Even if poinsettias are very inexpensive to buy during the season, it can be worthwhile to propagate particularly beautiful varieties yourself. However, you should only choose very he althy, strong plants as mother plants. The offshoots of weak, sickly poinsettias root very poorly.
How to propagate a poinsettia?
To propagate a poinsettia, take cuttings from a he althy mother plant in the spring. Dip the ends in hot water to prevent loss of latex, use rooting powder and place the cuttings in potting soil. Keep the pots warm and light, the substrate moist but not too wet.
Cut several cuttings
To propagate a poinsettia, take cuttings. Propagating poinsettias from seeds usually does not work because mature seeds do not form in our latitudes. Poinsettias are only grown from seeds if new varieties are to be created.
Since not all cuttings will sprout roots, cut off more shoots than you actually need. The best time for propagation is spring after flowering.
Put the lower ends of the cut shoots in hot water for a short time. This closes the interfaces and no more milky juice can escape. If the ends are not closed, the cuttings will bleed and dry out.
Place cuttings correctly
- Prepare pots with potting soil
- Remove leaves from bottom of cuttings
- halve the top leaves if necessary
- Coat ends with rooting powder (€7.00 at Amazon)
- Keep substrate moist but not too wet
- maybe. cover with plastic wrap
- Place pots warm and bright
You only need to cut the top leaves in half if they are very large. Otherwise, the cuttings will evaporate too much water through the leaves and dry out.
The right location for cuttings
Place the pots with the poinsettia cuttings in a warm, bright place. Temperatures from 20 degrees are ideal. Avoid direct sunlight as the shoots dry out quickly.
Care for cuttings until they root
Keep the soil well moist, but make sure that no waterlogging can occur. If you have covered the pots with foil, you should ventilate them regularly so that the cuttings do not become moldy.
As soon as the poinsettia sprouts again, you will know whether the propagation was successful. Plant the cuttings in larger pots when they have developed at least two pairs of leaves.
Moosing the poinsettia
A poinsettia can also be propagated by moss. To do this, a wedge is cut into a strong shoot. Into this wedge place a cutting that you have cut diagonally at the bottom and treated with heat.
Wrap the area with crepe paper or other absorbent materials and keep it moist.
Make poinsettia offshoots bloom
In order for the new poinsettias to turn red, you must first put them in the dark for several weeks. The poinsettia is a short-day plant that only develops its colored bracts after a dark phase.
The plants need a location for six to eight weeks where they receive less than eleven to twelve hours of light.
Tip
So that the young plants branch better, cut them back more often. Then the plants become bushier and develop more shoots with colored bracts.
