Crafting with the Katies: Propagating Plants

It’s time for another Crafting with the Katies!

This week, we’re learning how to propagate house plants.

For this project, you’ll need:

• A house plant of your choosing
• Scissors
• Indoor potting soil
• Bark or orchid soil
• Perlite
• Extra pots with drainage holes
• Small vials for propagations

We got our house plants from a local greenhouse, and the items for the soil mixture at a home improvement store.

Before you begin propagating, do some research about your chosen house plant. What kind of soil mixture is the best? Does your plant need to be in full sunlight or partial sunlight? Find out how best to take care of your house plant before propagating.

Here are the steps we used to propagate our Pilea plant, or Chinese Money Plant.

Step 1: Take the plant out of its plastic container and start to break apart the soil.

Step 2: Find where the roots of the “babies” of the plant are.

Step 3: Use scissors or gently break apart the babies from the main plant.

Step 4: Re-pot the main plant in a pot with a drainage hole, using a soil mixture that’s right for your species of plant. For our Pilea, we used 1/3 of indoor potting soil, 1/3 bark or orchid soil, and 1/3 Perlite.

Step 5: Rinse off the propagated babies, and place them in the vials filled with water.

It may take a few months or even up to a year before you start to see roots grow from your propagations. Once there are substantial roots grown, you can plant your propagations in a pot with a drainage hole.

If you liked this craft, or you have an idea for a craft we can do in the future, email us at katyw@9and10news.com and katiebirecki@9and10news.com.