Last summer, mid-pandemic, I happened upon a new local plant shop, Vacation Plant Co. I originally went for a taller variety of snake plant, but when I saw this baby Swiss Cheese Vine, I had to bring it home, too. You can get yourself one HERE. Click on that link and to compare with mine, see how FAST these grow!
The Most Important Thing
Before I start cutting into the plant, I saturate the scissors with diluted alcohol (the same alcohol mix I keep on hand to spray mealy bugs and gnats). This will prevent any germs spreading from one plant to another. I learned this the hard way when I got a cheap Parlor Palm that ended up having scale and accidentally transferred it to my majesty palm when I was trimming the fronds. Even though all my plants are healthy now, I still sanitize my scissors. It’s a simple step and not worth the risk of dealing with an infestation!
Did You Know?
One of the more recently fascinating things I am learning about plants is the immature leaves will not look like the adult leaves. If you look at the big leaf in the top of this picture, there are no holes in the leaves. As the plant matures, the leaves will develop holes like the ones further down the vine. The Hope Philodendron is another plant that grows this way. The baby leaves are heart shaped with no “fingers,” but as the plant matures the leaves have a more pronounced split.
Here is a piece off the vine. These leaves were damaged by one of my kiddos. Once they are damaged, the leaves won’t look “pretty” again. Which makes them ideal for propagating because once the new vine begins to grow, the original damaged leaf can be trimmed. I love sharing my plants with my fellow plant friends and this is a great way to make plants to share!
Some suggest to keep 2 nodes on each propagation. Nodes are where the leaf stem meets the plant vine. I’ve had success with one node each, but the section of the vine also determines how I would separate the leaves. I left the end two leaves connected because 1) it’s the end of the vine and 2) the end leaf is new.
The Hardest Part
Once the vine is separated, I put the leaves in a jar of water and throw away the pieces without leaves. My prop station is in indirect light in a north facing window — enough sun to grow, but not enough to stress the newly cut plants.
Now comes the hardest part of propagating. The waiting! Roots should begin to appear after a week or so, but they need to be well established. How well the roots grow really depends on the growing environment. Even if the environment isn’t ideal for the plant, the roots should be established enough after 4-6 weeks.
While waiting for the roots, I change out the water every 2 or 3 days to prevent anything besides roots from growing in the water. This is also a good time to inspect the nodes and discard anything that is getting black and mushy — meaning that the plant is rotting and not growing.