Experimenting with leaf cuttings

[kwende]

So I made a goof this evening as I was cutting a flower stalk off a D. Capensis "Red" - I accidentally cut two leaves (young, sturdy leaves) off the plant. Rather than get annoyed, I decided I'd try my hand at leaf cutting propagation.

From glancing around online, here, and on YouTube, I've found a lot of people having luck just placing the leaves in a clear, small container of distilled water and covering it up with some kind of clear wrap. People say a couple weeks or a month later they start seeing some plantlets forming. Is this a good method? Have people had luck with this?

Or would placing it on some very moist soil be a better method?

Currently they're just floating in a clear container with a small, cut up ziploc bag taped tightly over the top. I placed the container directly under some T8 lights.

It's not a huge deal for me as I have more capensis than I know what to do with, but I thought I'd give leaf cuttings a try as opposed to just tossing the leaves I accidentally cut.

Thanks!

 

[hcarlton]

Being the weed that it is, capensis will sprout just as easily in pure water as it will on soil. All that matters is that the leaf is in contact with the soil, and it's getting bright, indirect light and high humidity.

 

[Homedawg76]

I use the water floating method. Heres a capensis leaf sprout after a month in water.

 

[RL7836]

To save on space, I have migrated to just placing one or more leaves in a test tube of RO water. You can fit a lot of test tubes on a windowsill ...

 

[Keith]

I do leaf cuttings of just about all of my dews by floating in distilled-R/O water. When I get a new plant in if I feel it has enough leaves to spare, a few get cut and floated. It started out as a "for fun" thing, now I can't stop, lol. I have been doing alot of the same thing with flower scapes, rather than throw them away, and have had quite a bit of luck there too. Sorry no pics yet though.

@Homedawg: Very nice looking cape strike!

 

[jimscott]