How to propagate a Calathea Jungle Velvet (Calathea Warscewiczii)
Whether you are choosing to propagate your Calathea Jungle Velvet to give cuttings to friends, grow your plant collection further or are saving a dying plant, this post will share with you everything you need to know about the process.
Is it easy to propagate my Calathea Warscewiczii?
Calathea Jungle Velvets can be difficult to care for but this doesn’t apply to how they are propagated. Luckily, the process is very simple, quick and pretty successful too. You can’t go wrong if you know the right steps and is a lot simpler than a lot of other plants.
What methods can I use to propagate my Calathea Jungle Velvet?
Although the process is easy, this does come at a cost as there is actually only one way you can propagate your Calathea Jungle Velvet. This is through the division of the mother plant. While you can, of course, also propagate through seeds, not only does this take a very long time, but it’s difficult to get right.
How to propagate a Calathea Jungle Velvet using the division method
Below you’ll find a step by step method of how to divide your plant properly.
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Take your plant out of its pot
To be able to divide up the root system, you’ll need to remove it from its pot. Carefully lift the plant out without tugging too much at the stems as you don’t want to damage your Calathea. One thing you should never do with Calatheas is pull them by their leaves as they can often rip off.
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Remove some of the soil from the roots
To be able to divide the plant, you’ll need to locate the various sections of your Calathea Jungle Velvet. A good way to remove some of the soil from the roots is to loosely run your fingers through the root system, shaking the roots slightly to separate them.
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Separate the sections
Now that you are able to see how many sections there are on your Calathea Jungle Velvet, you need to decide how many plants you want to create. Unless your plant is really mature and bushy, we usually recommend only taking one section away from the mother plant but it’s your choice. If your Calathea Jungle Velvet only has one central section, then you can slice this section in half to create two new plants. The one thing to make sure of when separating your plant is that each section has a good amount of the overall root system.
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Place the sections in water or fresh potting mix
Both options work well so it depends on the maturity of the root system on the section that you have removed. If the part of the plant has quite mature roots then it will be totally fine growing in potting mix already. However, if the roots are quite small and thin, then we recommend placing them into water as a middle step so they can mature a little.
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Continue normal Calathea Jungle Velvet care
If your cutting is now in fresh potting mix then you can go straight into your usual care routine. If, however, you have chosen to grow your plant in water for a few weeks, make sure that you are refreshing the water every few days and pot your plant when it’s ready.
Will it work if I propagate a Calathea Jungle Velvet from just a single leaf?
Unfortunately, if you tried to propagate a single leaf, it wouldn’t be able to grow roots and would wilt and die pretty quickly. Because of this, division of the mother plant and its root system is the only way to successfully propagate your Calathea Jungle Velvet outside of seeds.
What time of year should I propagate my Calathea Jungle Velvet?
With plants that allow you to take stem or leaf cuttings, we always recommend that you propagate in spring and summer as this gives the cuttings plenty of warm sunny weather to grow. However, because you can only propagate your Calathea Jungle Velvet through division, you can get away with doing it at less ideal points in the year. This is because your new plant will already have an established root system.
So that’s it! There’s everything you need to know to successfully propagate your Calathea Jungle Velvet (Calathea Warscewiczii). As you are dividing your plant you shouldn’t run into too many issues and you should care for your new plant as you have been caring for your mother plant!
If you want to learn more about how to care for your new plants after propagation, check out our Calathea Jungle Velvet care guide.
