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Spotted
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how do I root lipstick plant cuttings?

Just as I asked in the title. My room mate and I just received a bag full of plant cuttings including some spider plants and philodendron. I know how to root everything but the lip stick plant cuttings. Something I'm very excited to have received seeing as I've known the plant that the cuttings came from for over ten years and finally received the cuttings today.

If anyone could give me some tips or growing information it would be greatly appreciated. The more immediate information is how to root my four new lip stick plant cuttings.

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Kisal
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They should root easily. Just treat them like the other cuttings you received. You can root them in any moist medium, such as potting mix, sand, perlite, vermiculite, or even in plain water. I prefer not to use peat moss, but that's my personal choice.

Here is a site with good instructions for various methods of propagation:

https://www.spokane-county.wsu.edu/spokane/eastside/Fact%20Sheets/C062%20Houseplant%20Cuttings%2009.pdf

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Spotted
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thank you. A lot of the informational web sites I've been looking at seem to require some information to already been had.

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Kisal
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Is there some step that's unclear to you? I'll be happy to try to 'walk you through' the process, if I can. :)

You will find Lipstick Plant (Latin name Aeschynanthus) third down on the list of plants that can be started from stem cuttings, which is shown on page 4 of the link I posted earlier. All you need to do is follow the steps shown for Rooting Stem Cuttings, on page 3 of the link.

If you prefer, you can follow the General instructions that are given right at the beginning of that site. Either method should work well for the Lipstick Plant cuttings.

HTH! :)

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Spotted
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No thank you very much. This is good. I meant the other sites I had found weren't really telling me what I was looking for.

Again. Thank you.

dbassman
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Kisal wrote:They should root easily. Just treat them like the other cuttings you received. You can root them in any moist medium, such as potting mix, sand, perlite, vermiculite, or even in plain water. I prefer not to use peat moss, but that's my personal choice.

Here is a site with good instructions for various methods of propagation:

https://www.spokane-county.wsu.edu/spoka ... s%2009.pdf
The link above "https://ext100.wsu.edu/spokane/spokane/e ... s%2009.pdf" no longer exists. I even tried searching for the PDF file in Google and came up empty-handed.

I have a lipstick plant that I trimmed and I'm trying to get the trimmings to root. The last time I did this was in the a year ago this past winter and I put them in the water, they never started roots and instead got kind of a slime over the stems in the water.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

imafan26
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I root most things in perlite
Cut the fresh stems just below a node at a degree angle. You want a cutting that will be 4-6 inches long. Cut off all of the leaves except one or two and cut them in half. Dip the cutting end in rooting hormone. You can use root tone or dip and grow. Wet the perlite in a clean 6 inch pot first. Use a pencil to make a hole. Poke a hole in the perlite with a pencil; put the cutting in and firm around it. Try to get two nodes into the media. Water and drain well. You can put some chopsticks or twigs or cut bamboo stakes around the edge of the pot and put a plastic bag over it to make a humidity tent. It should not be too wet inside the tent, if there is a lot of condensation, open the bag and dry it before putting the bag back on. The perlite should be moist at all times but well drained. Put the cutting in a cool shady spot, and check it in about 6 weeks to see if it is rooted, once rooted it can be potted up. Achuete also grows from seed.

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rainbowgardener
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Agreed. Rooting cuttings in water does not work well for me, generally. Many things will grow roots that way, but the water roots are different from soil roots and without a whole lot of care, the cutting will just die when transferred to soil.

I take a 2 liter soda bottle, cut in in two pieces crossways (bottom third and top two thirds. Poke a couple pinholes in the bottom piece for just a little bit of drainage and put moist loose potting soil in it, not packed. Put your cutting in the potting mix and put the top piece on with the lid and tape the pieces together.

dbassman
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Thanks for the replies, I'll definitely give that a shot… I put a few current cuttings and water when I first posted this and should have read this right away as they are doing anything at the moment, of course it's only been a week, but reading that the roots are different, I'll probably just ditch these or cut them shorter and do as you told.

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applestar
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I've never had a lipstick plant, but seeing that it is a gesneriad, I'm thinking it shouldn't be too difficult. Rainbowgardener's recycled soda bottle propagator is an excellent idea and I would do the same thing. You could probably put 4-6 cuttings in each.

I would leave little gaps (don't tape completely around but use pieces) and leave the bottle cap off to create ventilation. The propagator should be kept out of direct sunlight and probably optimally in temperature of around mid-70's °F

Hope it works!

dbassman
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For my lipstick plant… I followed the rules above, when I tried Rooting cuttings in water did not work well for me.

I took a 2 liter soda bottle, cut in in two pieces crossways (bottom third and top two thirds. Poke a couple pinholes in the bottom piece for just a little bit of drainage and put moist loose potting soil in it, not packed. Put your cutting in the potting mix and put the top piece on with the lid and tape the pieces together.

I put the cuttings (2 L bottle) in a cool shady spot, (in my basement) and checked it in about 6 weeks to see if it is rooted, once rooted it can be potted up. They rooted great and I transfer them to a pot.



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