Do you have snake plant? Now you can make snake plant babies! What more amazing is you can make snake plant babies from your very own snake plant. This thing called propagation. Let’s learn how to make snake plant babies using propagation methods!
How Long Does It Takes To Make Snake Plant Babies?
To propagate a snake plant, it may take from 1 to 3 months. Rooting snake plants in water or LECA takes a while. Trying to propagate snake plant cuttings in water recently hasn’t been very successful; instead, switched to LECA in order to avoid rotting.
In soil, the cuttings also take a while to grow. It’s about the same amount of time, but it feels longer because you can’t see anything happening! When you see roots sprouting in water or LECA, it’s motivating. A new baby has to grow after the roots sprout in soil.
In order to divide snake plants, you simply cut off the baby plants from the mother plants at the rhizome and plant them. As snake plants grow slowly, you have to wait a while before you can cut off mature baby plants from the mother plant.
This comes with a huge disclaimer, though in the winter, it takes much longer to propagate any plants. Plants include snakes. When growing conditions are right, snake plants can actually grow pretty rapidly in the spring and summer. Thus, propagating these plants at that time is the optimum time.
Propagating Snake Plants by Rhizome Cuttings
Rhizomes are one method of propagating snake plants. The stem structures that resemble roots and connect a mother plant to her babies are called rhizomes. Plants are rooted in the ground by the rhizomes and sprout from them. If you wish to propagate a snake plant by cutting off the rhizome, use a clean knife to remove it from the plant it’s growing from. Try to avoid cutting the roots, but if you need to, you can do so. Plants like this are resilient!
You should let the rhizome dry for a day or two before planting. Hardening the cut area will improve water absorption. Keep the newly planted rhizome cutting moist for a few weeks until you see new growth!
Propagating a Snake Plant by Division
It is likely that division is the best way to propagate a very large snake plant. The method used on very large snake plant in the living room is similar to propagating it by rhizome. it’s beautiful, but it was getting really big and some of the interior leaves weren’t doing as well. This led me to decide that it should be divided. The entire plant was laid out on a tarp in the living room, the dirt was brushed off, and I found that the plant was connected by two large rhizomes.
Do Snake Plants Have Babies?
Snake plants have babies. Therefore, division is the only way to propagate them. Rhizomes sprout from the main plant, and the rhizomes turn into new snake plants. It’s actually pretty hard to tell which plants are mothers and which are babies when they are all grouped so closely together.
Here’s the same snake plant taken from its planter and arranged separately by each individual plant! They could have grown perfectly well if potted separately. Some of them came out, but most of them went back into the planter.
Now back to my massive living room plant…in essence, this snake plant was two large plants connected by a large u-shaped rhizome. The mother plant couldn’t even be identified! A lot of small rhizomes (the ones you had cut away earlier) were also present. To separate the roots, I simply cut the plant in half at its main rhizome. Replanting followed.
The best practice is to allow the newly cut bottom to harden for a few days. In order to avoid dirt accumulating on the floor for a few days, I repotted half the plant back into the white pot (see first photo below) and the other half into my new hairpin leg planter (see second photo below)! It’s still going well for both of them.