Chopping & Propping: A Tale of Moderate Success

Let's begin by an admission: I mostly just like saying 'Chop & Prop' because it rhymes. Generally speaking, though, I've had mixed results with it. For example, Pothos are supposed to be particularly easy, but I can't seem to get them to grow without first water propping. I even managed to smoosh some Tradescantia Zebrina, and I was under the impression that was almost as impossible as killing a ZZ Plant (yep, did that too).

Sooooo anyway, I'm still learning. Or I'm weeding out the chaff. Perspective is everything.

My SO got me this water prop thingy for Christmas, as he knows I like plants. I think he intended me to use it as a seed started for my yard garden - which is probably a really good use for it - but that's absolutely not what I did. Not (only) because I'm contrary, but because I kept seeing all these people multiplying their plants and it looked cool! Plus I'd get to say "chop & prop" naturally in conversation, which is about as good a reason to do something as anything else is, I think.

Long story long, I took cuttings off of everything I could think of that might work: Pothos of various ilks, trailing Philodendrons, a Scindapsus that hates me, some PPPs, and a Monstera Deliciosa that absolutely did not fit in the little basket thingies and now lives in a vase nearby.

Actual photo of the water prop thingy with an overgrown Pothos root system front and center.

And then I got this really great idea to use my mad interwebs skillz and make a website so that when all these cuttings got big and strong, I could sell them. And I'd go rescue plants from the bargain shelf, flip them, and in no time at all, I'd be living high on the hog.

What happened instead was, I have a water propagation thingy full of stuff I haven't touched since then, except to change out things when the roots get so long that they wrap around their friends. Well, that, and I blog a lot, spend time tapping away at the terrerium of the Google, hoping that one day it'll see me as more than just a shadowy friend.

But I digress. The water prop thingy. Yeah I'm pretty sure it's dirty now? So I should clean it? Probably.

In doing so, it'll mean we have more plants to list on the site, because I feel pretty sure a few of them have enough roots to start the transition to Not Dirt, and some probably have more roots than that. And, since size matters (for roots, ya know?), any one of the cuttings or previously rotted pieces that aren't quite up to par can just go back in when the cleaning is done.

Anyway, guess I'd better go clean the thing. Maybe chop some more stuff. Or, it's spring now, so maybe I'll actually start some seeds we can later convert to feed. Gotta love options, especially when they rhyme.

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