How to Successfully Propagate Succulents

Succulents are one of the planet's most efficient plants, and are some of the easiest to propagate. This brief guide will inform you on how to carefully and successfully propagate the majority of succulents from leaves and cuttings.

First off not every propagation attempt will be successful, you could have the most healthy cutting or leaf and do everything perfectly, and it may still curl up and die. But that is part of the fun of it all, it’s basically gambling but without all the danger of having your home repossessed!!

If you’re like me, you most likely have succulents all around your house. I tend to keep mine on bright window sills that get plenty of light, but sometimes they can still get leggy. This occurs when a plant isn’t getting quite enough light and it starts to stretch out causing the stem to grow long and the leaves to become widely spaced to attract as much light as possible. However, have no fear, this is a great time to start propagation!

Step 1

First off you want to remove the lower leaves. Try and be careful when you remove the leaves from the stem, as you want to be sure you get the entire leaf. I usually hold the leaf firmly and wiggle it from left to right until I feel a little crack. If you tear the leaf, leaving the base of the leaf still attached to the stem, it will not be able to grow roots and will be unsuccessful.

Echeveria Leaf, ready for propagation

This is what the leaves should look like if they are successfully pulled from the stem remaining fully intact. Notice how the end of leaf isn't torn or shredded.

Step 2

After you have successfully removed the bottom leaves you will be left with a long bare stem. Cut the stem with a sharp pair of scissors to refrain from damaging the plant, just a couple centimetres below the lowest leaves.

Now we are left with a bunch of leaves, a stump and a little succulent cutting.

Step 3

Before we place our leaves on soil to begin growing new succulents we must let the ends dry out and callous over. This step is crucial! If you don’t let the ends dry out and place them directly on soil they will absorb too much moisture and they will rot completely, failing. Along with letting the leaves callous over, we must also let the end of the stem to dry out as well. This can take anywhere between a few days to a week or so.

Calloused Echeveria Leaf

Notice how the end of the leaf which was green in the previous photo now has a yellowy brown tinge to it? This is a good sign that the leaf is ready to be placed on top of soil to begin slowly producing roots.

Step 4

Once the ends of the leaves are dry enough and calloused over, you can place them on top of some well-draining succulent or cactus soil. (Some people dip the ends in a rooting hormone, but this really isn’t necessary for success.) I generally get the best results when keeping my leaves indoors in a window with lots of indirect sunlight.

After a few weeks you will begin to see tiny pink roots sprouting from the ends of the leaves and shortly the baby plants will begin to grow. I spray the leaves with water very rarely until I start to see roots or babies appearing.

Echeveria Leaf with Pink Roots

Step 5

Once the babies are underway I will give the baby plants a good soak about once a week or whenever I notice the soil is completely dry. Just like with a fully grown succulent, too much water is bad. If you want to be certain not to over water, I recommend spraying the ends of your leaves with a spray bottle every few days instead of completely soaking the soil.

Round-leafed Naval-wort Baby

Babies will sprout out of the end of the leaf where the callous originally was as seen in the photo above.

Final Step

I usually grow my leaves in rows until I start to notice the “mother leaf” starting to wither and dry up. Once it reaches this point I will carefully remove the leaf in the same fashion I removed it from the original stem, and then place the baby succulent in its own pot. This can be a bit fiddly as you don’t want to accidentally remove the roots with the leaf, so you may want to play it safe and wait, leaving the leaf fall off on its own.

Propagation Tray

The picture above is of my own personal propagation tray. As you can see there is no rhyme or reason to the madness with different species of leaves left to their own devices. Spot the leaf with evident pink roots coming out of it!

For the cutting, once the end has calloused over simply place it into a pot with succulent or cactus soil in indirect sunlight. Over time the cutting will develop new roots and continue to flourish into a healthy and happy plant!

Additionally for the stump simply set it aside in a pot and overtime it shall begin to sprout new life from each spot where a leaf was removed!

Propagation Plants

The picture above shows the variety of stages that my propagation babies are at with a variety of succulents including elephants bush, pulido's echeveria, lady fingers, moonstones and pachyveria exotica amongst many others.

All of this information comes from my own personal experience. All succulents propagate differently so please check either online or with me to see if you can propagate yours before you pull it apart! Plants in different climates and environments require different care. This is what has personally worked for me and I hope it works for you aswell!