Anyone who has ever looked around for an elephant's foot may be surprised at the rather high price of a plant that is still quite small. The idea is to grow your own elephant foot from seeds or cuttings.
How do you propagate an elephant foot?
An elephant foot can be propagated by sowing or cuttings. When sowing, it is important to pre-swell the seeds and ensure constant warmth and moisture. When propagating from cuttings, they should be cut off in summer and placed in growing substrate.
Is elephant foot easy to propagate?
Growing a plant from seeds or cuttings requires a lot of time and patience because the elephant's foot grows slowly. So it's no wonder that the decorative and easy-care elephant foot is not cheap. If you would like to grow it yourself and have the choice, then it is best to grow it from a cutting, which is much faster than sowing.
How do I grow an elephant foot from a cutting?
An older elephant foot sometimes forms offshoots in the leaf axils. These cuttings are ideal for propagation. Cut these shoots, preferably in summer, so that a little wood remains on them.
Use the woody end to insert the cutting into the growing substrate. Beforehand, you can shorten the existing leaves to around five centimeters long, which reduces evaporation. With consistent heat and moisture, the first tender roots will form after a while.
How does sowing work?
You shouldn't wait for seeds from your own elephant's foot or those of your friends. The elephant's foot almost never flowers when kept as a houseplant. To do this, it needs a constant climate (dry, warm and without air movement). Buy the seeds from a seed store, for example over the Internet.
Let the seeds soak in warm water for about three hours, this will speed up germination a little. Mix peat and sand in a ratio of 2:1 or fill a pot with permeable, nutrient-poor growing substrate. Moisten the substrate and press the swollen seeds into it a few millimeters deep.
For the greenhouse climate required for germination, cover the growing pot with a transparent film that you secure with a rubber band, or place it in a small indoor greenhouse. Keep the substrate evenly moist at a temperature of 20°C to 25°C. After a few weeks or months the first seedlings appear.
The most important things in brief:
- Sowing possible all year round
- Allow seeds to pre-swell, this accelerates germination
- Cover seeds a few millimeters with soil
- Cover the pot with foil or place it in a greenhouse
- Germination time: several weeks to a few months
- Sowing is much more complex than growing from cuttings
- constant heat and moisture necessary for germination or rooting
- Be sure to water the cuttings regularly, but do not drown them
Tip
Growing from a cutting takes far less time than sowing.