're competing with mom. Very smart. So that's what it's trying to do, and it will latch on to you if you're not careful. It's not one of the more dangerous succulents, but it does have glockens, which are little hooked spines that you can barely see. And this is one plant that everybody who visits wants a cutting of. So I usually have a few kicking around that have fallen off all on their own and landed below the plant. Here's one I can't wait to show you. Look at this. Okay, you see how those roots have formed there? And it even has a baby coming out of the top. So it's happily propagating itself, but I can fill this, it's a base actually, with water and just set the cutting in there like that, and the cutting senses that there's moisture, and it encourages it to grow roots. Or this little nursery pot is just perfect for it. Just sort of settle it in there, and before you know it, you have a rooted plant ready to be potted. If you wonder why cacti tend to fall over or break apart easily, consider how that helps them propagate. Apuntia, commonly called paddle cacti or prickly pear, will propagate itself from a single fallen pad. Roots not only grow from the stem end, they grow from areoles as well, the tissue from which spines emerge. Columnar species tend to be shallow-rooted and top-heavy. By falling over, this one was able to create a family of clones. They'll grow upward and send roots downward while continuing to be nourished by the mother plant. Stems on plants may send roots into thin air, like this sedum and this aeonium. Such aerial roots are almost always about propagation, but also may be a cry for help. Agraptopetalum, at risk of dying from lack of water, produced aerial roots, hoping they'll reach moist soil and revive the plant. I use the terms offsets, plantlets, and pups interchangeably to refer to baby plants that grow from the parent via a botanical umbilical cord. Depending on the type of succulent, this pipeline of nutrients could be above or below the soil. This semper vivum is sending its offspring in search of soil in which to root. Because they can't see, the best they can do is feel their way along and hope for the best. Look closely and you can see thread-like aerial roots forming at their bases. Arguably the most efficient succulents when it comes to propagation are agaves, especially those that pup, meaning they produce clones of the mother plant from their roots. Pups grow from underground roots that run parallel to the surface of the soil. These are white until they break through. When exposed to the sun, root tips then form leaves that turn green and photosynthesize. In other words, they have chlorophyll that interacts with the sun to create the energy baby agaves need to grow and thrive. Depending on the species of agave, when you buy one plant you might get a dozen. This agave americana's pups appear to squirm and kick as they try to escape from the container. Even if pups grow several feet from the parent plant, mom sees to it her pups are nourished. Agave angustifolia variegata is so eager to reproduce it's pushing pups out the bottom of its pot. Agave lofanta is prolific so it's good it doesn't get much bigger than a soccer ball. This is the variegate quadricolor. Doesn't this agave lofanta look proud of her offsets? Pups of agaves will go on to produce their own pups and grandpups. The most aggressive is agave americana, commonly called century plant. They'll commandeer prime real estate and become too large, fanged, and pointy to remove easily. If what you want is one large majestic agave, dig up its pups before they get much bigger than cantaloupes. Or go with a gorgeous large agave that doesn't pup, like whale's tongue, agave ovatifolia. You may think pups look cool like this agave americana marginata with feral plantlets poking out of gaps in a terrace. No, they're baby alligators, cute until they get huge. Agaves also reproduce by flowering. You know an agave is going to bloom when its center leaves come together like praying hands. Depending on the type of agave, baby plants with bulbous bases may form on its bloom stock. When these bulbils land on the ground and conditions are right, roots will grow from their bases. I started them in a nursery flat filled with potting soil. Learn more in my video on flowering agaves. Like agaves, other succulents produce offsets that stay attached to and are fed by the mother plant via umbilical-like roots or stems. Most aloes, if they pup at all, do so politely. But one in particular, alo maculata, formerly alo saponaria, can be as promiscuous as any agave. It's almost as though it's saying, I'm going to send out roots from which pups pop up and they'll keep doing it on their own forever. When it comes to