These 5 factors affect rooting in succulents, and beginners should take a look

These "5 factors" relate to the "rooting" problem in succulents, and beginners should take a look!

If you don't understand the principles of succulent root sprouting, how can you grow succulents well? There are several basic principles for plant rooting. Let's talk about them briefly below:

1. Suitable air humidity. Air humidity does not refer to soil moisture

When the humidity is relatively high, for example reaching 99 percent saturated air humidity, plants can even sprout roots in the air without needing to touch a soil medium.

Many people fail when it comes to humidity, and the reason is not insufficient air humidity (in a general balcony environment, it can reach 80 percent during the plum rain season, and is usually around 55 percent at ordinary times, while the north may be even drier), so plants in closed greenhouses are very easy to propagate successfully by cuttings.

But many people fall into another misunderstanding, which is high soil moisture, soil moisture

Actually it does not need to be very high, because at that time the roots do not absorb water or there are not even roots yet. The soil is maintained for a certain period because it provides high humidity in the air around the plant.

2. Suitable hormone levels

We often appropriately dry the plant in the early stage. The first reason is to heal the wound, and the second is to let the plant shrivel appropriately. When the plant shrivels, it loses water, but the hormone concentration in its body is increased. Root sprouting requires hormone levels.

Some plants have low hormone levels and need rooting powder supplement with naphthaleneacetic acid. For example, applying an appropriate amount of rooting powder when taking cuttings of Lophophora species will improve the effect, while other plants with very high hormone levels root very easily, such as triangular stems, yet if you apply rooting powder they do not sprout roots, because excessive naphthaleneacetic acid has an inhibitory effect.

3. Appropriate light

We all know that light promotes the flow of plant fluids and transpiration, but as mentioned earlier regarding hormone levels, when light intensity is relatively high, the plant's hormones flow to the top of the plant rather than to the base where roots need to form.

High light intensity can cause this problem, making it hard for some plants to sprout roots, such as Haworthia species and cactus species, while Agave species instead sprout roots better with a certain light intensity.

So it depends on the specific variety. High light intensity also causes plant transpiration, or to put it directly, the plant gets dried out by the sun. For a plant that has shrivelled to a certain degree, the shrivelling hormone level is already sufficient. If it is exposed to the sun further and has no roots to replenish water, its fluids are almost coagulated, so even high hormone levels are useless.

4. Suitable rooting tissue

If you take a petal and use it for cuttings, it will certainly not root. Everyone knows this, but we often think that positions that can be used for cuttings are suitable, while many are actually very difficult to root, such as old lignified stems, where the plant tissue is too aged and it is very difficult for new root buds to sprout.

Conversely, overly small tender tissue is also not easy to sprout and survive. Although these tissue cells are young and active, when these tissues are too small, the stored nutrients are insufficient, and they die before roots sprout, so suitable tissue must be chosen here.

5. Good wound healing

After a wound is cut, various bacteria may infect it. When the infection is severe, the tissue rots. Although you may see that they only infect a small spot on the surface, the hyphae inside may already be numerous.

Those bacteria produce toxins that affect healing and sprouting, so good wound treatment is crucial. Infection sometimes has a great impact on sprouting. Sometimes after a long time of cuttings there are still no roots, or they even suddenly rot, and the reason is infection.

So treatment after cutting is very important. For tissue with roots, after the root system shrinks, heals, or even falls off, the remaining wound is smaller and easier to heal, while leaf cuttings are difficult to succeed because leaf wounds are more easily infected.

The cut part must be dried. This is different from cuttings. At this time, dry air is instead beneficial for safe tissue healing.

If it is some plants with a lot of sap, you also need to use a paper towel to dry the wound promptly, to avoid poor healing and sap outflow causing the growth of bacteria and mold that affect the wound. Appropriately drying the plant in a cool place, even until its cut edge has shrivelled to a certain degree, and then taking cuttings is best.