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How To: Get More Plants From Your Plants

Propagation: For those times when your plant needs an identical plant friend and you're up for a little science experiment.

 Propagation station pothos philodendron

Step 1: Some of the easiest plants to propagate are vine plants, such as Pothos or Philodendrons. Get yourself one of those plants (or both!).

 

Step 2: Find a vine that has at least 3-5 leaves on it. On that vine, find a node (a little brown stub sticking out of the plant) and make a cut above the node so that the node is on piece that you cut off. Take off a leaf or two closest to the cut so your cutting can fit nicely in a jar. 

propagation node philodendron

Now, two cool things are going to happen from that cut. 1. On your cutting, the new roots will grow out from that node (once you finish the rest of the steps). 2. The vine that you just cut that is still attached from the plant will continue to grow that same vine and new leaves! This will also help your plant look a bit bushier/fuller.

 propagation node philodendron

Step 3: Place that cutting in water in a glass jar with the node/cut side in the water. Feel free to get fancy with this, or keep it budget-friendly by recycling a cleaned out jelly jar or use your favorite drinking glass. No need to submerge your entire cutting in water - just 1/2 to 1 inch submerged is all you need.

 

Step 4: The most important step. Place your plant in a bright spot, as close to a window or light source as possible. Every 3-5 days, change out the water with fresh water. We've had the most success using tap water that has been left out overnight (in a separate cup), which allows the chlorine to evaporate. Yes, this is slightly more annoying then just refilling the jar once a week, but it's proven to work for us.

 

Step 5: Patience. This is going to take a few months, folks. Each plant is different, but our average wait time has been around 2 months before we could move on to Step 6. 

 

Step 6: Once your cuttings have ~1 inch of new root growth, stick those into a planter with fresh indoor potting soil and water on a weekly schedule. Below is a picture of the growth we saw from philodendron cuttings after about 6 months. And just like that, you have a new (free!) plant. 

 

Heart leaf philodendron propagation

 

Feel like trying it out? Tag us @perricoplantco on Instagram so we all can celebrate the fruits of your labor!