Akrrm! That's so cool! Did you use a rooting hormone as well or just straight in perlite?

Just perlite.

They are so cute!

Great job! I'd either rot them with too much moisture, or damage their tint roots by pulling them up to check for roots. Maybe if I could find a place out of sight out of mind. This actually looks fun and rewarding.

How much light should they receive in the beginning when they're in the Perlite?

Katrina, I bet you could root them too, I just feel in my bones you'd be a good plant doula. Try some of those Jaboa leaves....

I had them on my kitchen window sill above the sink, south facing but not really getting too much direct sun because of a tree.

This discussion also has a lot of pics/info:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3036520/propagation?n=174

Plant doula...I like it!

That was one heck of a discussion!! I learned a lot. Thank you Tiffany!

akrrm, the new plants you grew should be 'Robusta'. I'm curious, do they look like that's what they are?

I never use rooting hormones on sans, it's really not necessary. Any mix will do as long as it's really crunchy, at least half perlite with something else is fine or pure perlite. I like something mixed with it so you can tell when to water, perlite looks the same wet or dry.

Cylindrical leaves that have been cut can sit on a windowsill for a year without drying up completely, they'll often develop roots just lying there. But that's extreme, flat leaves only need a week or two, cylindrical's maybe a few weeks. As long as the end is dry and healed over, it's fine.

Chahinian says that you'll get more robust plants from leaves if you keep the leaf intact with it's top on it. I haven't experimented with that enough to prove it one way or the other. So theoretically if you cut a leaf in half, the portion with the tip will produce more and stronger pups than the bottom half. He recommends keeping the leaf entire if it's not too large.

I've gotten several generations of new plants from certain sans leaves. I cut the offsets off the leaf and planted it again in new mix and fertilized. It grew some more plants and I did the same thing. It produced more the third time but it didn't have any more energy to go it again and turned yellow. Cylindrical leaves can do this easily, lots of stored energy, but you might only get two rounds out of flat leaves.

I like propagating from leaves almost as much as growing the plants, it's a fascinating process.

Russ

I have so many I'd like to try to propagate yet I have limited room/limited growing season. I fear I may have started too late for this year to produce pups by fall.

Russ, how healthy does a leaf need to be? I have a Silver Queen that isn't looking her best. I saw it on someone's porch in passing and she ended up giving me a piece. It wasn't at its best then, and I shared a small piece. Now it's very limp. Alive though. Do you think she will recover? Would it be okay to take a leaf in its weakened state to try and propagate? I would hate to lose the whole plant and have no Silver Queen at all.

Russ, I've been bringing my plants out and rinsing off the dust. Here is a picture of my Robusta on the right and the three Whitney cuttings plants on the left. The shape looks like Robusta but the color is dark and no banding. Would these be considered black Robusta?

These leaves were stuck late last year all are growing shoots now

What is the one on the left with the stripe down the middle? So pretty

Vitorama, you should have 3 months of warm weather left, which I think is enough to get some pups if you get cuttings in a mix right now.

Katrina, the drooping leaves sounds like the plant doesn't have any roots. Have you checked that? If it has several leaves is wouldn't hurt to cut one as a possible insurance option. I would say don't bother if Silver Queen wasn't a sans that would come true from leaf cuttings, but it is. You might put it in some water to rehydrate before putting it in a mix. Let me know if you need any more help with this.

akrrm, I'm not familiar with the name or plant Black Robusta. It seems to me that it's just like Midnight Shine but without the yellow margin, so the name should be Midnight if that's the case. But clear something up for me, what do you mean by 'Whitney cuttings plants'? Are these plants that emerged when you propagated a leaf of Whitney? If so, that's very strange.

I read the patent description of Whitney and it originated from a plant of Black Gold Superba, which I think is a bogus made-up name for Futura Superba. So to me, plants resulting from a leaf of Whitney should be Robusta, not something with a solid green leaf and no barring.

Russ

Thank you, Russ. I'll email you tomorrow with a pic of the plant.

Russ, yes, the plants are from Whitney cuttings. They are not striped like my robusta but dark green.

I saw black robusta on charlie-cook.com

Wow, you got me on this one akrrm. I love a good mystery though!! I'm going to have to get me a Whitney and root a leaf to see what gives. Not being that impressed with variegated plants in general, I really like the deep green of that sans in the pic. Also like the banding in the young offsets coming up.

Looking forward to seeing pics of your sans Katrina.

Russ

Russ I can send you a piece of my Whitney and I can send send one of those Whitney cutting plants.

I sent you an email earler today, you can let me know when you reply

Nancy

And I have a few of those dark ones if you don't have any. That way you'll have the whole spread and experiment to your heart's content.

Great you two, I'll be sending boxes in trade. Thank you very much. Right now I'm overwhelmed with things going on, but I'm getting to them.

Russ

Hi Vitorama,

I've played around w/ this some but only indoors so it's slow going, definitely not a Jersey Summer tho' sorry.

Here's one of mine whose pix I was updating this weekend. I don't recall how old this is, but it's 3 pups off 1 leaf.

Small tho' here' s my finger for reference

I tend to do it w/ less common Sans, that I'm given or shared.

I don't find these plants particular about soil, I reuse my C&S mix on them, heavy in perlite or pumice. No rooting hormone for me, not necessary for Sans.

I do sometimes apply a dusting of cinnamon on the bottom of the leaf as a natrural antifungal, shake off the excess, let dry a day or 2 & then pot up dry.

Akrrm, great looking crop you've got there, nice work & great notes. I really need to take a lesson from that!

Lena

Lena, which sans is that? It's not cylindrica since the parent leaf has a channel. Those last leaves that have developed on the rosettes are sorta cylindrical, and so tiny!

Russ

Hey Russ,

Aren't they adorable, I just love 'em. Sorry, I don't know the ID, could be off a Bali type, which sadly came crashing down off a bookcase one night & had several leaves break off, so I thought experiment time!

Lena