Succulent Leaf Propagation
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Succulent leaf propagation is actually extremely easy if you follow a couple easy steps.
Keep in mind, in order to propagate succulents you have to be extremely patient. They can take months before even shooting out any sign of life. Here I will explain propagating from a soft succulent. This includes Echeverias, Graptopetalums, etc.
Start by watering your ‘adult’ succulent. Wait about 3 days. This allows for your succulent to fully bring in all the water to its leaves and make the leaves nice and ready.
Then wiggle off the leaf from the base. You want to have a nice clean removal where there is no leaf left on the plant. If the leaf does not remove properly, then the chances of success are much lower. Even getting a little piece of the stem is better than losing a part of the leaf.
Put the leaves in a dry area in indirect sunlight. I usually put mine in a frisbee and set it next to my other plants.
Do not water. Do not plant in soil. You can leave them just like this until they start to push out roots on their own. Once they do, you can take the leaf and place it on either soil or pumice and let it begin growing.
I use a cactus soil.
After roots begin forming, you can move to more light. My plants are under a grow light so they get the amount of sun they need but won’t get burnt. I keep my grow light about 10 inches from the succulent leaves.
If your roots are dry and crispy, they most likely got burnt. Try moving them to a more indirect sunlight area until their roots are fully in the soil. A lot of succulent roots are pink, as long as they are full and stiff, they are healthy.
Now you can water when you water your other plants. They don’t need as much water as their roots aren’t very deep yet. Succulent leaf propagation doesn’t need much watering at first since there is water stored in the plants. I start by using a spray bottle once a day until roots are more developed. Then I water with a syringe and saturate the soil. This syringe is my absolute favorite! It doesn’t make a mess and is perfect for controlling water amount!
**Pro tip: spray the soil with the spray bottle before using the syringe to prevent soil from puddling and moving your leaves**
If you live in a climate with lots of bugs and humidity, try dry propagating for succulent leaf propagation. Here is a progress shot, more photos at bottom of post.
I was moving them so I uprooted these Echeveria Perle von Nurnberg babies. You can see they are all at different stages even though I removed them from the same plant at the same time. Their parent leaf is also beginning to shrivel up. The new plant is using the nutrients/water from its parent leaf.
Once the leaf is completely dried up, remove the leaf. However, be careful as to not remove the roots in the process. I use tweezers to push the leaf away from the plant and to try to keep the roots on the plant. If you don’t feel comfortable in removing the leaf you can keep it on and it will eventually fall off on its own when the plant is larger! Here is an after photo of some Echeverias from leaf, after the leaf was removed. These photos were taken approximately 5 months after removing the leaf.
Succulent leaf propagation is certainly rewarding and it much faster than growing succulents by seeds. I now have an entire shelf of succulents that I grew from leaves. I hope you learned something new in propagating. This is the method I have found to work the best! To dive deeper into fully understanding how to propagate succulents, check out my online succulent propagation course! It is filled with great information on your specific climate and how your situation affects succulent propagation!
Thanks I will let you know how it works ?
Thanks so much for the information! I just have started buying a variety of little succulents as the original little pot I had purchased was crowded with plants.
I purchased a bigger pot and tried to work them all in to that pot and of course had some leaf droppings so I hope those will produce some little babies like
you are showing in your video. I had one kind of flat, low to the ground succulent (don’t know the name) that seemed a little mushy on the bottom when I
transplanted it. It now looks like it is dying after being a way from home for a couple of days! Do you think I should just leave it alone for now and see if it may
have babies or if the leaves are already starting shrivel up then it may already gone? By the way, I did not water the newly transplanted plants as the soil was
slightly moist already from their original pot.
Thanks again for your help and information and hoping I will have bunch of baby succulents in the near future!
Blessings,
Helen Fritzie
If it is mushy it makes me initially think over watered. A lot of stores I have found aren’t great at taking care of succulents and over water. If it looks black/deep purple on the bottom, you can try to cut it off at the stem and leave it in a dry place for a couple of days and then plant it up in succulent specific soil because the soil from the store may be potting mix and too heavy for the succulent. If you want, you can email me a picture of the succulent at angelsgroveco@gmail.com. I hope I can help!
Thanks for your help…I think it is pretty much dead! 🙁 I am going to leave it a little longer and see if by some chance it will make some babies though!
This is a very helpful video. I’m new to New Mexico and succulents in general,. I’be heard the hens and chicks are really easy to propagate. Would you use the same technique?’
Thank you!
With hen and chicks they do better as being separated as baby offsets. They are extremely prolific in making little babies as shoot offs. I haven’t seen anyone propagate them from leaves.
I just need some advice on whether my method will grow any new babies or not. I cut off leaves and placed them in a basket with indirect sunlight for about 3-4 days. I didn’t see any roots but the leaf-cutting dried of off and I then placed it in soil and has been about 5 days and I don’t see any babies growing and is that normal? If so how long will the leaf take to grow roots and babies? Please inform me if this method is right or wrong. Thanks!
It takes much longer to grow babies. It can take up to a couple of weeks before you see anything. It sounds like you are doing things right. Don’t throw away the leaf unless it is completely shriveled up or turns black and rotten.
Do I water them with a spray bottle? Or should I wait for the roots to come out and then water them?
Wait for the roots and then water them.
Great video! I need guidance on where I can get proper lighting and where I could buy the correct type of lights.
This is the one I personally love, https://amzn.to/2x40Zpm ! We have a grow light video on our channel as well as a post about it too! https://youtu.be/J2iB9fHC5Hg https://angelsgrove.com/grow-light-talk/
This is such a great article and really good video! I had a friend who did all this for me but since I love succulents I am going to break my thought of being completely useless gardener and will prove I can also do it! Oh and btw – my wedding bouquet including the buttonholes, flower centrepieces and flower girls’ bouquets were also made from succulents (and eucalyptus) – beautiful combo!!!
Awesome! My bouquets had succulents, eucalyptus and white roses as the combo. Great minds must think alike 🙂
Hi Jess thanks for your tutorial. I found it very usefu.
Kind regards
Eva
l.
Wow such a great post. I am getting ready to try this and will use this method. I appreciate this info!!
Would I propagate a jade plant the same way?
Yes essentially. I actually have a post on Jade propagation specifically.
Hi Jess,
I found your site by a random “succulent types” site. You have a great way of teaching and I am now following you on FB. I have started making fairy gardens and love to use succulents in them. I have bought most of them from stores but find them very expensive. So I decided to buy leaves from a place I found on FB with the intention of beginning my own propagation.. They all look great and have babies already,. but they are all very different. Where can I find information on how to grow and propagate the different types? I am not even sure how to plant some of them and how they grow.
Thanks in advance!
Peggie
Hi Peggie! Glad to hear they are propagating! How fun. Yes, succulents can be very spendy, especially if you don’t live somewhere where there are specific succulent nurseries. Propagation is a great way to save some money but does take a long time. If you know the variety that the leaf is growing, you can usually do a search and see what pulls up on that specific variety. I have a youtube channel and one of the series I have been doing is a specific succulent series that is focused on one type of succulent. You might find those videos helpful but there aren’t many. Otherwise, I do not know of a place with specific information. I do have posts of different kinds and you might find my succulent identification video helpful as I mention propagation of each kind in there too. Hope that helps!
Very useful article and those babies are so cute. I tried this method but my leaves only grow thin roots, no babies. I heard there are some leaves that do only that, and I was wondering if you know what to do? SHall i plant it like that? Or such leaves are not worth bothering with and I should throw them away? Thanks!
Hi, if I have several babies growing on the same leaf, what do i do? do I let them grow or should I separate them? Thank you!