If you’ve gotten into succulents through picking up a little planter or two you know that they’re like pringles… you can’t have just one. Plus once you start looking into succulents are realize there are beautiful varieties you just can’t pick up locally (like snow white panda plants, pink butterfly klanchoe plants or the echeveria laui) you have to venture into buying plants online and planting them yourself.
Luckily if you’re just learning how to plant succulents it’s not a hard process to pick up. There are definitely a few tricks of the trade to learn and standards to follow but once you get the hang of it you’ll have succulents coming out of your ears!
Beginning Tools
A large syringe to water
Bamboo Skewers to check the soil for moisture
Small paint brush to clean your leaves
Plant Stakes to label the different variety of plants
Planting Tools
Small Shovel to add soil to your pots
Hand Shovel to fill your pots
Succulent Soil
Container for your plants
Grow Light
Scissors
Small Tools for making holes in soil
Whether you get your succulents in the mail, from a nursery or are separating baby succulents from a mother plant the steps are really the same… so I’ll go ahead and share the steps from start to finish and you can jump in depending on what type of plant you have!
Separating a Baby Succulent from the Mother Plant
If you have a plant with little baby succulents the first step is to separate all of the plants. If your baby plant already has it’s own root system then you’re ahead of the game but some plants form babies off a central stalk and some grow nearby the mother plant with their own root system.
Basically you want to go from one plant or group of plants to separate plants! You can see with these little green hens and chicks that the babies are growing around the mama plant but are attached at the base of the little stalks.
So to take these little guys apart take a little tiny pair of scissors (or a normal pair of scissors and extreme caution *wink wink*) simply cut the tiny stalk as close to the mother plant as absolutely possible. Easy peezy lemon squeazy!
Now you have a mama plant with roots and little baby plants with tiny stalks. If you’ve bought plants from the nursery or online they will look similar (especially cuttings which would have short stalks and no roots).
Now It’s time to Plant your Succulents!
Go ahead and fill your container with a bit of succulent soil… if you’re working with a cutting or small baby plant with a stalk go ahead and fill the container all the way to the top. If you’re working with a plant with roots make sure to leave enough space in the container for the roots!
Cuttings are definitely easier because you can simply take a sharp tool and make a space in your soil before sticking your cutting directly into the soil. If it’s a new cutting you’ll want to wait a couple of days before watering so that the stalk can callus over… if you’ve received cuttings in the mail they’ve probably already callused over and you can go ahead and water directly after planting.
If you’re working with a rooted plant the only main difference is that once you place your plant in the pot you’ll want to use a little shovel to cover the top with dirt. Then wait a couple days before you water the little guys!
Just take a look at these little cuties! If you’re working with a rooted plants you may have a couple wilty, wrinkly leaves at the bottom of your plant but that is a-ok. Just pluck those little guys off before planting the container.
If you’re planting one plant in one pot then you’re finished. If you’re planting an entire planter… just keep going! Remember that the plants will grow so if you don’t mind moving the plants in a year when they get crowded go ahead and plant them close… if you want to keep them in the same planter give them a little bit of space to grow. Now that they’re planted hop on over to my succulent care post to find out how to care for these little chickies!
Enjoy!
