How to Propagate Snake Plant? (Step by Step Detailed Guide)


Snake Plants are one of the most widely grown houseplants. Propagating a Snake plant is easy and simple. Learning how to propagate snake plant can help you in increasing the number of houseplants that you can grow. In fact, propagating them is very easy they can easily take root in soil or water.

You can easily propagate snake plants with a few easy steps. A few of the ways that you can propagate snake plant can include leaf cutting in water, leaf cuttings in soil, root division and from the seeds. 


What is a Snake Plant?


Sansevierias aka Snake Plant is also known by many other names such as Bowstring Hemp Plant, Mother In law plant, or Devil’s Tongue. Being native to Asia and Africa Snake Plants are being recognized for their sword-shaped leaves. Snake Plants are houseplants that are very easy to propagate and take care of. Snake Plant is a succulent plant and is very merciful and perfect for beginners. Therefore you don’t have to go outside and purchase new Snake Plants because propagation of a Snake Plant from its cuttings is an easy way to propagate it. Keep reading to know how to propagate Snake Plant in your home for your friends and relatives!

The plant comes with sword like lease and is a handy houseplant. What makes the Snake Plant one of the excellent options is that it is easy to care and grow. That is why it is found in ost of the offices and homes. It belongs to a stemless evergreen perennial plant and can last for several years if you take a proper care of the plant.

The Snake plant can grow between 6 inches and can grow several feet tall. The color may vary, but most varieties show green-banded or striped leaves with a yellow or cream border.


How to Propagate Snake Plant?


Are you ready to try to propagate your snake plants? How do you grow new from snake plant cuttings?

There are four basic methods to propagate snake plants:

  1. Propagation of Snake Plant cuttings in water– cut off healthy leaves of the plant and regrows them in water.
  2. Propagation of Snake plant in soil– Plant the cuttings in the soil by transplanting a leaf that you have removed directly into the soil.
  3. Propagation by division– Divide a snake plant in half.
  4. Propagation from rhizome– Underground stems can also regrow into new snake plants with favorable conditions.

Just keep on reading to know about these methods in detail. Also, you will be able to know the best method to propagate snake plants with their advantages and disadvantages.

snake plants

How to Propagate Snake Plants in Water?

To propagate snake plants in water, please follow the following steps:

  • From your mother plant, cut off a healthy snake plant leaf near its base. Then make a serrated upside-down V-shaped cut at the bottom of the leaf and place the leaf in a clean jar of water.
  • The water level in the jar should be partially above the V cut. As the root will grow from the cut tissue, this process helps to boost most of the cut surfaces so that roots have more space to grow.
  •  After this, you have to wait for about 3 to 5 weeks, and then you will notice that the roots start growing from the bottom of the leaf. In another 2 to 3 weeks, small pups will start growing. After that, you can easily transplant leaf cuttings in succulent soil or keep them growing in water.

Advantages

The main advantage of propagation of snake plants in water is that this is a super easy method to propagate snake plants. Watching roots and pups grow from the cutting-in water jar is really big fun. If, growing a plant in water is your hobby then propagating and growing Snake Plant in water will definitely boost you.

Disadvantages

Many available variegated varieties of Snake Plant with dark margins or with yellow stripes lose their color margins when propagated in water from leaf cuttings. This is the disadvantage of propagating snake plants in water.

How to Propagate Snake Plants in Soil?

To propagate snake plant cutting in soil, try the points discussed below step by step:

  • Cut off a healthy snake plant leaf nearer to its base and make this cut surfaced dry and heal for 1 to 2 days. 
  •  Transplant the leaf cuttings in the potting soil. Water properly and let it drain. 
  • Remember that the soil gets neither too dry nor too wet, because soggy soil can rot the leaf cuttings. Just keep an eye on the soil once every 1 to 2 weeks and water the soil only if the top 2” of soil looks dry below the surface. 
  • Like the propagation in water, these leaves cutting will also root and grow pups which are then converted into new plants. But it takes a little bit more time than the cuttings in water. So have patience and enjoy your propagation of snake plants in the soil.

