Many plants can be easily cloned. Using part of the plant to make more plants is a common pastime for many plant enthusiasts. In this blog, I will teach you my tips and tricks for super easy, dare I say, even lazy plant propagations.

There are so many ways to propagate plants. From the sterile and involved ‘tissue culture’ to just sticking a cutting in some soil. But for my money, the one with the least amount of effort has got to be water propagation.

Water propagation is basically what it sounds like, propagating plants in water. And while you certainly can just take a cutting from most plants and stick it to a glass of water, if you take the time to follow a few simple steps then you’ll end up with more plants than you know what to do with.

TIP 1: Make Sure Your Container is Clean

You will need some glass or vase to root your cuttings in before you transfer them to soil. (Assuming you want to go to soil at – MANY plants can grow just in water long term. Learn my tricks for growing plants in water HERE)

And that container you chose should be clean. Little bits of debris can play host to a colony of bacteria that when soaked in water for a period can create nasty situations. Best to just start with a nice clean vase or glass.

TIP 2: Make Sure Your Scissors are Sharp

While you can take cuttings with dull scissors, the sharper the better! When you use dull scissors, they don’t cut the plant. They crush it. This crushing effect makes it much harder for cutting to heal itself properly and quickly. This leads to few successful cuttings. Sharp scissors make sharp cuts and this much smoother wound is easier to heal from. We humans work the same way.

TIP 3: Make Sure not to Leave too Many Leaves

Particularly with large cuttings, it is important to remove most of the lower leaves. This helps the plant stay hydrated while it doesn’t have roots to support itself. An alternative method is to cut the leaves roughly in half so that there is less overall surface area for moisture to escape from.

TIP 4: Make Sure You Let it Callous

When you take a cutting from a plant you naturally create an open wound on both the original plant and the cutting. While this advice may not be suitable for ALL plants, when it comes to indoor plants virtually all our common ones will benefit from being left the fuck alone for some time before placing them in water (or even soil if you decide to go that route). The open wound, like a cut on your skin, is an invitation for infection. Giving it just enough time to heal over before the plant starts to wilt is the sweet spot to aim for, but certain plants can go longer than others.

TIP 5: Make Sure to Keep the Water Clean

Many people will tell you to change the water every day. This is too often and can lead to problems of its own. But that does not mean you shouldn’t change the water at all. If you are the kind of person who NEEDS a schedule for these things, then once a week should be fine. But if you are more like me then just keep an eye on things and change the water if it starts to get nasty, smell bad, or you notice your cuttings rotting.

TRICK 1: Mix your Cuttings

Some plants, most notably Pothos and Willow release Auxin, a plant hormone into the water. This plant hormone is used by plants to stimulate root growth. This means that if you grow Pothos or Willow in the same container as other cuttings they will actually help your other cuttings root faster.

TRICK 2: You Don’t have to Sanitize

Unless you are working in a commercial setting or place super high value on the cuttings you are taking you don’t really have to sanitize your cutting shears or scissors in between EVER cut. It’s a good idea to do so before you take your first cutting but it isn’t generally a big deal for most hobbyists. Do it if you feel like it, but don’t feel pressured.

And that’s it, go cut some plants and let me know how it goes!

How to Propagate Plants the Lazy Way