Hello everyone, I have a rubber plant that suffered extreme neglect in the past years and now that I am back on track with my plants, I am wondering if I should cut the pale and sick looking branches and try to propagate them. The newer leaves are looking healthy but the overall plant makes me sad. See some pictures and let me know. Plus, how do we propagate those?
I recently gave one of my peperomias a big chop. I’m happy to walk you through the process 😊 You’re gonna wanna cut between the “notches”, or nodes. The nodes are where the roots can grow from, so with each piece you want to cut, make sure it has a stem with at least 2-3 nodes/“notches”. I’ve attached a photo of where you could make the cuts. Before you cut anything, I highly recommend picking up some Bonide’s Rooting Hormone Powder from your local Lowe’s or Nursery. After you make the cuts, dip the ends and cover the nodes with a generous amount of the rooting powder. It’ll speed up the rooting process for the cuttings, and improve your chances of successfully propagating in the winter. You can stick the cuttings right into the soil with the rest of the original plant or place the cuttings together in a small pot with cactus and succulent mix. 3 things I’d recommend for the original plant you’re cutting from: 1. Put it in very well-draining soil. I swear by cactus and succulent mix with mine. Don’t use Miracle Grow. I swear by Espoma’s Cactus and Succulent Mix. 2. Try to keep it fairly snug in its pot. If you were to take the current plant out of its pot, take a look and how much space the roots actually take up in the pot. Peperomias enjoy being more snug in their pots and even getting a little rootbound between repottings. My rule of thumb is to keep them in a pot that’s no more that 1-2 inches wider in diameter than the width of the plant’s root ball. 3. While Peperomias can survive in lower light, I’m happy to report that I’ve got this same type of peperomia, and they do great in south-facing windowsills. I’ve currently got mine under grow lights, but I usually keep my obtusifolias in windows that get 6-8 hours of sun in the warmer months, and windows that get 4-6 hours of sunlight for their caperata siblings. Brighter light will help the cuttings and original plant grow back much faster. If you’ve got a grow light or bright spot to park your plant, park it there for the next couple months. If you want to try repotting it, I like to wait until it’s time to water it or the day before it’s due for a watering, as watering it shortly after a repotting seems to help reduce the risk of shock. Hope this helps!
Here’s the peperomia I recently gave the chop for reference. The original plant I cut down, as well as all of the cuttings, are all together in the pot. I let the soil completely dry out between waterings, and I’ll check for root development every 20-30 days by gently popping everything out of the pot and inspecting the propagations for any new roots, adding more rooting powder if any of them seem to be struggling. Another option is to gently tug on the cuttings to see if they’ve started rooting into the soil, and adding powder on ones that come clean out, but I’ve found the first method is less likely of damaging any delicate new roots in the process. This one’s been under a grow light all winter and within a week, the original plant started forming new shoots and leaves. So far the cuttings look to be rooting well.
Oh my gosh. That is the fullest prettiest peperomia!
2 likes WoW. I am impressed. Mine has been repotted recently and it was very root bound. No more soil in fact. I will give the big chop when I am back from Namm and I will post my process, maybe. Thanks for this thorough explanation. I might have a spot with my satin pothos under my grow light.
1 like I was wondering if I should discard the pale and sick looking leaves. I will. But I will have to cut much of the branch.
0 likes You can remove any leaves that don’t looks well, but you’ll want to keep some of the leaves on the stems you’re cutting off in order for it to photosynthesize and grow new leaves and roots. I’d gently snap them off by placing my thumb at the base of the leaf where it shoots out from the stem, then pressing down at the end of the leaf until it snaps off the stem. You could also snip them off, but a clean break off of the leaf will provide nodes underneath where the leaf was that roots can develop from.
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I did the trimming and repot as suggested and it looks great! It’d been a month and new leaves are appearing.
1 like It looks great! 😃 Happy to hear I could help 😉
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