How to Deal with Etiolated Succulents

[Transcript]  Even when we give our succulent plants the best light we possibly can they can still stretch out or become etiolated.  This video is to give you some options on how to deal with your etiolated succulents.  Join me!  Liquidambar Girl Gardening.

Trimming and Pruning Etiolated Succulents

Okay so we have this plant when I bought it, it did not have a label, so I don’t know what it is called but it is really pretty.  Looks like maybe a Sempervivum or a sedum and it has a lot of pups.  So, Evie’s going to help me out by reaching in there and trimming this pup off.  You have to catch it with the other hand there baby girl wait like this sure perfect.  So, we’re going to leave him laying there and come back over here to our arrangement.

That’s a Ming thing isn’t he cool?  I love that cactus and here we have some Golden Sedum as you can see very very stretched or etiolated.  And so, we’re going to take this entire plant out and if you look down here we do have some pups as well.  And we’re going to be able to use every part of this.  So, if you grab your clippers okay Evie actually let’s go ahead and pull some leaves off like right around here.  Go ahead and do that.  You can use both hands.  You’re just going to rock gently and you’re trying to break them off without like snapping them in half that’s good you’re doing great.

Beheading Leggy Succulents

Let me see that one when you get it broken off.  There you go that’s perfect lay that down with the others mmm-hmm and then just get this one and that one.  Good girl.  Now get your clippers and we’re going to we’re going to do what’s called beheading.  Just snip that head right off of there.  Not that low like right in the middle that’s a girl perfect.

And now as you can see there’s the head of it.  Here’s where she snipped and all these little places the nodes where leaves were growing out are where roots will start, and they’ll also start out of the end.

So, we’re going to set that aside because we’re going to use all parts of this plant and we’re going to go ahead and take the rest of the leaves down off of this stem.

You want a video me? [Music…] Now she’s going to take the clippers and clip off right about here.  So, there’s just about an inch of stem left yes ma’am and you can either take and you can either leave the pups or take those as separate cuttings but either way something new will grow right out from this root stock so every part of your plant is saved.  The pups, the leaves, the top and even the rootstock.

Allow the leaves to sit for about two days and callus over and then place them on top of some soil.  I water my leaf cuttings about every three days because these want a little bit more water than they will when they’re fully grown succulents.

After a few days or weeks depending on if they’re in the mood to propagate quickly.  You’ll start seeing those little roots coming out and then if you look carefully you’ll start seeing little plant material right there coming out.  And before long you have actual rosettes and then they just keep growing bigger and bigger until you have one million plants!  [End of transcript]