digging out unwanted offsets, aloes are not as bad as agaves. Aloes typically have teeth, but they're not as sharp, more like points of stiff wax. If you're potting up a succulent and you notice it already has offsets, expect them to grow and fill the pot. You might want to go up a pot size to give them plenty of room. Calanchoes evidently can't be bothered to nourish their tiny clones, which follow the edges of leaves as soon as they're mature enough to grow roots. They're very good at surviving and can be weedy. I'd actually like more mother-of-thousands. Their bell-shaped flowers are gorgeous. In my garden's less-than-ideal conditions, mother-of-thousands, calanchoe diagramontiana and other bryophyllums, and fairy crassula, the botanical for that is crassula multicava, get beaten back by heat, frost, sun, poor soil, and minimal water. Aworthia is very efficient at creating offsets from their roots, but every so often a plant will produce one or more plantlets on its flower spike. This one probably wants to propagate the colony into a less crowded area beyond the pot. Cacti, agaves, mangaves, and other succulents produce offsets as a result of tissue damage. I'll go for the root of a barrel cactus right up into its core, which stimulated the plant's meristem tissue. To remove an offset, grasp it with rubber-tipped tongs and gently twist. Wait a few days until the raw end is dry and hard, then nestle the baby plant in coarse, well-draining soil. In 2018, I used florist pins to secure holiday lights around the base of this barrel cactus, Glaucessens. This is how it looked four years later, ringed with offsets that grew where I had inadvertently damaged the tissue. Damaging the meristem is a method professional growers and collectors use to propagate succulents. They will, for example, cut out the cores of agaves, then remove the little clones that result. I've also seen it done with echeverias. When it comes to pollinating succulent flowers, the nectar-gathering visits of bees and birds do occasionally result in fruit and fertile seeds, especially for plants native to their region. Among those in the southwest are cacti, agaves, and yuccas. Non-natives like aloes and haworthias need more help, which is a great hobby, but beyond the scope of this video. Golden barrels need to be about 14 inches in diameter to flower. Figure an inch of growth per year. Find seeds in capsules beneath old flowers in the plant's cottony top. Sprinkle dry seeds in a flat of potting soil and transplant as they need to be thinned out. Wait until baby barrels are three or four inches in diameter before planting in the garden. Birds that feast on the fruit ingest tiny black seeds and excrete them well away from the parent plant. Flies are attracted to stapelia flowers that smell like and even resemble rotting meat. To suggest a dead animal, these spectacular flowers are shades of red, maroon, and beigey yellow, and maybe speckled or hairy. When you cut back a well-established and tree-like succulent like a yucca, it'll regrow quickly. I prune my yuccas to make them fuller and more shrub-like, and if I want more yuccas, I simply plant the cuttings. Because a yucca's lower trunk is a water tank, it will get by on rainfall alone once established. Don't plant a yucca near your home's foundation, pipes, or anything that an ever-expanding bulbous base might encroach upon. Aeoniums and echeverias that have ever-smaller rosettes atop naked stems have to be helped in order to propagate. Cut off the top along with enough stem to anchor the rosette. Set it aside until roots form, then plant in good soil. Be sure to keep the beheaded trunks. New little rosettes will grow from meristem tissue. And finally, do protect cuttings and new baby plants from harsh conditions like freezing temperatures or harsh midday sun. I hope you learned about succulent propagation in ways that will help you listen to your plants better and start them from fallen pieces or leaves or pups or baubles and get more of the plants you love. Please hit the like button and I would love it if you left a comment. I welcome your comments. Please tell me if you've had interesting experiences with succulent propagation or if you have questions and you'd like me to answer them. If you have questions about any aspect of succulents, find the answers in my books or on my extensive website dedicated to all things succulent, DeborahLeeBaldwin.com. I'm very proud that my website has no pop-up ads. I welcome you to support me by watching my videos and buying my books, but when you visit my website, I want you to have a good experience that helps you do your research and learn rather than being badgered to buy things. I'm Deborah Lee Baldwin. Thank you for joining me.