Now that the streptocarpus leaves have made "baby plants", what do you do with them?When the young are getting to be 1/2" to 3/4" or larger they can be gently separated away from the parent leaf.
Sometimes the "mother" leaf will have rotted away by the time the young are ready to be moved into individual pots.
Take the row of young and very gently "tease" them apart with a toothpick or tweezers or even a chopstick. Chopsticks work well because they are narrow, not sharp and usually won't damage what you're working on if used with care.
The parent might have produced more young than you wish to pot up, so select the best and strongest. Use a very light potting mix. Streps, young and old, do NOT like to be soaking in water. That is one of the fastest ways to kill them!
After you have the individual plants in their solo cups (or small pots with good drainage) put the group of pots back under some sort of humidity dome or cover so that they are in approximately the same conditions that the newly propagating leaf was in.
With luck you should have a good size offspring in just a couple of weeks! Thanks very kindly to Sharon Johnson for demonstrating the strep propagation process for us!!!
4 comments:
Very interestin
How many years does it take for it to flower?
This looks like it would be fun to try.
Donnie has a good question. Are we talking several months or does it take a year or more? I would think the size (mini or large) of the strep would make a difference, right?
A strep can be made to bloom - from the time of putting down the parent leaf to first bloom- in as little as 5 months. This is under optimal conditions and requires you to "wiggle" the roots every couple of weeks. This means going to your "younglings" and gently moving them around in their pots simulating disturbances like they might get growing out in nature. That and very consistent care and you could get two generations of plants a year.
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