The ivy is a pure climbing plant that does not produce any offshoots itself. If you want to grow additional plants for your apartment or aquarium, you will have to propagate ivy plants yourself. It's easy and almost always works.
How do I grow ivy cuttings?
To grow ivy branches, cut off a longer shoot with aerial roots, divide it into 8-15 cm pieces with at least three leaf nodes and remove the lower leaves. Grow the cuttings in the nursery pot or water glass until they form 2-3 cm long roots and then transplant them into suitable substrate.
Grow new offshoots of the ivy plant yourself
Ivy plants have two different types of roots: the supply root, which draws nutrients and moisture from the soil, and the aerial roots, with which they climb up trellises.
Offshoots do not form from the aerial roots. So it's no use if you simply cover an aerial root with soil. In order to get new offshoots, you have to propagate the ivy plant yourself.
Ivy plants are propagated exclusively via cuttings. You cannot divide the root ball. Ivy plants almost never bloom when grown indoors, so you can't harvest seeds here either.
How to get cuttings of ivy plants
Getting cuttings from an ivy is not difficult. Simply cut off a longer shoot, preferably with aerial roots, and divide it into pieces of 8 to 15 cm. At least three leaf nodes must remain on each section.
In principle, you can cut cuttings all year round, but spring is particularly favorable. Then the roots sprout faster because the days are bright longer.
Remove the bottom leaves! Do not leave them lying around so that they do not fall into the hands of babies. Ivy plants are poisonous to people and animals!
Take cuttings in a growing pot or water glass
- Fill the cultivation pot with soil
- alternatively provide water glass
- remove lower leaves
- Place cuttings in pot or jar
You can grow ivy cuttings in a nursery pot or in a water glass. Fill the cultivation pots with a mixture of peat (€8.00 on Amazon) and sand. The water glass should be as low in lime as possible.
Insert or place the cuttings in the pot or jar. The location for the cuttings should be as bright and warm as possible. Temperatures around 20 degrees are ideal.
Make sure that the substrate never dries out completely. To be on the safe side, place a clear plastic bag over the pot.
When the cuttings have formed roots
It often only takes a few days for the cuttings to form roots. As soon as the roots are around two to three centimeters long, you can repot cuttings from the water glass. Place them in substrate that must be as loose and water-retaining as possible.
In the nursery pot, continue to care for the ivy offshoots as normal. Repot them when the roots stick out of the bottom of the drainage hole.
Tip
Just like the common ivy (Hedera helix), the ivy is also one of the plants that significantly improve the indoor climate. It absorbs pollutants from the air through its leaves and thus cleans it. An ideal location is, for example, a place next to the printer in the office.
