Content
- To multiply a poinsettia yourself - how it works!
- Cut several cuttings
- Set cuttings properly
- The right location for cuttings
- Maintain cuttings until rooting
- Poinsettia moss
- Poinsettia offshoot to bloom
- Tips
The poinsettia is best multiplied by cuttings
To multiply a poinsettia yourself - how it works!
Even if poinsettias are very cheap to buy during the season, it can be worthwhile to grow especially beautiful varieties yourself. You should, however, only select very healthy, vigorous plants as mother plants. The offspring of weak, sickly poinsettias are only very badly rooted.
Cut several cuttings
To multiply a poinsettia, cut cuttings. The propagation of poinsettias made of seeds usually does not work, as there are no mature seeds in our latitudes. Poinsettias are only extracted from seeds if new varieties are to be produced.
Since not all cuttings will drive out roots, cut off more shoots than you actually need. The best time for propagation is the spring after flowering.
Put the lower ends of the cut shoots in hot water for a short time. This closes the interfaces and it can no longer leak milk juice. If the ends are not closed, the cuttings bleed and dry up.
Set cuttings properly
You only have to halve the upper leaves if they are very large. Otherwise, the cuttings will evaporate too much water over the leaf and dry.
The right location for cuttings
Place the pots of poinsettia in a warm, bright place. Ideal are temperatures from 20 degrees. Avoid direct sunlight as the shoots dry out quickly.
Maintain cuttings until rooting
Keep the soil well moist, but be careful that no waterlogging can occur. If you have covered the pots with foil, you should ventilate them regularly so that the cuttings do not mold.
Once the poinsettia sprouts new, you know if the propagation has worked out. Plant the offshoots into larger pots if they have developed at least two pairs of leaves.
Poinsettia moss
A poinsettia can also be multiplied by mosses. For this, a wedge is cut into a strong shoot. In this wedge, you enter a cutting that you have sliced down and treated with heat below.
Wrap the area with crepe paper or other absorbent material and keep it well damp.
Poinsettia offshoot to bloom
For the new poinsettias to turn red, you must first set them dark for several weeks. The poinsettia is a short-day plant that develops its colored bracts only after a dark phase.
The plants need a location for six to eight weeks, where they get less than eleven to twelve hours of light.
Tips
In order for the young plants to branch better, cut them back more often. Then the plants become bushier and form more shoots with colored bracts.