Could you post a pic of the succulent cutting that is drying up?

What sort of succulents have you been trying to propagate?

I currently don't have a picture of the shriveled stem but if it happens again within the next few days, I'll post one. The bottom of the stem where the cut was starts to soften and appear limpy with wrinkles for no reason. I've been trying to propagate echeverias and sedums. As of right now I managed to cut two sedum stems a couple of centimeters below the rosette and it's been doing fine. I'm not sure if it'll be shriveling or not in the next few days. The sedum species in particular are sedum little gems.

Really need photo to see exactly what is happening.

There is some shrivelling when plant is cut, but not too soft and limpy as you describe. I have cut them short or longer with np. Do not have sedum you mentioned, but propagated quite a few others - many different succulents.

I just cut off the shriveled part of a stem to see if cutting it closer to the rosette fixes this issue. But this is what happens to the stem within 1-3 days. The place I cut it looks callused but everything above it looks damaged

Thank you for the help! I think I've gotten the hang of taking leaves off of stems without damaging any of the tissue. But I also didn't know that bare stems were not able to propagate at all, so I'll keep that in mind in the future.

Though I need to clarify, the pictures I've shown was from a stem cutting. It previously had a rosette on the top of it and was waiting for the stem to callous. But I noticed this morning that the stem was starting to shrivel again so I cut off the shriveling piece and left the remainder of the succulent to callous/dry. The image is that shriveling piece.

The first image you posted is more or less how all my stems look like after I behead rosettes to make a new plant. I make sure that I cut it cleanly with a scissor. Afterwards, the stem looks ok up to a few hours after I make the cut. But it progressively starts to shrivel. I'm starting to wonder if I should place the new cuttings inside a plastic container and see if that helps keep the stem dry, even though the room I have them in isn't humid.

Agree with Kara - such small piece of stem is most likely a failure. I thought you cut off rosette with a stem below...or stem with a leaf or few on it...that is why we need photo.

You should read thru these threads: BEHEADING PLANTS 1 & 2. You will find many photos and tips on propagating different succulents, most because of being etiolated. But you can propagate same way even if plant is not etiolated.

Sometimes, stem could be cut off and left horizontally laying on the medium, and it will grow roots - leaves - plantlets. But probably not any plant, and stem would have to be healthy and longer than what you showed. But I am not sure what succulents it will work with. There are many ways of propagating plants, but not all work with all plants.

Kara explained very well why it works or not.

If the stems you are trying to propagate look very similar to the ones in your pics, than it is highly unlikely they will ever throw out roots. There just isn’t enough there, the stem will dry out before anything has the chance to grow. I must say I am talking about succulents from Crassulaceae family. Which are plants like Echeveria and Sedums.

You can propagate a bare stem, but roots should be attached.

In my experience if I were to cut the roots off the above stem before the babies grew, the stem would shrivel. I’m not saying it is impossible to propagate leafless/rootless stems, but I just haven’t seen it. There’s always a possibility, but you will up your chances with leafs and or roots attached to that stem.

Another thing is try slicing the stems with a clean sharp knife because scissors can pinch and damage the area being cut. Especially on a small stem.

So your issue is not when propagating leaves, but just stems?

I think the stems aren't that healthy to begin with, so that might be my problem, I'll look at the resources shown as well. Thanks for the help so far!