Advantages

The main advantage of the propagation of snake plants in soil is it is a one-step method. Because you can plant several cuttings in one plant and then you can get an instant plant. You can also plant different varieties in one pot and it looks like living sculptures.

Disadvantages

The disadvantage of propagating snake plants in soil is the same as that the disadvantage of propagation in water. The leaf cuttings may not grow the same as the original plants in the case of variegated varieties.

How to Propagate Snake Plant by Division?

As we know Division, in cultivation or gardening, is used as a method of plant propagation. In this process, the root clump of a plant is broken into 2 or more parts and both the root and crown of each part should be kept untouched.

To propagate snake plants by division mention these steps: 

  1. Take out the plant from the pot then dig up a clump from the soil.
  2.  In order to divide the root clumps always use a clean and sharp knife or scissors. 
  3. Just keep in mind that each division is having roots and some leaves on the top or pups attached to it. 
  4. Now you can plant your divided clumps into the succulent soil of their new pots or in your garden. 

The division method enables more space for new growth as your plant multiplies in number.

Advantages

The biggest advantage of propagation by division is getting the same plant as the parent plant. So always use the propagation by division method, if you want your snake plant to be exactly like the parent plant, mainly for the variegated varieties with colourful margins.

Disadvantages

The disadvantage of propagation by division is the size of the plant you required for propagation. A big size plant is required for this type of propagation.

How to Propagate Snake Plant by Rhizomes?

Rhizome is a horizontal underground plant stem that is capable of producing the root and shoot systems of a new plant. These rhizomes are responsible to send off new shoots called pups in Snake Plant. Don’t worry if you don’t have pups to grow into a new plant, you can also use rhizomes to grow new snake plants.

To propagate the Snake plant by rhizomes one has to follow these steps:

  1. First of all, take your snake plant out of the pot and carefully lay the snake plant on its side. Try to find some rhizomes in the root area under the soil. They resemble a whitish-looking stem that somewhere looks like cloves of garlic.
  2.  Then using a sterilized knife or scissors, cut off the rhizome from the bottom of the plant without damaging the roots around it.
  3. Now let the rhizomes get hardened and thickened for a few days. Once the callous has formed, the rhizomes are ready to pot into a new pot. 
  4. Just watch and wait till a new plant appear.

Best Conditions for Snake Plant Propagation


In the above section, we have read how to propagate snake plants by using different methods. And now you can easily choose which method is best for you. But just knowing the methods of propagation is not enough until you don’t know the conditions favourable for propagation of snake plant. 

It is not necessary that every cutting of Snake Plant survive the propagation process. So to increase the success rate of your propagation just provide favourable conditions to your cuttings

  1. Bright and indirect sunlight
  2. Choose right type of pots/ Use of clean pots and utensils
  3. Choose the right soil medium
  4. The amount of water
  5. The temperature

How to Take Care of Snake Plants?


You are now aware of the conditions that are necessary to propagate Snake Plant effectively. But how these conditions affect the growth of the Snake Plant, will be better understood after knowing about how to take care of Snake Plant. So here we are giving you some tips to take care of Snake Plant.

Read carefully if you want your Snake Plant will never lose cuttings.

Tips to care Snake Plant

Tip 1: How much light do Snake Plants need?

Rooted snake plants can tolerate any kind of conditions but the propagated cuttings need more attention to get succeed. We know that Snake plants can survive in full sun and low light but bright and indirect shade or limited morning/evening sunlight is best for a snake plant. Sansevierias in hot noon sun can get destroyed from sunburn.

Tip 2: How often should I water Snake Plant? 

