Today I am overly excited that my friend Josie cut her lemon rubber plant and gave me the branch to propagate. Well, it has gone wild anyway and the plant needed trimming.
I got the inspiration to propagate rubber plant when my younger daughter sent me a photo of the Ruby rubber plant she propagated.
So when she came home for a visit recently, I asked her to show me how it’s done. She cut my burgundy plant halfway from the top where the trunk is a little woody already.
This is how it looks after it was cut. It used to be as tall as the stake I put earlier to set the trunk straight.
Three weeks after the cutting, I now see red shoots sprouted on the nodes just on top of each leaf’s base. These shoots will come out as leaves and eventually grow into branches.
What happened to the top part of the plant that my daughter cut from the mother plant? She cut each and every leaf along with a part of the trunk just so in the photo below
I then put half of the cuttings in water to grow roots
After three weeks, I noticed breaks on the”trunk part” of the cuttings and this was where roots came out.
Soon longer roots are coming out
I’ll wait until the roots will grow about one centimeter long before planting them in soil.
My daughter urged me to plant the rest of the cuttings in soil to see how they will progress in another medium.
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So what did I do with the lemon rubber branch from my friend, Josie?
I did the same as my daughter taught me with the burgundy; cutting each leaf with its trunk like this leaf.
I put some in water to grow roots
The rest I planted in soil
Using a tried and tested method of propagation will definitely ensure a greater chance of success. Let’s see how my plants will pan out. I’ll keep you posted in the next.blog.