The simplest approach to grow new plants without purchasing more at the nursery is by using inch plant cuttings. Use a sharp, clean pair of shears or a knife to make cuttings. The ideal length for cuttings is 3 to 4 inches (7.6 to 10 cm).
You can plant your cuttings in a container with regular potting soil once they develop roots. Place it where it will receive moderate to strong light and temperatures between 55 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit (13-24 C).
What part of my Tradescantia nanouk do I cut?
- To encourage new development, pinch or trim your plant by cutting the stem just above the leaf and node. In other words, the node and leaf will stay attached to the plant.
- Just below the node, cut the stem to allow for plant propagation. This means that the portion you cut off should have the node.
Nodes are where new growth comes from (branching, leaves, roots, etc.), which is why it’s important to know where they are. The nodes are seen in the shot below as ridges with lines running up the stem.
STEP 1: Identify the node
The lumps from which leaves emerge are known as nodes. Locate the one that is most convenient for your cutting location. 2-4 leaves ABOVE the node I cut is ideal for me.
For the best chances of success, it is advisable to do this on a healthy branch of the parent plant that has new growth.
STEP 3: Remove leaves on that bottom node (leave only the top 4 or less leaves on the cutting)
On the tradescantia cuttings, remove the bottom leaves from the cut node and any other nodes that may submerge in water.
How is a split performed in Tradescantia?
Potting soil should be poured into the containers, leaving 0.5 to 1 inch between the soil’s top and the pot’s lip.
By doing this, watering your indoor plants will be less messy and the soil won’t run over the rim.
With the chopstick, make holes in the dirt that are half an inch to an inch apart, depending on how full you want your new specimen to seem.
Take as many cuttings as necessary from the parent tradescantia, making sure that each cutting has a number of nodes.
Each cutting should be inserted into a different hole, and once in place, the hole should be sealed with soil.
With the help of your spray bottle, moisten the growing medium. Keep the ground wet but not drenched.
Spray the containers with water each day or, to save time and effort, put them in a terrarium, your greenhouse, or resealable plastic bags.
It will be easier to keep these young wandering fellas hydrated as their roots start to form if they are grown in an environment with more humidity.
Cuttings can be withdrawn from their plastic bags or terrariums when the soil begins to dry up more quickly and they begin to grow so that they can then be watered regularly with a watering can designed for houseplants.
How are Tradescantia nanouk cuttings taken?
Because Tradescantia nanouk grows rapidly, you might need to regularly cut or repot it. Why not spread some pieces while doing so? Propagation of Tradescantia nanouk is remarkably simple. It closely resembles Tradescantia zebrina (wandering dude). Here is how to go about it.
Tradescantia nanouk propagation by division
You’ll frequently see that a tradescantia nanouk you purchase has a few distinctly different stems in the soil. even more compact ones I divided mine because it had so many stems! Simply carefully remove the plant from its pot and divide it at the roots to accomplish this. If you need to rip a few roots, don’t worry.
Then, using well-draining soil, plant each in a separate tiny pot. Don’t worry if it doesn’t seem too happy with you for the first couple of weeks. Some plants experience some shock after being divided and replanted.
Tradescantia nanouk propagation by stem
Tradescantia nanouk can also be propagated via stem clippings. This is a wonderful strategy to use if you accidently knock a branch off while trimming your nanouk. I’ve used this method of propagation with purple queen, and it works exactly the same way.
Take a few-inch-long slice of a nanouk stem and remove the bottom leaves to propagate it in water. Place a glass of water inside, being careful to keep the top foliage from submerging. You’ll be able to plant it after you have a strong set of branch fresh roots after a few weeks!
Take the same kind of cutting if you want to propagate nanouk stems without the water-rooting process. Take out the lower leaves. After that, plant the cuttings in a soil that drains well. To help maintain the soil just moist enough, water a little more frequently than you would a typical plant.
This encourages root expansion. Pull back on your water until you can lightly tug on the cuttings but still encounter some resistance. New roots have emerged. Yay.
You can frequently get away with simply clipping a few stems and placing them immediately back into the pot your existing plant resides in because soil propagation is so simple. This encourages a large, bushy plant with new development!
How do I get a bushier Tradescantia?
Tradescantia, which get their name from their tendency to grow in a vine, require regular trimming to keep their attractive, bushy appearance. Pinching back about a fourth of the plant is advised by Gardening Know How to “promote branching and boost fullness.
Why is my Tradescantia growing so long?
Zebrina tradescantia, your normally thick and bushy wandering jew, has become leggy, which is upsetting. Your plant will appear sparse, spindly, and ugly as a result of this. Let’s determine the cause of your wandering Jew’s length and how to remedy it.
The growth of a Wandering Jew is frequently leggy because of a lack of light. To address the lanky growth, pruning and sufficient illumination should be used. Your leggy-inch plant can survive by being repotted with new growing material and the proper container size. Pinch back your plant occasionally to maintain it bushy.
How do you kill Moses at birth?
The common Moses plant, shown on the left, has green leaves with a purple underside. Right: a cultivar with purple underside and white and green streaks.
Moses-in-the-cradle leaves should be cut back each spring to promote strong growth. To make the plant appear bushier, pinch the growth tips off. To enhance the appearance of the plant, remove any dead or decaying leaves. Don’t worry; Tradescantia spathacea grows quickly and will soon appear bushy once more.
Can Tradescantia be propagated without leaves?
