How to Root & Propagate Monstera & Philodendron, Part 1 | Care Guide, Rooting & Propagation | Ep 67

hello plant friends so as I was going around looking at specimens I have for today's video I found this right so this is a cutting of a variegated monstera I have it rooting in water and today I saw and I found this so I hope it focuses there is a clear demarcation in coloration between this darker area over here and the healthy-looking stem here if I touch it it's uh it's it's quite it's quite mushy right so obviously this area has been rotted so I am going to deal with it right now alright so I have my paring knife from the kitchen and I'm just going to to cut this part off for those of you guys who are just joining us my name is Jimmy I'm a doctor and tropical plant hobbyists here in LA and for those who are you know returning my name is still Jimmy so here's the old part and then I chopped it off what I want to make sure is that this darkened color is not you know has not penetrated up to the area that I want to keep and stay healthy alright so I'm pretty generous with the amount of stem that I cut off so that I can assure that the rot that is penetrating and investing this part is not going to invest and penetrate this part alright so sometimes the outer discoloration is is going to be less than the amount of rot that's actually inside and in the center of the stem okay so sometimes even though you're cutting off this the center of the stem in here is still going to be dark and discolored so that means that you will have to chop it off a little bit more you need to make a sharp cut I think that is the most important thing that you need to do okay you need to make a sharp cut so you have to pick your sharpest knife you know if you have a pair of like really really sharp scissors or shears you can use that too but I highly highly recommend a knife so why I'm just gonna put this down so so think about the last time you bumped into something right like you're walking around and either you bumped your arm or you bumped your leg or your toe into something and then a few days later you notice a bruise right so if you think back about all the bruises that you've had and remember the the bump that caused the bruise you will probably remember that the area of the bruise is much larger and bigger than whatever you know contact bump that that caused that bruise right so the reason for that is that you know when you're bumping to something you're causing what we call a crush injury right so so that the the area of the maximum impact direct impact is is crushed right but also the area around it is also crushed right so so that area is is damaged tissue so how does that applied to to to cutting something we've probably all seen infomercials about like knives really like they always comparing a really sharp knife with a really dull knife and I think the key test is cutting a tomato right so you see a really sharp knife that use like right slices through the tomato whereas like a dull knife it's like yeah alright it's like it it crushes the tomato alright so in terms of cooking and tomatoes right you're gonna eat it anyway so it's I I assume it's just like a presentation issue right but but for plan and you know also in medicine we want to avoid crushing injury as much as we can so when you when you're you have a fresh cut like this the area that you cut as you know all this new fresh tissue this area is is exposed right it's susceptible to it I mean it's already injured right this this this layer of you know is already injured it's susceptible to rot and bacteria all right so it's it's highly susceptible to rot as it is but when you're using a blunt instrument and you're creating layers and layers of crushed tissues behind that you're increasing the amount of damaged tissue and susceptible tissue in this area all right so so it's really really important that you try to use the sharpest instrument that you can so that you make the you know the the cut that is least damaging and preserves as much healthy tissue as you can see I always I also try to cut it perpendicular or you know at a 90 degree angle so to reduce the the surface area that is exposed I know that a lot of people focus on you know sanitation and and being as sterile as possible like they would you know you get all sorts of things I do not I don't I don't do it when I'm potting I don't wear gloves when I'm potting I don't you know use alcohol swabs for sterilization and the reason why I don't do it is that I don't believe I don't believe it has a benefit and I have not I have not been convinced in any way that there is a benefit to doing it one of the main reasons is that there's there's bacteria everywhere right there's bacteria in the air there's bacteria on us there's bacteria on every surface on every plant a lot of that bacteria is either what we call healthy or I guess I would call like neutral bacteria a bacteria that doesn't do it just it just lives around and with us and it doesn't cause us harm it doesn't cause our plants harm it's just there that's much different from the bacteria that we're all afraid of right we're all afraid of that bacteria that causes a root rot right especially when we're talking about propagating and rooting cuttings and plants where we're afraid of root rot but the bacteria the bad bacteria that causes root rot is not the bacteria that's floating around it's not the bacteria that's living on surfaces living on you me living on two plants right it's we're talking about different types of bacteria and then the other reason is that you know regardless of what you do your gloves your your alcohol you're not you're not going to be able to eliminate about everything right you're not going to be as you're never as clean and sterile as you think you are so that's that's why I don't do it if you are one of those people who are really - like you know swabbing and and wiping everything down and using gloves when you're gardening or propagating I think that's perfectly fine I don't think that there's a harm in doing it but I again I also don't think that there is as big a benefit as a lot of people who do it make it out to seem alright okay so anyways this is supposed to be and is going to be a propagating and rooting video okay an episode alright so I guess let's let's start so I did pick out a couple routing specimens for you guys for us to talk about today so they