Do you love Sansevieria so much that you want more than one plant in your home? You can do it without necessarily going to the store!
This plant, also popularly known as Mother-in-Law’s Tongue or Snake Plant , is a very famous and widespread succulent as a houseplant.
Its tall and stiff leaves are its distinctive feature which make it truly unmistakable. But did you know that you can multiply it with a single leaf to obtain many different plants? We’ll explain how to do it step by step so you can’t go wrong!
Choose a leaf
The first thing you should do is examine your sansevieria and choose a leaf to remove from the main plant.
The choice must fall on a healthy and mature leaf : it must therefore be a leaf that is not too small and does not show any spots or signs of disease or infection.
At this point, remove it delicately from the ground , separating its roots from those of the main plant without damaging it.
Using garden scissors or shears, cut the sansevieria leaf into 5-7cm sections until you have rectangles of the original leaf.
Let the roots develop
Allow the cut to heal slightly by keeping the parts of the leaf in the open air for a few hours .
Now all you have to do is ensure that roots emerge from the individual leaf rectangles . You can do this in two different ways.
In the ground
The classic method consists of placing the leaf to root in very soft soil , obtained from a mix of sand and peat , burying the lower part of the leaf according to the direction of the cut (i.e. placing downwards that part of the leaf which, effectively, it was at the bottom when you cut it).
After placing it in a pot with soil, place everything in a warm (at a temperature higher than 16-18°C) and fairly bright place .
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Usually, it can take a long time to root the leaflet , even several months , and the process is not always successful. For this reason, we recommend burying the different rectangles of the original leaf in multiple pots so as to have a greater chance that one of the leaves will develop roots.
In water
Another method for rooting the sansevieria leaf is to root it in water .
Place the rectangles cut from the sansevieria leaf in a glass so that only the bottom part is in contact with water. The optimal situation is one in which the leaf does not touch the bottom of the glass: to do this you should use glasses or jars in which the lower part is narrower than the higher one.
Also in this case, as before, you will have to follow the direction of the leaf .
Usually, the rooting time, in the water method, is shorter and often we are not talking about months but weeks. But we still advise you to try with several rectangles in different glasses to increase the chances that the process will be successful.
This method, also called the glass method , can also be used with other plants, especially succulents .
Here is a video that will help you better understand all the steps :
Plant in a pot
Whether you have grown the roots in soil or in water , once you have obtained the result, you must repot what is now a real plant into a pot.
Choose a medium-sized pot, preferably earthenware, and plant the plant in soil suitable for succulents . Then, care for your new sansevieria (or your new sansevierias, if you got more than one!) just as you did the mother plant .
Therefore, keep it in a fairly warm place where there is no direct sunlight which, together with the heat , could burn its leaves.