When talking about succulent plants, especially snake Plants then it can face problems due to overwatering than by under watering. If you forgot to water them, it will be just fine for them because they are drought-tolerant plants. Therefore snake plants need to be watered once every 2 to 4 weeks in spring or autumn. In winter, just water the plant once in every couple of months. If the top 2”-3” inches of soil is dry, then only you can water the snake plant. If it is not so, then wait for another week. Do not overwater the snake plant as the plant can easily rot because soggy soil contains harmful bacteria that are responsible for root rot.

Tip 3: Best temperature tolerance to grow Snake Plant

Snake plants are tropical plants therefore grows very well inside the house. The best temperature to grow Snake Plant ranges between 60 degrees to 80 degrees Fahrenheit or 16 degrees to 27 degrees Celsius. And if the temperature falls down below 50 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 degrees Celsius, then the Snake Plant gets yellow and die or turn brown from the edges and tips of the leaves.

Tip 4: Best soil to grow Snake Plant

A succulent plant, such as Snake Plants doesn’t need to be overwatered. This leads to root rot and make the soil soggy. So to protect your Snake Plant form these problems, the need of a proper soil medium that drains well as well as dries out regularly in between watering is must. Most probably potting soil can be used because they don’t require many fertilizers, but you can use fertilizers if you want to grow your Snake plant a little more. Succulent soil is best suited to grow Snake Plant, or you can make your own soil by adding extra perlite to your regular potting soil. Soilless potting mix can also be used to grow Snake Plant, which consists of perlite, vermiculite and coarse sand and also sphagnum peat moss. 

Tip 5: which type of pots and utensils are best to grow Snake Plant

For Snake plants or any other succulents, Terracotta pots are considered to be the best because they are porous thus making the soil dry regularly. Terracotta pots also prevent the plant from rotting when they are over-watered. Pots with good drainage would be the first preference for Snake plants with a drainage hole in the bottom. So a heavy pot works best for tall Snake plants, as they become top-heavy. Also, wash all the utensils and pots used to propagate the plant because it will minimize the chances of bacterial harm to the cuttings. And also sterilize the knife or scissors used in this process to prevent any kind of harm to the cuttings.


Life Span of Snake Plant


After doing so much labor in propagating Snake Plant, you must know how often do Snake Plants live?

In low light, Snake Plants can live up to 5 -10 years. But there are many cases in which Snake Plants can live for about 25 years or more if they are under their favorable conditions.


Amazing Benefits of Snake Plant


  • Snake plant is the best indoor plant to purify the air. Hence best suited for bedrooms.
  • Snake Plants suffer low light, abnormal watering, and also some kind of neglect. Therefore it is easy to care for and with low maintenance.
  • Snake plants are slow-growing and therefore applicable for small spaces.
  • Snake Plant looks very attractive and unique in style so can be placed in any style of room.
  • Snake Plants are very easy to propagate, so you can easily share them with your friends and relatives to decorate their places.

In Conclusion


Snake Plants, another member of the succulent family, are very easy to propagate, easy to maintain, and long-lived plants. So if you want to take advantage of Snake Plant, Go and Get it planted by today itself. Also after knowing so many methods to propagate Snake Plant, which method do you use to propagate Snake Plant? Kindly do share with us!


FAQs


Is it easier to use soil or water to propagate snake plants?

Propagating Snake Plant is ideally better in water than in soil. You just need to have the Snake plant cuttings, enough sunlight and a jar filled with water. However, even when it may be easy, you will encounter more possibility of root rot. Propagating the Snake plant in soil can take a little more time, but the root system will be stronger and harder.

When is the best time to propagate a snake plant?
You can propagate the Snake plant through cuttings all through the year. However, it would be better to propagate the Snake Plant in spring or summer. This is the period when the Snake plant is growing actively. The mid spring can be a good time to begin propagating the snake plant.
What is the fastest way to propagate a snake plant?
The fastest way to propagate the Snake plant is to divide the root and grow it. This will ensure that you will be able to keep the variegated colour of the plant.

Nikita

Nikita is a Succulent lover. She really enjoys planting and nourishing them. She loves to share information about various Succulents on this blog to aware people more about these awesome plants.

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