are both very gated albo cuttings so so here are my two ones and as you can see they are already developing some roots I think both of these have been in water for I would say almost a month now yeah okay so let's let's talk about let's talk about this guy and then so we're gonna we're gonna start with with very very basic stuff and also as you can see this guy this guy has some some rot down there too which since I'm at it in case I and I don't want to forget I'm just going to cut it off now as well okay okay all right great this one also has great a very very clean center when we're talking about the note the note is is the most important thing you want to consider all right the note is where the roots are going to come from the nodes are where the new branches and leaves are going to come from right so you want nodes you want as many nodes and as healthy you know as many healthy nodes as you can so from you know so this one I have one node I did have another node here you can tell that even without you know knowing that I cut off a piece that there was a note here and you can tell because you know there's some roots coming out here obviously the node got a little rotted so to preserve the rest of the cutting and this plant I cut off that node that means that the only place new oh there's a note here sorry so that means that the only place new branches and new leaves are going to come out of they are here and here all right that means that even though I have you know roots come here if this area got damaged right it can get damaged damaged I have I have a lot of leeway coming up here right so I can keep chopping chopping chopping if I if I really really had to and I would still this node should still stay healthy and this node should still stay healthy right so I have so even if brought penetrated up up up I have a lot of leeway normally a cutting implies that there are no roots sometimes you have you know like like leafless cuttings as well so in that case you only have an an area of node and like some stem but no roots and and no leaves if your plant doesn't have roots it doesn't get more water if your plant doesn't have leaves it doesn't create more energy right I suspect there is some energy generation from the stem especially if the stem has a lot of green there is some photosynthesis going on there I I don't think it's that much but I honestly don't know I can't give you a percentage but in general again right leaves you need leaves for energy you need roots for hydration right so and you're like of course right you're like I don't need you to tell me that you know I can ask my five-year-old basically any five-year-old walking around or staying at home in in these cases right you can ask anyone and they know that yes leaves provide energy roots provide water we know the two facts but I think we're forgetting what the implications are so what are the implications the implication is that if you have no roots to provide water that means that your plant over time every second every minute every hour day weeks months is getting more and more dehydrated so when you have no roots your plant is on a clock right the longer it is without roots the closer it is to just dying and drying out from dehydration all right so so there are things that you can sort of do to to buy yourself more time right you can get a cutting that is freshly cut that's already like maximally hydrated before so then you have a get longer clock you a lot of people promote keeping your cuttings in a more humid environment right I think that I don't know how much it helps but logically you know and reasonably it probably does it probably buys you a little bit more time so so that like your plant is not it's not losing water as rapidly when it's in a humid environment no leaves wait what does what does that mean that means you're also on a clock right that means that that without without leaves providing more and more energy to your plant your plant is only living on reserves right it's living on stored energy that's in your cutting right like that's like in the node in the stem right so so you're also you're on a water clock and you're on an energy clock it means that you probably benefit from a larger specimen right like if you are buying just the stem you probably benefit from a larger cutting right a larger cutting likely has more energy in it and also more water stored in it than a super super tiny cutting and so what do you need the energy for you need the energy for everything right you need the energy to make more roots you need the energy to make a I think there's like a little bud here for more stems and more leaves right so you need some energy in there and probably you need quite a bit of energy in there for your plant to turn from a cutting to a healthy plant so so the next thing I want to talk about is I want to talk about the roots okay so you can see that up here there was an aerial root and then there's like some some new area where it's growing right and then down here you see fresh water roots all right roots that you know what this thing has been propagating so these are the new roots okay and the new roots are the white roots right the the old root was this this dark big dark root and this big dark root used to be a an aerial root right it used to be an airy root now I after I plopped it in water for a while these new water roots came out okay so area root water root neither of these are soil roots okay that means that like this area roots grew and is accustomed to air right so that means it's it's not accustomed to soil so when you put it in soil you put it in a you know a moist media is this the area roots are extremely extremely likely to rot right because it's not used to to being surrounded by moisture okay these water roots the water roots are used to being exposed to and being in moisture right there there water roots right but these are not exposed or used to and exposed to bacteria that naturally grows in the soil all right so when you put these water roots into the soil one is that some of them are going to dry out right some of them just like okay there's not enough water I'm used to water I'm just going to dry out and that's that's if you used a well draining and airy soil right some of these roots will will sort of just dry out the other is that if your what if your soil is too moist it retains too much water these are the one of the first