How to Propagate Succulents From Cuttings or Leaves

I just spent the last week in sunny Southern California. One of my favorite things about SoCal is that succulents are growing everywhere! I love succulents. If I could I would have a giant wall covered in them... one day! Back on the east coast succulents growing outdoors are far less abundant, though there are varieties that are hardy even over here. To cope with this, it is fun to grow them indoors. I love them so much that most flat surfaces in my room are covered with them(maybe too much?). 

Awesome window box near Santa Monica

Part of the awesomeness of succulents is that they are so easy to grow and propagate. You can take a little piece of one, or even a leaf, and start a whole new plant. Here is a little guide to starting new plants from pieces of others:

Taking a cutting

How to take a cutting depends on the type of succulent. Most can be propagated from just a single leaf and others need to be cut with part of the stem and some can be done either way. Aeoniums are a type that only work with a cutting. Sedums and echeverias can be done by a leaf or cutting.

This is a type of Aeonium

This is a echeveria with little sedums around it

When you are taking a leaf cutting, it is important you get the entire leaf. If part breaks off then it will most likely not work. 

When taking a cutting from a stem with leaves, cut the stem and then remove the lower few rows of leaves. Where the leaves were is where new roots will grow. 

I found a broken piece on the ground! Score!

What to do with your cutting

With a cutting of a stem, you need to leave it be for about a week so that the area that was cut can scab over. 

You can either lay your pieces out on some surface, a bowl, windowsill, dresser, or lay them out on top of some soil. 

Pieces on my dresser

Laid out on top of soil

Either way works fine. As you can see there are some with roots on my dresser and on the soil. Those on the soil are older and some have started to grow new leaves.

Here is a close up of the new leaves

Watering

Mature succulents require very little water but the new cuttings need a bit more. I use a spray bottle to water mine. I do this a few times a week. It's important not to soak them too much as they can rot. 

Some people water the soil and let the roots take what they need but I get scared of overwatering them that way. Also, these plants are very resilient. I've had ones fall behind the table and keep growing without being watered at all. 

Not all of your leaves will grow new plants. Sometimes they grow roots and no new leaves. Sometimes they just shrivel up. And sometimes they work!

New Plants

Once your leaves start growing new leaves, the old starter leaf may shrivel up. You can see that in the close up photo above. You can remove this old leaf if you want. I tend to leave it because they are so fragile and I hate to break the new plant after I've gotten this far. 

You can put this new plant in a little pot or leave them all growing together in the larger one.

Here are a bunch of broken pieces I put in a pot to grow together

Your larger cuttings can be put into a pot when they start growing roots.

This is a large jade cutting that I potted in a glass jar. If you do this, water very sparingly because there are no drainage holes.

Sometimes if one of your plants is getting too tall and leggy, it's nice to cut that long piece off, start and new one. The place where you cut from the original plant with now grow fuller where it was cut.

On the left side of this jade plant was where I cut a piece and now two stems are growing from that spot

Have fun with your cuttings and new plants!

An awesome dinosaur succulent planter my friend's mom made for me!