Do you have a sansevieria at home and would you like to extract more plants from it? If yours is big, or if it’s broken, you could do it, but how do you breed a sansevieria? Is it easy or difficult?
Then we will give you several ideas so that you know how to do it, when and above all the best methods to succeed. Let’s go?
Contents
How is sansevieria
I’m sure you already know this, but, just in case, sansevieria is also known as mother-in-law’s tongue or tiger’s tongue. Its beauty lies in the green leaves with yellow edges (then you have variants that can change these colors).
Aesthetically it may seem very weak and delicate, but the truth is that it is not, and its care and requirements are very low, so it can be easily grown anywhere.
The same goes for breeding, which is also very easy to do and in fact anyone can do it. But how do you do that?
How to Breed a Sansevieria
The first thing you need to know is that a sansevieria has two common propagation methods. The first is by sheets, and it’s one of the simplest you can do; the second is also very easy to do, using suction cups. The only thing you have to do is wait for them to grow in the pot so you can change them later.
play by sheet
We will start telling you how to breed sansevieria by leaf. In fact, what is needed is a good sansevieria leaf. With it we can get not just one plant, but several of them. They will be completely identical to the mother plant and you can even plant them together to give it more volume.
The best time to carry out this type of propagation is in the spring because that is when the plant is most active and there is a likelihood of success. But how do you do that?
The first thing is to get a healthy leaf. This is important because with those who are already weak or sick, it is very difficult for you to achieve a positive result. Together with him, you will need to get scissors. So that? To cut it. You need to divide the sheet into pieces about 5 centimeters wide.
But here, although the usual method is to put it in the ground, there are actually three ways to root it:
- By water. This implies that you have to put the piece of leaf in the water and wait to see the roots start to come out. It has the advantage that by using a transparent glass you can follow its evolution and see how the roots are born and grow. This way you know that when it is well established in the roots you can plant it and there will be a greater likelihood of total success. On the other hand, it can take time to take root.
- For pearlite. This is another of the usual methods and all you have to do is fill a glass or container with perlite, add a little water (either in a spray or with a bottle) and put the sansevieria in it while waiting for it takes root. It takes a while, a little less than water, but you will only see results after a while.
- Buried. The last of the methods to reproduce a sansevieria is to use soil. It is the most common and the best known. It consists of filling a pot with soil and planting the piece in it (it is not necessary to cover it entirely, but only to pour part of it). It is said that in about 30 days the sansevieria will have roots and that will be the time when you can relax as this means that all is well and a new plant can grow from there. But keep in mind that it can take up to 3 months to do so.
Reproduction by descent
The next method of reproduction is by suckers. You will normally only notice this when you transplant your sansevieria, as the suckers will be inside the pot and it is only when you take the plant out that you can uncover them and take advantage of them to multiply your plant.
This is one of the methods that will give you almost 100% success when multiplying it, and the truth is that it is not difficult to perform. For this, your sansevieria must already be well established and healthy. Adult specimens usually give offspring from time to time, and these grow in the pots next to their “mothers”. When you see that it is doing well, you can separate it, taking care to keep its roots and not damage the mother plant, and plant it in another separate pot.
What depends on your success when breeding
Despite the fact that all of the above, as you have seen, is very easy to do and shouldn’t cause you any problems, the truth is that it’s not every time you plant a chunk or reject that it will take root and move forward. As in everything, it depends on many factors. And there is no deadline for it to take root. In fact, it can take the 30 days we mentioned, but it can also take 10 days, or take months to see results.
One of the factors that most influences this is the temperature. If an adequate temperature is not provided (neither cold nor very hot), the cutting or the sucker will not come out on top, because it will be in a lethargic phase (i.e. for its functions) and as long as these will not be reactivated, it only advances. The problem is that you can get sick at this time and ultimately not come out.
Another factor is the type of substrate (in the case of soil) or perlite or water. What do we mean? You see, if you don’t provide it with proper substrate or water, instead of doing something good for it, you will be doing it harm, and you might even rot that cutting or sucker.
For this reason, when using water, it must come from rain or, if this is not possible, water without chlorine or limescale.
In the case of soil, the best substrate for a sansevieria is that indicated for succulents. It will be the best and remember it doesn’t need a lot of watering.
Now you know how to breed a sansevieria. Do you dare to do it yourself and tell us your results?