Tips on propagating a dieffenbachia

I have a dieffenbachia (dumb cane) that was a gift from a coworker about 5 years ago. It was over 10 feet tall if you measured to tip of the highest leaf. I say "was" because I tried air layering for the first time and I guess I got carried away with my knife and cut too deep and... the cane snapped.

My heart stopped. Horror of horrors! I killed my favorite plant! Trying to avoid panic, I made a nicer cut at an angle, dipped it in Rootone, and repotted it in fresh potting soil. I read that this usually works but of course I was terrified. I kept the root part of the cane too, hoping it will sprout new growth.

Now I had about 6 feet of cane to work with. I grabbed all the pots I could find and sliced up the cane into sections about 3"-4" long, applied more Rootone, and placed them in the soil.

Being the perfectionist that I am, I want to know: Should I have used rooting medium rather than good ol' fashioned potting soil? Should I keep the sections dark until they sprout? How moist should I keep the soil? Would it help if I covered them with plastic wrap? How deep should I have buried them? (I made furrows about 1/4" - 1/2" deep.) What about the top? Does it need any special treatment (light, watering, humidity)?

If this works I'm gonna have about a zillion new dieffenbachias. I guess the folks here at DG get first pick!

Hi Tigerlily: I have a Dieffenbachia that I've had for years and it was looking pretty bad for a long time, from lack of proper care. I posted on a thread last year with pictures of my sickly looking Dieff. If you click on this link: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/728846/ it will take you to the thread where I posted pictures of how I chopped mine up and rooted the cuttings. Scroll down the page and you will find my posts with photo's. Near the end there is an update of how they look now, after a year.

Some of the pieces of cane I sunk into the soil about 1/2" and others I laid longways/sideways on top of the soil and just pressed them down a bit to make sure they were in contact with the soil. Most all rooted nicely, there were one or two that rotted but for the most part I was very pleased with the outcome.

I do use rooting hormone powder when I think of it but a lot of times I don't remember. I think the rooting hormone helps cuttings establish roots a little quicker than if they are just put in the soil with nothing. I always let my cuttings sit out a few days so the ends will callous over and dry a bit before planting.

I use a potting mixture of miracle grow potting soil, lots of perlite and orchid bark for just about all of my plants. It makes for a very chunky, well draining mix. Many years ago I would kill my plants with too much water sitting in the heavy soil.

Good luck with all your many baby Dieff's to come! Keep us posted with some photo's if you can!

Lin

Thanks so much for the info, Lin. I'll be careful to keep them dry enough. I'm including a photo of my dumb cane before surgery. I moved it across country by car in May so about a third, maybe less, of the leaves died from the sun since this photo. Overall I think it did pretty well on the trip! By the way, how long before I start to see new growth on the cuttings? I'm keeping them in a room with a west-facing window but out of direct sun. I hope that's enough light for them.

I'll try to get some photos of the tops and the cuttings posted soon. There are actually two plants that I topped and repotted. The smaller one is having trouble and is wilting pretty badly except for the topmost leaves right now. The larger one seems to be holding up OK. Is there anything I can do for the wilting? I'm not worried about losing foliage as long as the plant doesn't die. Any tips on keeping the remaining canes (the ones still rooted in the pot) alive and kicking?

Tigerlily:

That is a gorgeous Dieff! The original canes (mama plants) should be fine since they already have an established root system. I don't know how long before you will see new branches popping out. For wilting, you might want to get a spray bottle of water and mist them a couple of times a day to raise the humidity.

My plant seemed to take forever before new growth began on the mama plant, but eventually I did see sprouts forming. The cuttings seemed to take quite awhile too, I don't remember for sure how long it was because I have so many plants that I just stuck them in a corner behind others on the deck and forgot about them. Some folks do put a dome or plastic wrap over their trays of cuttings to help keep the humidity high when rooting. Down here in Florida my plants stay outside year round. We have very high humidity which most of the plants love. I give mine a spraying with the hose quite often but then again, they are outside and water drains and evaporates quickly.

I hope your plants continue to do well for you and that your cuttings are rooted and sprouting before spring!

Dumb canes are some of the easiest things to start from cuttings. You can water root them as well as starting them in a good potting mix.

If potting in soil, let the cut end callous a bit before sticking like Lin said. And like Lin said you can lay the bare canes horizontally on the soil which should sprout and root as well.

I wouldn't worry about wilting - just cut the bottom leaves off like most cuttings and leave the top one or two leaves. When it roots new growth should follow. Your stump should also throw up new growth on the old cane and from the roots.

Here are the tops that I repotted. They look shiny because I just misted them.

This is the top that I'm worried about. It is losing leaves and looks wilted.

This is the "mama" plant.

And here are the cuttings.

If the top loses a lot of leaves, you can cut it and start again. At a certain point, dieffenbachia needs cutting anyway because they get so leggy and cannot support the tops anyway.

After surgery of that sort, it is common for a plant to go into a bit of shock. I think you left such loong stems they will be trying to put an awful lot of effort into producing roots so it makes sense to me that the foliage is wilting. That is a beautiful plant and it looks like you are going to have lots and lots of babies!

You could put that long top (like plantlady said) in a bucket of water and root it that way. Just watch the water for slime and change as needed. This should help the leaves from wilting too much.

I've never tried rooting Dieff's in water.

Lin, do you think the plant would be happier if I cut the stems shorter and started again? I've lost half a dozen lower leaves even since that photo was taken so it looks like I'm going to lose most of them anyway.

Update!

Last week I noticed a little bitty root poking out of one of my cuttings. I was so thrilled! I mean it, I've never tried anything like this before and I was so scared I messed it up. I'm including some pictures of the cuttings. I flipped the cuttings over to check for roots and at least a dozen are sprouting! It's such a great feeling. I've been terrified because the canes I topped keep losing leaves so today I lifted them up (very carefully) and checked. The cane on the right has been losing more and more leaves and the leaves aren't as dark green so I've been really worried. But it had several roots poking out, the longest at least an inch long! The other has one root sprouting but it still looks healthy so I think it will be fine.

Edit: I've been meaning to ask. I'm rooting both the tops and the cuttings in rooting medium. When and how do I transplant them to ordinary potting soil?

One other thing -- I had covered the cuttings loosely with plastic wrap but I noticed mold growing so now they are uncovered.

This message was edited Oct 6, 2008 10:15 PM

A picture of the cuttings. The upright cutting has some sprouts you can make out if you squint. :)