How to Care for Succulent Cuttings

About a month ago, I ordered 15 succulent cuttings online to increase my plant collection without spending a lot of money. When you receive succulent cuttings, you generally get baby plants without roots that the seller removed from a mother plant.

I didn't know what I was going to receive in the mail, nor did the plants come labeled. (Figuring out the names was part of the fun for me.) I am happy with the assortment that arrived carefully wrapped in newsprint.

So many succulents!

I punched some holes in the bottom of some salad trays from the grocery store using an awl, filled the trays with cactus soil, got the soil slightly damp with a spray bottle filled with water and inserted the plants. 

A nice assortment of crassulas, sedum and echeveria.

In the picture above, I removed the flower spike from the plant on the bottom left corner so more of the plant's energy went toward producing the roots than keeping the flower alive.

Kalanchoes and sedum.

 

Mist the cuttings with water and place them on a window sill. I mist my cuttings with water about every other day, when the soil was dry. 

Some of the little leaves that you see in the trays fell of the plants, but most are ones that I removed from the bottom of the stems so I could bury them in the dirt. The cool thing about the succulent leaves is that many grow baby plants with time, so don't throw them away. Instead, set them aside for a few days so the ends form a callous and then place the leaves on top of the dirt. In my USDA zone, 8A, it took about one month for the leaves to grow roots in late winter/early spring.

It will take at least two weeks for small roots to start forming. However, it takes some plants longer than other to root.