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Quick Overview
1. Cut off a length of devil's ivy.
2. Strip off a few bottom leaves.
3. Place stem in a glass of water, making sure the little nubs are under
water.
4. When you have several roots and the beginning of a new leaf, you're
ready to pot your cutting.
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| Very well developed roots on a cutting of ivy.
This baby is ready to pot! |
Tips
1. Keep your eye on the water level.
2. Plants need light. Keep your cutting near a window or in a room with
several hours of bright artificial light a day.
3. Change the water if it gets mucky.
 Also:
 Growing
the top of a pineapple into a houseplant.
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Devil's Ivy:
Free plants in minutes for the brownest of thumbs
 My
friend Jess isn't exactly the homey type. She cringes when you mention
cooking & looks skeptical when you bring up any kind of gardening.
Or I should say: lookED skeptical. After growing several jars of cuttings
on her cubicle shelf in our dark office, Jess is no longer afraid of
plants.
So if you're one of those people who has killed every plant you've
ever touched, take heart. Here's a totally easy, completely free source
of houseplants. So even if you screw up and kill them off the first
couple of times, you can always start over & have a new little plant
in a matter of weeks.
The easiest plant to grow from cuttings is called
devil's ivy. It's probably the most common houseplant around, and because
it's incredibly forgiving of lazy care, low light, and humidity levels,
it's the plant you're most likely to see in restaurants, offices &
other semipublic places. That's also why it's the best plant to start
with. After you've grown a few plants from these cuttings, you'll start
trying it with any cutting you can get your hands on.
First off, find a friend with a devil's ivy or get a few stems from
a restaurant. Just cut or pinch off a length of
stem with several leaves, as in the illustration.
If you look at the cutting, you'll notice little
nubs called aerial roots (2) sticking
out just under the opposite site of each leaf. When kept moist, these
will become the roots, so if you want your cutting to work, you'll need
to make sure these little nubs are under water. If you've ever tried
to stick an ivy leaf in water & it didn't root, you didn't get a
segment of stem with aerial roots. If you get a long stem, you can cut
it into several pieces and root them all. Just be sure to have a couple
segments on each stem, and make sure you've got some of those aerial
roots to go under water.
Strip off the bottom leaf or two on the
stem. You don't want to have leaves under water, where they'll rot &
encourage grody bacterial sludge.
Stick the cutting in a glass of water and
put it in a place that gets several hours (8 or so) of natural or bright
artificial light each day. You don't want to burn the leaves, so if
you're using a lamp on your plant, keep your eyes on it. They'll grow
right into your light bulb, where they'll burn, if you don't watch them.
You'll also want to keep an eye on the water level,
as these fast-growing cutting can suck up a lot & you'll lose plenty
to evaporation. If the water gets mucky, dump it out & replace it
with fresh water.
Within a few days to a week or so, you'll see new
roots (usually light-colored and meaty looking--see sidebar)
growing out of those little nubs, and you'll notice new
leaves growing at the top. When you have several nice, fat roots,
you can plant your cutting in potting soil (I prefer soil-less potting
mix, as it doesn't get compacted). You can be really slack about getting
around to potting these--they'll grow vigorously for some time in nothing
but water. But do plant them before your jar fills up with roots--then
you can trim off the new plant's growing tips in a month or so and root
them again. And make sure you keep it well-watered until you see new
growth.
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| All of these plants
(and many more!)came from a single scrawny hand-me-down from
my friend Leslie who hates plants. Because they'll take heaps
of abuse, I haven't killed a single one. |
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(above) Snag a couple of cuttings from the office,
take cuttings every couple months, & pretty soon you'll have a house
full of free plants! Even if you're not a cheapo like me, you'll enjoy
the satisfaction of propagation without the noisy offspring.
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