How to Cut a Jade Plant & Grow a New One
It's difficult not to fall in love with a jade plant, distinctive with its plump, dark green leaves. If you love your jade plant so much that you want more than a single plant or if you want to share your jade plant with admiring friends and family, you can easily create new plants. Jade plants are easy to propagate by taking a leaf cutting from a mature, healthy jade plant any time of year. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Sharp knife
- Bleach
- Powdered rooting hormone
- Pot with drainage hole
- Sphagnum moss
- Perlite
- Commercial potting soil for cactus and succulents
- Liquid houseplant fertilizer
Instructions
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1
Sterilize a sharp knife, using a mixture of 1 part household bleach to 10 parts water. Use the sharp knife to remove a jade leaf, along with a 1/4- to 1/2-inch length of stem.
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2
Dust the cut end of the stem lightly with powdered rooting hormone. Set the leaf aside for one to two weeks or until the cut end of the stem forms a callus.
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3
Fill a clean pot with a mixture of half sphagnum moss and half perlite. Any pot will work, as long as it has a drainage hole in the bottom. Moisten the soil, then set the pot aside to drain until the soil is slightly damp.
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4
Poke the jade leaf cutting into the soil, just deep enough that the leaf stands upright. Several jade leaves can be planted in one container, but the leaves must not touch.
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5
Place the pot in a warm room where the temperature will be maintained at 75 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The leaf cutting needs only low to moderate light and shouldn't be placed directly in a sunny window.
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6
Keep the potting soil just barely moist at all times, as wet soil will rot the leaf cutting. The soil should never be allowed to dry out completely.
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7
Transplant the jade leaf into a new pot after four to six weeks. Fill the pot with a commercial potting soil formulated for succulents and cactus. By this time, the leaf should be showing signs of new growth that indicate that the leaf has successfully rooted.
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8
Place the new jade plant in bright, indirect light.
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9
Feed the new plant with a liquid houseplant fertilizer. Dilute the fertilizer to half of the strength recommended on the label.
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10
Water the plant deeply when the soil feels slightly dry to the touch, usually about once every month. Allow the water to run through the drainage hole, then replace the plant on the drainage saucer when the excess water has drained.
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