Propagating!

This is my Wandering Jew! Aka, Tradescantia. When my mom bought this plant, it was full, bushy, beautiful… and she killed it. One of the most common mistakes people make with the Wandering Jew plant is to water it directly in the middle. When you do this, you can cause root-rot. The best way to water is at the edge of the pot. My mom gave me this plant, thinking it was done for. I pinched off all of the dead legs and leave until I had only two measly pieces left. At first growth was slow, but once I placed a photograph next to the pot, it began to climb. It’s as if the plant did better when it had two surfaces to grow against and support itself. About a month ago, I pinched bag some spindly legs and began to propagate!

These are five legs in a jar in my living room. The second photo is to show how much light they get on a regular basis. Since they were sitting so high up, they were not shaded by anything. In the last month they have grown significant roots. Pinch off your leg at one of its joints; this is a little knob in the vine where new branches will grow once you pinch them back. Roots are also most likely to grow from these places when placed in water or soil. Place your legs in water, on top of moist soil with their nubs in contact with the dirt, or plant directly into fresh soil.

These are the roots on the smaller legs that I propagated. I got too excited and forgot to take pictures of the larger ones before I planted them, ha. But yours should have long, skinny roots growing before planting if you are going to propagate them in water. This method has worked best for me, although many people have great luck placing their pieces directly in/on soil.

These are my new babies in a cute little planter I got at Rite Aid down the street for extremely cheap. They always have great planters and pots in the early spring. I made sure to plant them and lean them up against the pot and table, hoping that this support helps them grow better. I’m not sure if they would be better off if I placed them downwards, but they were upright in their jar, so I think they will be okay. I’ll update soon!