How to propagate tradescantia – even if you're a complete gardening beginner

Knowing how to propagate tradescantia is the easiest hack for increasing your collection of this houseplants or if you want to create a bushier existing plant.

One of the joys of growing houseplants is propagating – increasing your houseplants for free. Since a key element to caring for tradescantia zebrina is pruning (which prevents the plant from becoming leggy and sparse), you'll find yourself with plenty of cuttings which can be used to create new plants. These can then be gifted to friends, a added to your own collection or used to create a bushier tradescantia zebrina.

Perfect for beginners, tradescantia is so simple to propagate: it's just a matter of snipping, placing in water and waiting for roots to grow. However, it is important that you know a few essentials to prevent the roots from rooting or fostering infection in the plants.

What you'll need

• Large healthy Tradescantia plant
• Secateurs or snips, like these Spear & Jackson snips from Amazon
• Container – like a vase, tumbler or shot-glass
• Water
• Nursery pot for potting on, like these seed starting pots from Amazon
• Houseplant compost like this from Houseplant Focus on Amazon

Step-by-step guide

1. Take your cuttings

Just like when propagating a Christmas cactus or peonies, the first step in learning how to propagate tradescantia is to take your cuttings. These can be taken just for propagating or they can be stems that are removed when pruning the plant.

Taking a cutting is easy, ‘simply snip a healthy stem just below a node, remove the bottom few leaves,’ explains Sonia Kainth from houseplant specialists House of Kojo.

When cutting your plant, you must use clean secateurs or snips, wiping them with a bleach-free disinfectant – like this Miniml spray from Amazon – will suffice. This will prevent inviting infection into the cutting or parent plant.

2. Place the cuttings water

Like you would do if propagating a string of turtles, you should next fill a glass, small vase or vessel with water and add your stems.

‘Change the water weekly, as you would cut flowers and within a couple of weeks, roots will begin to develop,' explains Sonia. Tap water will be fine, but you could also use leftover dehumidifier water for plants (also known as grey water).

The joy of propagating tradescantia in water is that you can see the root growing in real time – perfect if you're curious or impatient.

If you are planning to propagate a lot of plants, or want to incorporate propagation into your interiors, then it might be worth thinking about creating a propagation station.

3. Pot them on

Let the roots reach at least 3cm long before planting in a pot of houseplant compost to continue growing. You can use standard plastic plant pots or DIY your own seedling pots.

If your main tradescantia is looking a little bit bare, you can plant these rooted cuttings in the main pot for a bushier plant.

FAQs

Is it better to propagate Tradescantia in water or soil?

It is better to propagate tradescantia in water than soil as it's easier to see the progress of the root growth and is less vulnerable to rot or infection.

If you want to try planting cuttings directly in the soil, it is important to maintain the right levels of watering to prevent the stem from drying out without rotting.

How long does it take for tradescantia to root in water?

It takes around a week for tradescantia to root in water. However, it will take several more weeks for the roots to be developed enough for the plant to be potted on. Ensure that you change the water once a week to prevent a bacteria build-up.

How do I make my tradescantia more bushy?

One of the best ways to make tradescantia more bushy is to plant rooted cuttings into the same pot as the parent plant. Once you know how to propagate tradescantia it is super easy to make your tradescantia more bushy