Leaf propagation... upside down?

9 years ago

The first of the Echeveria leaves I'm trying to propagate started sprouting about 5 days ago. By now the growth is starting to look like tiny leaves, but they are growing upside down?? When I left the leaves to callous over, they were on a paper tissue. It is entirely possible that some of them flipped over when I took the tissue off the windowsill.

For now I have two other leaves whose growth is taking shape, one of them also looks like upside down leaves, the other one has leaves on top and one tiny pink root on the bottom. The others are still too small to tell.

Should I flip these ones over to have the leaves on top, or is this normal?

Thank you very much in advance!

Featured Answer

zsofia
Original Author

9 years ago

For anyone wondering what happened next: I had two of these upside down leaves in the group. The other one decided to grow a plant on the top as well, but this first one insisted on growing the plant only at the bottom and the roots on the top, so after a while I decided to 'become the wind' and flip it over to see what happens. They are both fine, though the second one now has two little rosettes at the bottom and one on the top.

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Comments (8)

Karen S. (7b, NYC)
9 years ago
No, pls. put it back & leave them alone; the less you handle them when this small the better. They will send roots down when ready, doesn't matter if they're upside down for now.

Pls consider that in the wild, the leaves fall & root wherever they like. There's no one to right them or tuck in their roots or give them any TLC whatsoever. (TLC= tender loving care)

I know you're well intended & want the best for them; sounds counter-intuitive, but the very best thing one can do at this point is simply leave them alone & just observe.
zsofia thanked Karen S. (7b, NYC)
zsofia
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you for the advice, I will do my best to leave them alone!
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HU-858112260
4 years ago
I would have flipped them over. In fact, I do flip them over.
zsofia thanked HU-858112260
HU-858112260
4 years ago
Here is an example. This rosette started forming ‘upside down’ on this Topsy Turvey leaf. I flipped it over and it is now growing strong.

There is a blog article somewhere online where someone experimented with propagating leaves in water, on soil, and by leaving them alone to do their own thing somewhere. Some of the ones that were left alone were not viable due to having grown in awkward positions. They would have benefited from a little human intervention.
zsofia thanked HU-858112260
M
3 years ago
Hello. I’m encountering this similar situation. These are my Victor kane (graptopetalum). They’re laid down the same way sit on the stem/plant. Notice the pups are growing underneath (towards the table). I have been debating whether I should turn them upside down so that the top of the leaf would lay flat on the soil.

I see your post was from a few years ago, do you have any advice? Thank you.
zsofia thanked M
zsofia
Original Author
3 years ago
I intended to leave them alone as the first commenter suggested. Some of them grew multiple rosettes, both on top and bottom of the leaf, those ones I left as they were, but there was one that only had a rosette growing upside down, I eventually flipped that one over. The rosettes that grew on the bottom of the leaves eventually grew around it and changed to the normal direction, so in my limited experience they grew fine either way. But one person commented that they read that in an experiment some of the rosettes that were left upside down were not viable due to the awkward positions.
M
3 years ago
Wow thank you for responding. Didn’t think anyone would since the post was from awhile ago! :)