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Monday, February 20, 2012

Propagation of Dracaena

The calendar may say that it's winter but in my area of the Northeast,  we have had an unseasonably warm winter which gives me the gardening itch! The last month of winter is a great time to start thinking about the goals I have for my garden as well as decide what new plants I want to try out come spring time.
    
In the mean time, if you are looking for something to fill the gardening void during the winter months and add some color to your house, the Dracaena plant is a great indoor plant that doesn't require a lot of light and is low-maintenance. 


Dracaena "Lemon Lime" plant that I have had' for about 15 Years-it topped out at 8 feet!

My Dracaena had grown so tall and even had a 6 inch sucker plant (as seen in the picture below) growing at the base, so I decided to cut it down to make room for the new plant and propagate the old one.

Little "sucker" plant after I cut down the 8 foot tall Dracaena.


To cut down the Dracanea, I took a small hand saw and cut the main plant almost entirely, leaving only a three inch stump. As you can see in the picture above, there are two other stubs in the pot from the other times I have cut this plant down and propagated it.   Next, what I did was take the stalk after being cut down, was to cut a piece, three feet from the initial top,and place in that vase of water.
 "You can also do this with overgrown vines of pothos plant as well."

I then take a tall enough vase,fill it to the top with water .  Place stem down and just make sure water stays filled every couple of weeks  


* Year round I will have a vase with Pothos cuttings already rooted and thriving.  That's where I like to usually stick the Dracaena stems (scene in above picture) in and wait a few months for Roots to appear.

Give it another Few Months re-pot stem cutting into pot of choice and water regularly for month.

This can be done with other Dracaena that get on the leggy side. 
     

2 comments:

Pug Slope said...

Hello! Thank you for this helpful post. I have a lemon line dracaena that has gotten pretty tall yet the "trunk" never really got strong enough to support the leafy section at the top (which is really thriving). I am so nervous to just chop the trunk down to a little stump, but it sounds like that is the best thing to do - as you've shown above. As for the leafy top section, mine is a fairly good size - about 18 inches from the bottom leaves to the top - would you recommend cutting it into a few sections and putting each one into a jar with some water until it starts forming roots? Also just curious how long it took until you started seeing some new spouts on the stump. Any input or reassurance you could offer would be much appreciated. I saved this plant many years ago and it's been with me through many years, multiple moves, etc. -Brian

Frank's Garden Talk said...

It all depends how long for the roots to develop, but I would say a good 3 months minimum and maybe a month or two after that for them to be re-potted. You can also use stem sections as well. They will grow roots out from the side as you can see in the photos.