I've not heard of this being common practice with AV's, but it is something that streptocarpus growers will do if they desire lots of baby plants (as opposed to planting a whole leaf stem down which usually yields one baby plant.) I would say that most of us here put our AV leaf stem down into the soil. Some leaves will give you a whole pot full of babies; others only 1 or 2. I've had to try to salvage leaves for propagating that had damage or rot and after cutting away all the "bad" parts was left with only a portion of the leaf; sometimes I've had only the leaf itself because the stem broke off entirely. Sometimes that partial leaf will work for me - but not always. I get better odds of success using a whole leaf, stem planted down.

But if cutting it in half consistently works for you, why change? Do what works in your conditions, that's my advice.

Thanks, AnneCecilia. I appreciate the comment.

I heard that cutting the tip of the leaf speeds up the babies - probably the damage produces the growth hormones. Cutting a top of an XLarge leaf seems a necessity to prevent tipping. I do not trim the top of mini and semi mini leaves - to preserve all available stored energy for the babies.

The cut tip of a standard leaf is capable to produce 1-2 babies, bigger chunk - more. So if the purpose is to produce as many starters as possible - definitely. Especially if it is a desirable variety your AV friends are dreaming about.

Thanks, Irina, for the excellent response. I have some leaves arriving the end of the week and hope to have some success. It's been about five years since I've done this.