This guy at the nursery showed me how to save a dying succulent just by pinching off one leaf

I was at the local nursery in Arlington last Saturday, staring at a sad stem with two wilted leaves left. He walked over, pinched off the healthiest leaf, set it on dry soil, and said "try that instead." Anyone else have a random person at a greenhouse change how you care for plants?

3 comments

3 Comments

abby_morgan1812d ago

Seventeen tiny snake plants is actually impressive though. Which leaf on the snake plant did you even pinch off since they all grow from the center? I tried this on my pothos and ended up with like four baby vines sitting in water on my windowsill that have been there for three months doing literally nothing. Did you just set the snake plant leaves on soil and forget about them or did you do something specific that actually worked?

troychen11d ago

Pothos can be stubborn little jerks with water propagation honestly. What finally worked for me was cutting the vine into sections with at least one node each and just sticking them directly into damp soil instead of water. Snake plants are way easier though since you can literally chop a leaf into pieces, let them dry out for a few days, and then stick them in dirt and they'll eventually root. Water propagation for snake plants took forever for me and half of them rotted before doing anything.

simon_carr12d ago

Is it weird that I immediately tried this on my snake plant and now I have seventeen tiny snake plants taking over my kitchen counter? I literally walked around my apartment pinching off any leaf that looked even slightly dramatic. The guy at the nursery probably thinks I'm a plant serial killer now, but honestly the original plant is thriving so maybe I'm just a plant whisperer with a very specific, violent method.