Snake plant (Mother in Law's Toungue) is one of the best indoor purifying plants as certified by NASA.
It is a common plant and is easy to care for and easy to propagate... or so they say.
Being a newbie as a plantmom or plantita (Filipino term for someone who collects and cares for ornamental plants), I have been too enthusiastic to immediately try to reproduce my plants.
In this post, I will share with you three methods I used in propagating the same snake plant. Let's call her the mother plant. We will find out which of the three methods worked best.
This is the mother plant which I bought 7 months ago. One of its leaves bent caused by reporting, so I decided to cut it and propagate before it dies.
Mother Plant
Water Propagation
The first method I tried was by water propagation. I cut the long leaf into 4 parts and put in plastic container with water. (I only used tap water). Covered the lid so that it won't be a home for mosquitoes to breed.
Covered the lid with Styrofoam
I placed the plastic container somewhere high in the kitchen so that it won't be reached by the kids.
After 4 months, this is how they look.
Two of them still have no roots:
no roots after 4 months
One with little roots died after repotting:
sad for this one 😢
One survived with a baby growth:
with baby growth
I repotted it, but it grew very slowly.
slow grower
Cutting off Offsets or Suckers
Another method I tried was cutting the offset or sucker (a term used to a complete baby plant which is attached to the mother plant's base) immediately as it came out.
Here it is, has very slow growth since I reported it 3 months ago.
Picture taken 3 months ago
Current picture:
Picture taken March 28, 2021
Notice that there is almost no development or growth.
Natural Reproduction
The last method I tried was probably the best thing I ever did - that is to not interfere with the plant's natural reproduction.
When I noticed a new offset was developing, I did nothing and just let it grow. And I was surprised just how fast it grows!
It's now as tall than its mom! For only two months, this is what it looks now -
encircled is the new plant
it is Now 33 inches from base to tip
Comparing the offset growth using the 3 methods of propagation -
the 3 offset compared to the mother plant
With the experience I had with this propagation, I can say that it's best to let the offset just grow attached to its mom maybe because it can get a lot of nutrients from the mother which makes it grow fast. Repot if necessary or when they are already crowding the pot. This will give way for new offsets to develop and grow.
This post is only my opinion based on my experience. Well, I'm not an expert.😅
I hope what I shared gave you a new perspective in propagation of snake plant.
What about you, what are your observations? Please share your experiences by commenting below.
Thank you for reading and happy planting!
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It takes a very long time for the leaf cells to grow and change into something capable of becoming an offset, so yes, the results are as you have seen. The mother plant also creates offsets with the right amount of plant hormones for speedy growth
Thanks for the info @hive-183841 , I really need to be patient then.. Just hope they'll grow soon given the right environment. 😉
Yay, thanks for the upvotes! This is so far my highest upvotes since I started a month ago.. Thanks for the support hivers! I am hived! 😁
I have a snake plant and this weekend I noticed that there were some off shoots so I planted them in a different pot. I love propagating plants. It is so fun. Thanks for taking us through all your trial and error of the different methods.