After spending the last few days with boxes of tissues, bottles of decongestants, cough syrup, and not much ambition, today I finally mustered the energy to check on the plants. I have one young kitty who is just a bit too inquisitive for his own good. He's broken several things by attempting to quickly jump away, in hopes that he can convince me he's innocent of any wrong-doing. Today, it was the tip of one segment of my jade plant (Crassula ovata). Now, I have a difficult time throwing away any plant or piece of plant that might have a chance to grow. And jade plants are notoriously easy to start from slips or cuttings, or even just a piece of leaf.
So, it was time to do some planting. I didn't have any sterilized potting soil and I really didn't want to take the time to sterilize a batch in the oven. A horticulturist friend told me he's had very good luck sterilizing his potting soil in the microwave. I decided to give it a try. I placed the potting soil in a plastic bag, left the bag unsealed, and put it in the microwave. I used about four quarts of soil and microwaved it for three minutes, stirred, then microwaved another three minutes. When I first put the bag in the microwave, I had a vision of what had happened when I'd attempted to warm a flannel blanket in the microwave back in my nursing days (suffice it to say the "what were you thinking" question from the fire deparment was a bit difficult to answer). But, the soil was nuked with no untoward incidents. The bag was quite warm when I removed it from the microwave, so next time I'll be sure to have a towel or hot pad handy to protect my hands. It worked great and instead of having to work on sterilizing for 30 to 45 minutes in the oven, I was done in 6 minutes. Oh, and for anyone who doesn't like the "earthy" smell from sterilizing in the oven, there was no smell associated with the microwaving. I''ll defnitely use this method again for small amounts of soil.
I allowed the soil to cool, moistened it slightly, and then prepared the "cutting" from my jade plant for planting.
If you are taking a fresh cut, it is important to let the cut end dry and form a callous before putting the cutting in soil. Obviously, Lynx, the brat cat, had been exploring around my plant before today, because the broken end was already healed, so I could plant right away. I dipped the end in a little rooting hormone. This is not mandatory, but it does help with the starting of roots and also helps preventing rotting of the cutting. My jade plant, as succulents often do, had already developed external "roots" along the lower edges of the stem so I simply set those roots on the potting soil, covered it lightly with more soil, and put it in a cloche, or place pot and all inside a partially sealed plastic bag, to help the moisture stay more consistent and to keep it in a warmer environment until I see signs of new growth. I'll keep it out of direct sunlight until new growth starts, then gradually introduce it to more direct sun.
You can also start a new jade plant from a single leaf. To do this, snip a nice, healthy leaf from the parent plant. Dip just the cut tip of the leaf in rooting hormone, then lay the leaf in a pot, with the cut end on top of the soil and the upper portion of the leaf resting against the side of the pot, off the soil surface. Lightly cover just the cut tip with soil and water only from the bottom to avoid disturbing that light layer of soil. Then treat it as you did the planted cutting. It takes longer to see new growth using this method, but it is still very easy to do.
Since my cutting already had a pretty good start of external roots, I'm confident I'll have a new jade plant to share with someone before too very long.
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