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kris_may93

Propagating String of Dolphins?

5 years ago

I finally found myself a lush string of dolphins hanging plant at my local nursery! I want to propagate a few small pots to give as gifts. I saw most people cut the stems, let the cut ends callous for a day or 2 and then place into moist soil. I followed that method and most of my pots already don't look so great. The "dolphins" are shrinking and deflating 😞 I watered the soil again but now I'm wondering if these strands are too far gone or if this is a normal adjustment period possibly. Debating if I should remove from the soil and try water propagation instead. Any advice is much appreciated!
I have the cuttings in a well draining cactus/succulent soil with added perlite, they're in terracotta pots and I have them indoors near east facing windows but just moved them into my bedroom with a south facing window but keeping them about 6 feet away so they're not getting any direct bright rays of sun. The soil is currently very moist but not soggy. Thank you!

Comments (7)

  • 5 years ago

    when looking for propagation help.. it is usually better to find and use the latin name of the plant .. think of it this way... do you want to rely on a source that doesnt use the correct name for a plant ..


    watch a few of these.. and see where you can do better ...


    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Senecio+Peregrinus+propagation&t=ffcm&iax=videos&ia=videos


    learn how to do it.. dont go with water.... its the lazy way out.. imo .. lol .. [besides the fact.. that rooting a succulent in water.. just seems so wrong ...]


    a pic of your setup might be helpful ...


    ken


    ps: i NEVER use terra cotta pots indoors... there are so many problems using just the pot itself.. that i just gave up on them ... really.. they are a very old school greenhouse thing.. before they had plastics ... but if you arent using them in a green house.. its really hard.. the real trick is.. to use a plastic pot..inside a pretty clay pot... best of both worlds ...

  • 5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    I follow several of those YouTube channels you've linked to and have already watched a good portion of them previously. I'll be honest other than speaking with a couple people from my nursery most of my advice has come from plant channels on YouTube!. I do have a small collection of books slowly growing, but I'm not an experienced gardener and I'm trying to learn as I go. The videos have been helpful for the most part. I tried to follow their advice as closely as possible but some of the leaves just seem to be shriveling away anyway. Maybe that's just a part of the process though and I have to accept losing some.



    Interesting about the terracotta pots. Most of the people in the videos I've seen who recommended propitiating or planting in soil have recommended concrete, clay or terracotta pots since it wicks moisture away quickly and that plastics encourage root rot in these types of delicate succulents. I do normally keep my plants in plastic pots but any succulents or sansevierias I've long moved into terracotta because that's the general recommendation I've seen. What type of issues have you experienced with indoor terracotta pots? I'll keep that in mind going forward.

  • 5 years ago

    Those cuttings look great! I decided about a week ago to take more cuttings and put them in some rainwater. So far so good I see roots already in most! I have a few strands in soil too and they look ok so far but the water propagation strands definitely look healthier and have longer roots so this might be the best or at least easiest way to go.

  • 5 years ago

    That is what I have seen too. Cuttings put right into soil do take root, but it is slower and a lot of the little dolphins shrivel up during the process.


    I can breathe easy now that I have some other starts going, even though the mama plant is in peaty store-soil. I can't keep any plant alive for very long in that stuff.

  • 5 years ago





    My propagations are not doing well 😞 They are nearly all rotted on the base of the stems and I don't know why. I tested half as water propagations and half as direct soil propagations and they all seem to be yielding the same results. Only a couple of my water propagations grew semi substantial roots, while the rest were water logged and rotted. The ones that I put straight into slightly damp soil (cactus/succulent mix with added perlite) once they calloused over also have waterlogged rotted stems. They're in terracotta and the soil is completely dry now and I have not watered since. They are sitting near a North and East facing windows and I have been giving them some extra light from my grow light for a few hours a day. At this point other than the fact that they're indoors and the soil doesn't dry out as fast as it would if they were outside in the heat I cannot understand why these seemingly healthy cuttings are all getting water logged and rotted in well draining soil. Is there something I'm missing?


  • 5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    I would cut off the unhealthy ends and try again with the tips. The cut of anything one is hoping to root should end where the stem is healthy and vigorous. Yours may have started that way and just turned brown later, I can't tell from the pics. The pieces I used were still very young and green, put in water immediately after cutting. I had to remove several dolphins from each stem to have a bare section of stem to put in water.

    Another alternative for this or so many other thing is some type of ground layering. You would put a 2nd pot next to the mama pot and lay a long piece across the 2nd pot, with a small rock or other way of holding the stem in contact with the soil - leaving the stem connected to the mama plant. Or put a vessel of water next to the mama plant and have a stem going across the water with a little dip in the middle where the stem touches the water. (Remove a few dolphins from the part of the stem that will be in/touching the water.) A trick from outside gardening that can also be used inside.

    I don't know if callusing/drying of your attempts is causing the difference in results, or because your plant is inside - or some other factor. My plants and cuttings are where the sun shines right on them all morning, and as you can imagine for AL in July/Aug., it's HOT & humid. I don't recommend suddenly taking your plant outside for the same conditions if it's been inside for more than about a week or it' more likely to sunburn than respond more desirably, and it's too late in the season (if you're in the N hemisphere) to bother acclimating if it will be cold outside where you are soon. But if you want to try snips in water again, putting them in the shade outside to take advantage of the heat & probably increased humidity, that sounds like something I would do. Not that everything I do is great, but it's the only basis from which I can share what I've seen with you. I don't try to relate 2nd-hand info.

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