Rooting Christmas Cactus cuttings

Christmas cactus plants are popular plants during the holidays, they come in a variety of colors and are pretty easy plants to take care of and get to bloom. On my other blog I posted a entry on how to make your Christmas Cactus flower. Once you've managed to make your Christmas cactus flower you may want to move on to taking cuttings from your Christmas Cactus and rooting your Christmas cactus cuttings.

Christmas cacti, or Holiday cacti as they're becoming known, are succulent plants and when you cut or break off a stem you may notice a little bit of liquid or a clear gel leaking from the wound. This is normal, just let your cutting sit out for a day or two so that the end of the cutting begins to dry out. Once your cutting is prepared you can begin the propagation process simply by inserting the cutting into houseplant soil. I use regular houseplant potting soil that I sometimes amend with one third Perlite. Make sure you've inserted at least one segment of your Christmas cactus below the soil level. Keep your cutting in a bright and warm area away from direct sunlight and keep the potting soil moist but not soggy. If you want you can mist your cutting daily to help keep it moist. The cuttings that you took from your succulent plant will wilt and probably even shrivel but you shouldn't be alarmed.

A good sign that your cutting has started to root is the appearance of new growth at the tips of the older leaves. The new growth is smaller and thinner than the older leaves and sometimes a little reddish in color. Once the new leaves have started to grow on your cuttings you'll know that the cutting has started to produce roots below the soil. Once the new leaves start to grow you can begin watering the rooted cutting like normal and exposing it to brighter light.

You may also notice sometimes that leaves from your succulent plants fall or are broken off by accident or even on purpose. When that happens to one of your plants take the opportunity to propagate them and create new plants. Sometimes propagating succulents by leaf cuttings doesn't even require soil. See that entry and the links in the entry and notice how those succulents had started to grow roots without even being in soil.

Snake Plant propagation by leaf cuttings

Sansevierias are easy houseplants that are commonly called "Snake Plant" because of the leaf color or "Mother-in-law's tongue" because of the sharpness of the leaves. This plant is native to Zaire and requires moderate watering in the summer and very little in the winter-too much water will cause your plant to start rotting. This low light houseplant can easily be propagated by splitting the offsets from the main plant or taking leaf cuttings.

Snake Plant propagation by leaf cuttings is very simple but is best done with the solid-green variety. Taking cuttings of the variety with the white-yellow edges (variegated forms) will revert and produce plants with all green leaves. The variegated Mother-in-law's tongue is best propagated by making divisions of the rhizome if you want to keep the variegated leaves.

Choose a healthy and green leaf from your Snake Plant to propagate. Cut the leaf into 3-4 inch segments making sure to keep track of which side was the top and which side was the bottom of the cutting. Insert the cuttings into fresh potting soil making sure you have your pieces right-side up. If you accidentally insert the cuttings upside down the cuttings will not strike and grow into new plants. Keep the pot in a bright and warm area away from direct sunlight making sure the soil is moist without getting soggy. In about 3-4 weeks the roots of your snake plant cuttings will start to form but it may take a few months for the leaves of the new plants to start growing. With more time and proper care your Snake Plant can even begin to flower, the flowers are a whitish green color.

Similar post:
How to propagate Eucomis bulbs by leaf cuttings.

How To Repot A Cacti

On my other gardening blog I wrote a post explaining how I repot a cactus to give new indoor gardeners an idea on how to do it without getting pricked by the spines. If you haven't seen that post click the link above and read that entry and look at the photo of the cacti that I'm repotting. Follow the instructions on that entry because everything is the same.

The only difference in that repotting example is that I used a strap I fashioned out of newspaper to keep the spines of the cacti from stabbing my hand. The photo above shows how you can use a chunk of Styrofoam to protect your hands from the cactus spines by pressing the spines into the chunk of Styrofoam. If the cacti soil is dry you can easily lift your plant by gently pulling the Styrofoam up and setting your plant into the new pot.

If the cactus doesn't easily lift out of the pot you can place your palm over the barrier and tip your cacti over and slide the pot off. If your cactus is too large or a columnar shape take two pieces and create a "sandwich, " by placing the plant in between the two barriers and lifting the plant out of the pot.

Always make sure that the pieces you use are thick enough so that the spines don't pierce through and go into your skin. When you repot your cactus I suggest you use a terracotta pot and that you only go one size larger when choosing a pot. If you use a pot that is too large you'll have trouble keeping the soil of your plant evenly watered and eventually your plant will suffer.

Etiolation-Glossary Hack

If you spend any time on gardening forums you may come across the word etiolation from time to time. You'll particularly encounter the word in Cacti and Succulents forums where it is often discussed or seen in pictures of people who are having trouble with their plants.

Basically etiolation occurs when a plant does not receive enough light and produce weak up-right growth. Plants that should be globular in growth start to stretch and grow upward like the cacti in the photo attached to this entry.

You can provide your plant with higher amounts of light by placing them in south facing windows or by building plant light shelves to supplement the low lights that you get indoors during the winter months. Once your plant has etiolated there isn't really a cure and it will look deformed forever.

Cati Collecting: Hack A Large Collection- Fast

If you find yourself bitten by the Cacti & Succulent collecting bug and want to start a collection there are many ways to acquire one in a relatively short amount of time. Here in Chicago I don't have many options and I can't walk into a great Cacti nursery and browse the plants. Here's how I started my collection and how it got to be too much.

I check all of the big box stores whether it's Home Depot or WalMart or Lowe's or Menards if the place sells plants I will go and take a look at what they're offering. You never know what you're going to find. Make sure to look over the dish gardens you find in such places, some times they have one or two nicer plants mixed in with the common one. I'll buy it for the one plant and give the others away if I already have enough of them. Right now I'm particularly fond of shopping at Home Depot because they're carrying plants from Altmans and as far as I've seen the selection is very good. If you're going to shop at big box stores try to make nice with the person who's in charge of the plants and ask them when the new shipments come in. The best plants are the first to go, so get there first. Think outside the box and look around in your area and pay attention to where you can find C&S plants. I picked up some last summer and this Christmas from Walgreens. In my area WM is the cheaper place as their C&S start at ninety-nine cents.

Another way to get a large collection fast is to propagate the plants you do buy. Take some leaf cuttings and make more of what you have. Take your extras and trade them with other plant hackers. Ask around and see who will give you cuttings of their plants so you can start your own Cacti & Succulent collection. Going a C&S forum and get to know people and do some trades. Join a C&S group near you and go to meeting ask if they have fund raisers and go shop at it. You'll probably find plants there that are very rare in retail.

Look at the seed racks of stores near you I found two stores carrying seeds last spring and start from seed. If you shop on-line check out places like Amazon and ebay or see if anyone is trading seeds on gardening forums like GardenWeb.

If you want a nice collection of plants you'll have to do some leg work and have various sources that you check up on often. But be responsible, many popular C&S are endangered so don't buy plant that are collected from the wild. Ask if you're not sure and ask again if you don't believe.