This picture shows how well my plant was doing thanks to the increased sunshine and warmer temperatures. However, it had reached the point where the stems were just sort of hanging there and it appeared as though it had outgrown any hairstyle it may have had (like many of us during lockdown). Untangling the stems is simpler if you can do it on a flat surface.
Take your plant somewhere well-lit and give it a nice, close inspection first. Look under the leaves for any pests (or leaf markings that can indicate pests), damaged areas, or withered stems. Use healthy stems while propagating, not ones that appear to be already half-dead.
Make sure your scissors are thoroughly clean, sterile, and sharp before cutting anything. You don’t want a hacked-up stem when you cut the stems; you want a fluid cut!
The exciting/daunting part now is to carefully move around the plant, snipping as you go, at the stem’s base or where a stem branches off from another. Really lengthy stems should not be rooted, and stems that are straggly and have a few sets of leaves are desirable (you can see what I mean in the photos that follow).
Remove any dry, crunchy stems as you chop them and discard them. Although it seems simple, avoiding having dried stems mixed up with healthy stems that are ready for preparation makes things easier in the long run.
You shouldn’t bother rooting any really long stems, as I said above; keeping them all at roughly the same length or grouped loosely into “groups of lengths” will make your new plant look neater and encourage excellent, compact development. The following image displays this phase:
This step might be ignored if you’re new to houseplants, but for me, it’s what keeps my cuttings’ odds of successfully rooted high. Take your stem cuttings and use scissors to remove the bottom few leaves. By doing this, you improve each stem’s ability to take root because roots can only grow at these locations. This is good practice because having a leaf submerged in water might encourage things like mould or algae in the water, even if your cuttings might still be starting to root at this time. Additionally, when it comes time to pot the cutting, you’ll need to remove the leaves anyhow!
These stems are ready for propagation because the bottom leaves have been removed.
The following images I shot for my Instagram stories further illustrate the process:
Here, it’s important to note that tradescantia cuttings can thrive when planted directly in the ground or rooted in sphagnum moss. Although this is a matter of taste, I find that I truly enjoy watching roots develop! Additionally, I discover that when I root in water, I have a higher success rate since I can watch the roots and see if any stems are in trouble.
You’ve reached the point when you’re prepared to immerse the stems in water. Glass bottles are excellent since they often have a tiny neck and can retain these thin stems effectively, but you can use a variety of containers. I create these propagation stations myself. Fresh water should be added to your container until the stems are completely submerged. I don’t change the water’s composition. Make sure the stems are not sitting in an empty container as they can start to sweat and cause the cuttings to rot. If it’s warm, you might need to top off your bottles every few days as the water evaporates.
Here is how my plant looked after… hardly much is left! Although I won’t toss this out, I’ll water it normally and watch to see what growth appears. You can re-plant this sad-looking pot if your potting soil is particularly dry, trimming back any dead roots.
When water propagating cuttings, another frequent query is “how long does it take?” and “when do I pot them?” You might be able to see some little roots that have developed in the glass closest to the lens in the image below. This is the result of a week of water-based rooting. Your cuttings’ time to root will be greatly influenced by the environment; factors like temperature, warmth, humidity, and light will all be important. Before planting the roots, wait till they are between 12 inches long.
Keep in mind that roots in water are different than roots in soil, so it may take them some time to become used to being in a container. When I plant my cuttings, I like to use a well-draining potting mixture, such as peat-free multipurpose compost with additional perlite and orchid bark. As the stems adapt to planting, make sure to water your plant frequently. After a few weeks, resist the urge to remove the cuttings for a closer look; they will be busy establishing roots below the soil’s surface and will thrive if left alone. “A watched pot never boils,” as my grandmother used to say.
Finally, I looked back over my Instagram account to show you the entire process. This is how this particular plant developed from cuttings. Instead of planting the cuttings in an excessively large pot, I believe the key is to keep the plant in a small-to-medium-sized pot and perform a few re-pottings over the growing season. This indicates that the plant will focus its efforts on producing roots rather than leaves:
So there you have it, a step-by-step tutorial on how to grow a new tradescantia plant from cuttings. I hope you find it useful because I received quite a few requests to put this information together in an article.
I did some repotting over the weekend, so my subsequent article will be a “repotting diary.”
Where in Zebrina Tradescantia can I pinch?
When it comes to increasing its population through cuttings, zebrina is a marvel. It’s astonishing how quickly new roots are growing on it. often shorter than a week.
As soon as it detects moisture, whether in water, the dirt, cocotakos, or any other medium, it will start to pull out new roots from the nodes.
Pruning is quite easy. Additionally, since it grows so quickly and will soon be bushy again, we don’t need to worry about doing too much. To achieve this, scissors that have been cleaned with alcohol are preferred.
Cutting is carried out exactly the same way for both getting cuttings and for pruning. Furthermore, it must be executed slightly above the petioleor knot (from where the leaves come out).
in order for the fresh cutting to simply be pierced into a new pot or substrate and have a good stem in the lower section. New roots will sprout from this stem and its nodes. The recommended length for the cutting’s stem is between 3 and 4 cm.
The mother plant will be left tidy, with no branches or stems dangling without leaves, at the same time.
On the other hand, it will be crucial to maintain a high level of humidity for the first week after we poke the cuttings into the ground. There was also a ton of indirect light but no sun.
Although it is interesting to study about, we do not advise replicating your tradescantia in water if you want the plant to develop strong and free of defects. The plant will experience stress and abnormal root development because water is not its natural environment. It is quick and doable, but it is not ideal.