How to Propagate Jade Plant Cuttings – Increase Your Good Fortune and Grow More of These Lucky Houseplants for Free

In some cultures, jade plants are believed to bring good luck and prosperity to your home. If that's true, then there's no wonder why you would want to multiply your collection of these lucky houseplants.

Even if jade plants don't bring you riches and good fortune, they are low-maintenance houseplants that are worth growing just for their beauty alone. Jade plants can also live for decades and are often passed down from one generation to the next.

Whether you want to expand your own plant collection or share some good luck with your friends and family, learning how to propagate jade plant cuttings is fun and easy. Here's how to do it.

Jade Plant Basics

Jade plants look often look so at home growing inside that it’s easy to forget they are native to South Africa and Mozambique. These succulents look like little trees with a thick central stem, branches, and dark green oval leaves. Jade plant flowers appear during winter like pale stars on the branches.

Jade plants make excellent indoor plants, since they can thrive in moderate light. But they can also grow outside in the garden in milder climates. Under ideal circumstances, they can grow over 5 feet (1.5 m) tall. Wherever you choose to grow them, jade plants are long-lived and require little care.

Jade plant propagation is just as simple as caring for these hard-to-kill houseplants. The best way to grow more jade plants is by rooting plant cuttings.

Best Time to Propagate Jade Plants

Summer is the ideal time for propagating jade plants and transplanting newly propagated plants, but you can take jade plant cuttings any time of year. They are just more likely to develop roots quickly during the active growing season in summer.

How to Propagate Jade Plants

Are you wondering how to propagate jade plants? If “plant propagation” makes you think of seeds, you’ve probably never propagated succulents.

The best way of propagating jade plants, as with most succulents, involves taking cuttings. One way is to take and root a stem cutting. The other popular way to propagate succulents is to take and root a leaf cutting. No seeds necessary.

I'll walk you through how jade plant cutting propagation works, whether you take a stem or leaf cutting.

1. Take Your Cuttings

Always start with a pair of sharp, clean pruners when taking any plant cuttings. These fine tip pruning scissors from Fiskars make it easy to take a cutting from a tightly branched jade plant.

For stem cuttings, each cutting should be between 5 and 10 inches (13 and 25 cm) long. After snipping the stem from the plant, cut off the lower leaves. Set aside your stem cutting to dry out for a few days.

Leaf propagation works pretty much the same way. Take a leaf from a jade plant, then allow it to dry out for several days.

2. Root Your Cuttings

After your cutting has formed a callus over the cut end, insert the cut end of the stem in either a glass of clean water or a rooting substrate. You can use a dampened succulent potting mix or perlite, which you can get from the Home Depot, to prevent your cutting from rotting as it forms roots.

For leaf cuttings, follow basically the same process. Insert your callused leaf cutting into a moistened rooting medium at a 30° angle, just covering the cut end of the leaf.

3. Transplant Rooted Cuttings

In a few weeks, roots will develop on the stem and you can transplant your jade plant cutting to grow on in its new home. For leaf cuttings, expect roots in a few weeks as well.

Jade plants need well-draining soil, which typical of succulents. A potting mix that's designed specifically for cacti or succulents, like this mix from Miracle-Gro is ideal for transplanting.

Also make sure you grow your jade plant propagations in a container with a drainage hole. These plants will not tolerate sitting in water or wet soil.

Caring for Jade Plants After Propagation

Although jade plants are very tolerant of neglect, they do thrive under certain growing conditions. To ensure your new jade plant propagations thrive and grow into strong, long-lasting plants, give them exactly what they need to thrive.

Jade plants need at least a few hours of direct sun everyday. If you're growing yours indoors, then a west-facing window is ideal.

When it comes to irrigation, jade plants are not terribly thirsty plants. It is best to water them well, then allow them to dry out completely before offering additional water.

Outside in the garden, jade plants can get by just fine on precipitation alone, except in times of drought. If you are overwatering your plants, you may see signs of root rot, including blisters on the leaves. The sign that you are underwatering your plants? Thin, breaking leaves signal too little water.

Pruning is not essential for jade plant establishment. However, pruning back a leggy jade plant won’t cause any injury. Then you can use the pruned stems to propagate even more jade plants.