roots to to get rotted all right so so you're gonna lose some to drying out you're gonna lose some to right how long should I leave this cutting in water for so if your water rooting like I do I know a lot of people like is this is this thing ready to go to soil I would say that depends all right that depends on what your mixture composition is like that depends on how comfortable you are but I think the the main question is well let's say like if you lose a third of these roots to dehydration right or drying up or to some form of rot do you feel comfortable I feel like right now for this guy I think a lot of people would probably say no right a lot of people would be like just just sort of wait right and especially if you're thinking if I lost like a third of these roots that would make a lot of people feel very very uncomfortable all right guys so let's do a little short recap and a close-up of this plant so here we go aerial root right this is the node and you see this is a bud probably a new stem coming out of this one this was where the other cutting or where the plant was chopped off from the top and as you can see you know from where you chopped it off to where it actually dries up you know there's there's there is a distance there right so that's why I tell you guys you want to make a sharper cut as possible so that this this area of damage and recovery is as minimal as possible right and the good thing is that it's quite a bit aways from from the node so that's good moving down you know there's this was like a an old aerial root that now has has a little root here and then you can see this we have live little bud coming out of here and it looks good if you look at it right it looks the bud looks looks pretty good and so our second node and then down here I'm filming this the day after I cut it so let's see where the you guys can see the center you know it's a little it's there we go you can see right there the the middle part looks you know it's drying out but it doesn't look like it's dark color indicative of rot so it's a it's a good clean cutting so all the rot you know has been cut away so the center the center of this one looks really clean the cut itself looks really clean when you see if you're cutting with a blunt instrument or you know blunt scissors or knives you'll see that there's a that's like a cupping I suppose and it's not as not as as clean as what you see here if you compare the roots on this one compared to yesterday yesterday we saw a lot of white roots right and and you can see that you know just being overnight in air and obviously I did that to let this area callus you can see that a lot of the roots have have dried up I'm hoping that the light shows through but yeah right lots of areas of being dried up so you can imagine that once once your plant that is has been accustomed to water gets transitioned to soil this is what happened this is like some of the roots will dry up right but you'll still have some sustainable roots to help carry you through and transition to soil but as you can see a lot quite a bit of the whiteness we saw yesterday has has gone and you know towards the tips these smaller roots for sure has just basically they've they've they're they're they're a bit gone so I am going to put this guy back in water anyway I probably you know took half a step back or something with the the roots but you know it is what it is but you kind of have to deal with Rubright above all else let's let's switch it up because I think you guys have seen a lot of this one let's let's switch it up to two this guy okay so what do we what do we want to talk about for this guy so so when I'm buying a cutting or I'm seeing a cutting like this for sale I would say this is a really really good cutting one is that I do like the variegation right so you want a cutting that has a pattern or variegation that that you like or comfortable with and and speaks to you so I like that when I look at the stem I know I can count one node one node two nodes three nodes four nodes and like five five nodes so five notes that means that I have five chances for this guy to to root rights of work for new roots to come out that means that like if this one gets lost to root rot okay I have four if this one gets lost to rot three right so so I have multiple chances in case things go wrong and you should always always assume that something will go wrong I think when you're investing money and and you you know if you're investing money in something and everything has to go right for that investment to pay off I consider that a very risky investment right you want to invest in something where like even if something goes wrong you'll still be okay most of the time yeah so I have leaves in this cutting still I have plenty of nodes it's a I would say it's a good a good sized cutting they're already some roots right even if I didn't have the water roots there are already some roots so that means that again when we were going back and we're talking about the amount of time this cutting has or the ticking clock rate I would say I'm very comfortable with the amount of time that this cut this cutting will likely survive then compared to some other other cutting this out there right so I have leaves to give this plant energy I have some roots to to give it at least some moisture right and then have plenty of nodes for this plant to get more roots and to start budding leaves right so I have basically in this cutting I basically have everything I'm looking for that this cutting has basically everything it needs with a lot of potential and a very high likelihood successful propagating in and maturing right okay all right I often get asked is there anything that I put into the water when I'm rooting in water I use this it's basically just cheap rooting hormone you can find it pretty much anywhere I believe this thing runs less than ten dollars and every time you use it you don't use that much at all so you know some a small container like this will last you quite a while I can't tell you that I'm absolutely sure it works but I feel that the potential benefits outweigh the risks really like I really don't think that using something like rooting hormone is risky to your plant so because the potential benefit outweighs the risk and it's at a good price point I use it but I don't think this is something that's essential even though I do I do use it okay so let's