How to Propagate Snake Plants Like a Pro – Foolproof Ways to Expand Your Collection for Free

Luckily for houseplant enthusiasts, learning how to propagate a snake plant is almost as easy as caring for one. Snake plants (Dracaena trifasciata) are resilient, drought tolerant tropical plants from Western Africa. They are grown for their beautiful broad, green striped saber-like leaves and low maintenance. It’s no wonder why you might want to propagate more of these awesome plants.

There are a few different snake plant propagation methods you can use to expand your plant collection. You can grow more of this easy-care houseplant via seeds, cuttings, or division. Seeds can take years before growing into a mature plant and snake plant cuttings can take many weeks to grow, but division allows you to quickly establish a new plant.

I’ll walk you through how and when to try each method and share my top tips for snake plant care post-propagation. Soon you’ll have a huge plant collection you can share with all your friends and family!

Propagating Essentials

Best Methods for Snake Plant Propagation

You can propagate a snake plant either through division of the parent plant, stem or leaf cuttings, or by dividing rhizomes.

The most common and possibly the most successful method of propagation is by division of plantlets that the snake plant naturally produces. Division is also the fastest method and it is as simple as it sounds. You just divide a mature plant to get a second or even several new plants.

Rhizome division is similar to regular and is the second fastest method of propagation. By dividing rhizomes you are simply removing a rooted section of the plant.

Taking a stem or leaf cutting is another propagation method where a cutting of the snake plant is taken from the parent plant and then either rooted in water or planted directly into soil.

Propagating snake plants in water is a very easy method, too, but results in less root growth than rooting its cuttings in soil or other types of media. Propagating plants by cuttings takes a bit more time than division since you have to wait for roots to form.

Plus, propagations from cuttings will not necessarily give you the exact same plant with the same color or variegation. Use regular division or rhizome division if you wish to retain variegation.

You can also propagate snake plants from seed, but this is by far the most time-consuming method. Seeds are reluctant to germinate and can take up to six weeks, even in optimum conditions. This type of plant propagation is also much more difficult, so it is not a viable option for most home growers.

When to Propagate a Snake Plant

Snake plants grown indoors can be propagated at any time of the year except in the winter when plants are dormant. The ideal time to propagate snake plants is in the spring or summer when they are actively growing.

How to Propagate a Snake Plant

Now that you know about the various methods of propagating a snake plant, let’s take a look at how to do each one.

Division

A quick way to propagate mother-in law’s tongue is through plant division. You can either divide pups from the parent plant or divide rhizomes that will grow into new plants. I’ll walk you through both methods.

Pup Division

Like many succulents, snake plants produce pups or plantlets. These are small, genetically identical plants that grow from the same root system as the parent plant. A plantlet can be cleaved away from the parent plant once it has grown sufficient roots of its own.

When repotting a snake plant, simply remove some pups from the parent plant to propagate. Pot up each plantlet in its own smaller container, using the same kind of growing medium. This succulent potting mix from Miracle-Gro is a great choice for drought-hardy snake plants.

Water your new little plants lightly and avoid fertilizing until they have established themselves in their containers. This method results in an instant plant that’s identical to the parent.

Rhizome Division

Rhizomes house the energy for the plant’s leaf and stem growth. Remove the plant from its container and locate the rhizomes under the soil near the root system.

Use a clean knife or sharp pruning shears, like these ones from Fiskars, to cut the base into sections. Cut the plant in half unless it is really old and has masses of rhizomes you can propagate. A good rule of thumb is to take at least three rhizomes and one healthy leaf per new plant.

After you cut a rhizome from the base of the plant, allow it to callus for a couple of days. Callusing prevents root rot. Once the callus forms, pot the rhizome propagation into a container filled with well-draining potting mix.

Cuttings

Most fleshy-leaved plants can be propagated by leaf cuttings and snake plants are no exception. There are two ways to propagate snake plants by cuttings, either in soil or water.

Rooting in Soil

Cut a 4-8 inch (10-20 cm) section of leaf with a clean, sharp knife. Some gardeners suggest dipping the cutting into rooting hormone, which you can get on Amazon. But professional growers simply plant the basal end into a well-draining growing medium. But first, allow the cut leaf pieces to callus over and dry out for a couple of days. Place them on a paper towel on the counter to do this.

Once you see a whitish callus form, fill a pot or tray with about 2-3 inches (5-7 cm) of potting medium. Regular potting soil holds too much moisture and is too compact for snake plants to form roots.

A mixture of perlite, sand, vermiculite, coarse sand, sphagnum or peat moss, or any combination of these provide a better environment for propagating. To make sure your snake plant is getting exactly what it needs to form strong roots, use a specific succulent potting mix like this one from Amazon.

Moisten the medium prior to planting, keeping it moderately moist but not wet. If it’s too wet, the cutting may become infected with bacterial root rot.

Plant your snake plant cuttings into the potting medium and keep them in a warm place while roots form. This will take around 4-6 weeks. You can expect new leaves in 4-6 months.

Rooting in Water

The other way to propagate snake plant cuttings is similar to the method above. But instead of planting directly into soil, you will first root your cuttings in water and then transplant them into soil once roots form.

Select a healthy leaf that’s not too old and use clean, sharp shears to cut it off. Cut the leaf close to the soil and place the cut end in water. Insert the cut basal end into just enough water to cover the bottom of the leaf.

Rooting cuttings in tap water is an easy option, but you may see better results with filtered or distilled water since purified water reduce the introduction of pathogens.

Place the cutting in bright, indirect sun. Be sure to change the water and rinse the glass weekly to prevent disease. When the plant has at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) of roots, plant it in a well-draining potting mix.

Seeds

Growing snake plants from seeds can be tricky. Since snake plants grow slowly, starting a plant from seed requires extra patience.

The dark brown seeds have a hard, wrinkly exterior so you need to soak seeds for a day prior to planting. To help with germination, you can also wrap the seeds in a moist paper towel inside a closed plastic baggie. If you choose this method, place the bag in a bright location where temperatures are between 65-80°F (18-26°C). After seeds sprout, plant them in a well-draining potting mix.

Alternatively, you can soak seeds for a day and then immediately plant them in a succulent or cactus potting mix. Water your seeds once a week or whenever the top inch (2.5 cm) of soil is dry.

Post-Propagation Care

The snake plant is somewhat flexible about lighting and humidity, but is quite fussy about the amount of water it gets. Just about the only thing that will kill a mother-in-law’s tongue is overwatering. It thrives best in small pots with crowded rhizomes, and has few pest or disease problems.

It’s not necessary to fertilize snake plants often. But if you feel like giving your plant a boost, use a half dilution of houseplant food, like this one from Miracle-Gro, once a month during the growing season.

These hard-to-kill houseplants can clean the air and enhance your home with their tropical beauty. Spread the love by propagating snake plants and give your friends and neighbors a special treat.

Frequently Asked Questions