How to propagate a Calathea Medallion
There are multiple reasons that you might want to or need to propagate your Calathea Medallion. From sharing cuttings with friends, selling your plant cuttings to earn a little extra cash, to save a dying plant or simply expanding your urban jungle. But whatever the reason, the process is still the same and we will guide you through everything you need to know. In this post, you’ll find a step by step method you can follow, as well as all of our top tips to help your Calathea Medallion propagation be a success.
Is propagating a Calathea Medallion difficult?
Although their care requirements can sometimes be difficult to manage, Calathea Medallion propagation is a breeze. There aren’t that many steps involved or opportunities for things to go wrong.
What methods can I use to propagate my Calathea Medallion?
The only thing we don’t like so much about propagating Calathea Medallions is that there is only really one good method to do it; division of the mother plant. The downside to this method is that you will need quite a mature plant to be able to divide it.
Whilst you can also, of course, grow them through seed cultivation, this is a very time-intensive and difficult process that is better left to the professionals.
How to propagate a Calathea Medallion through the division method
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Remove your Calathea Medallion from its pot
Before removing your plant from its pot, check the bottom of the pot to see if the roots are growing out of the drainage holes. If so, carefully untangle these so they don’t break off when you remove your plant. Then carefully lift your plant out of its pot whilst trying not to tug too much at the stems to avoid damage. One thing you never want to do is pull at the leaves as they can rip easily if there is some resistance.
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Remove the soil from the root system
A good way is to loosely run your fingers through the root system, shaking the roots slightly to separate them. This will allow you to see the natural divisions in your plant and you can decide how you want to divide it.
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Separate your Calathea Medallion into sections
It’s OK if you need to cut through the odd root to do this (make sure you use pruning scissors though).
If your Calathea Medallion only has one central section, then you can slice this section in half to create two new plants. It’s important to sure that each section has a substantial amount of mature roots to aid a successful Calathea Medallion propagation.
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Place your new plant in water or pot into fresh soil
Place your mother plant back in its pot and add a little fresh potting mix to fill the gap where your new plant used to be. Then you need to decide what to do with your new Calathea Medallion, grow straight in soil or use an intermediary step of water.
If your new plant has quite mature roots then it will be totally fine growing in potting mix already. However, if the roots are quite small or a lot have been damaged in the propagation process, then we recommend placing them into water so they can mature a little. If you have chosen to grow your new plant in water, make sure you are switching out the water every few days to prevent it from stagnating.
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Continue normal Calathea Medallion care
If your cutting is now in fresh potting mix then you can care for it as you would your other Calathea Medallion.
Is it possible to propagate a Calathea Medallion from a single leaf cutting?
Unfortunately, it’s not! Your leaf wouldn’t be able to grow roots and would wilt and die pretty quickly. Division is really the only option other than seed cultivation to produce more Calathea Medallion plants.
What time of year is best for Calathea Medallion propagation?
Because you are using the division method, you can pretty much propagate all year around. For other houseplants, where you might be using stem cuttings or leaf cuttings, you will want to do it in spring so that the warm sunny months aid root growth.
There you have everything you need to know to propagate your Calathea Medallion. It’s a super quick process that gives you new plants in minutes which is definitely an advantage over some other methods which can take months to produce roots. At least with division, you can enjoy your new plants right away!
To learn more about how to care for your new plants after propagation, check out our Calathea Medallion care guide.