look at let's look at the second specimen this was the the larger specimen with three leaves so this one I also cut off yesterday and you can see that the the edges is little dry so that's that's good maintenance so being dry is is good and also for this guy right you can see that the the white the really white roots shiny roots has started to darken at the tips right they've they've dried off because their water roots and they're fragile and they are not used to being out of water but you know at some point they will kind of have to figure it out this is what happens under the soil or under the moss when you transition you're cutting outside of water you have to just anticipate that you'll lose some roots so that's why you really want a a good robust root system before you transition out of water unless you you really really need to do it for for one reason or another a lot of people ask me how often I changed my water I do it every week to two weeks the reason why I promote changing the water and I think the reason why a lot of people promote changing the water is that you want to aerate the water stagnant water over time loses the oxygen and in an area with less oxygen that means that the bad bacteria that's going to cause your root rot has you know a better chance of surviving and thriving for those who are curious about what I water with I just use tap water I it just goes straight from the faucet into the water containers where I'm rooting my plants so I don't you know leave it out I don't use the steeled I I don't even filter it I didn't let it be just regular tap water I have I'll show you the container that I have no it's just say like it's it's something it's just something like this and I you know plop it in I think that I know that some people use aerators right if you're looking like a fish tank and you see that thing that makes the the bubbles I think that's actually a really good idea I'm too sort of been a little bit lazy to do it but I think that if that's something that you can do I think those aerators those bubble makers are are pretty pretty cheap and they aerate the air so or they aerate the water they add more oxygen content to the water so I think that those those probably help and if you do that you probably don't need to change your water you know all that all that often so so if you're you know if you're thinking about like what can help you what can can benefit your process of routing in water I think that that aerator is probably the thing that I would I would recommend the most I know that there are a lot of discussions about what type of media to propagate and route plants in especially regards to monstera and philodendron and other a roads I've always been a big fan of water just because I can see what's going on like the the part the route brought that I discovered today I I basically just you know it was very easy for me to just like look into the water container and you know saw that there was some discoloration and it was very easy for me to take it out cut off that piece and then either aerate this this piece out overnight to let it callus or put it back in water I know that some people like routing in Moss and I think that's also a very very successful approach and I don't have anything against that I know that a lot of people also root in perlite or primarily perlite or some perlite equivalent you know bears basically very very Airy well draining slightly moist mixtures so so if you like that that works perfectly well to again the only reason I lean more towards water is that it's always really worked for me and it's very easy for me to detect and catch root rot so this is a cutting that is very obviously in Moss we will be talking a lot more about this cutting in the next episode this cutting was originally in water and then once enough roots developed I put it in moss some people go directly to moss and all of their cuttings and I think that's great I think the one thing that I have to tell people when they're due mas especially for people who have tried mas in the past and failed is that you really don't want your moss you know super damp super wet and especially if you're you have damp wet moss in a container that is not terracotta like a plastic container or a ceramic or a glaze right like any container that isn't terracotta the moss tends to stay moist at least in my environment for a very very long time so this moss is in a terra cotta pot and you know I think I'm not sure if you can hear it it's it's already pretty dry so I water this every two weeks and it's been about a week out already so this this guy is going to get its next watering in one week and as you can see it's already pretty pretty pretty darn pretty darn dry so if you're thinking about doing moss for your propagation that's definitely a very viable and good option just make sure that you have the right conditions where the moss doesn't get super super wet and and damp and stay that way for a long time the way what I tell people is that when you're feeling your moss you what you want to sort of do is that you want to like soak a handful under water or you know in your sink and then squeeze the water out right and then when you do that feel how moist and help damp the moss is that is what you want to aim for that's the the ideal situation it can be a little bit you know a little wetter than that but what roots really want and your plant really wants is that you know just some moisture around it and it doesn't want to release it in moisture and be in contact constant contact with moisture all the time because that just promotes bad bacteria alright guys I think that's gonna be it for this episode we are going to talk a lot more about this plant the specimen in particular in the next episode we'll talk about you know what happens when you start budding and the implications of that we also will talk about moving and transitioning your plant after the water routing stage so that's it for this one till next time plant friends happy planting

Channel: Legends Of Monstera

Views: 109,263

Rating: 4.7934837 out of 5

Keywords: rooting, propagation, aerial roots, water roots, aroid mix, soil, spagnum moss, water rooting, monstera, philodendron, variegated monstera, monstera deliciosa, legends, legendsofmonstera, cutting, rooted cuttings

Id: BB4e-b6VGW4

Length: 33min 27sec (2007 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 13 2020