Arrowhead Plant Propagation & Planting

Arrowhead Plants grow fast, get dense, and at some point will need pruning. They have thick, soft stems that tend to get heavy with foliage at the ends as they age. I like to periodically trim the ends to keep them in shape and prevent too much flopping. Arrowhead Plant propagation is easy!

Arrowhead Plants are vines by nature so if you want them to stay more compact, you’ll need to some pruning 2 or 3 times a year. As long as you’re pruning, why not propagate a few of the cuttings?

My Arrowhead Plant after its pruning. The little 1 on the right will quickly grow to this size so heads up!

When is a good time to propagate an arrowhead plant? I did this at the end of April. Spring, summer & fall are good times to propagate because the roots grow faster in the warmer weather. I’ve propagated in winter by stem cuttings but it takes longer.

That little brown bump I’m pointing at is a node. You’ll see them up & down the stems. The roots will emerge from it.

Take the cuttings at the desired length just below a node. You want to make sure the stems are long enough so at least 2 or 3 nodes can go in the water or mix. The cuttings I took were 8 – 18″ from the bottom of the stems to the top of the tallest leaf. You can make them shorter or longer – whatever your preference is!

And, make sure your  pruners are clean & sharp before taking the cuttings. You don’t want to make jagged cuts.

Remove some bottom leaves from each stem. They’ll most likely die anyway & you’ll see new growth emerging throughout the rooting process.

This is the level I keep the water in the jar.

I don’t fill it with water because I don’t want roots to emerge up & down the entire stems, just at the bottom.

Place the cuttings in water or mix. Make sure 2-3 nodes are covered by water or the mix.

I change the water in the jar every 5-7 days to freshen & maintain the level.

The best place for your cuttings is a bright location without any direct sun. I put mine on the window sill in the guest bedroom which is a north exposure. Lots of light comes in but no sun hits them.

Once they’re rooted to your satisfaction, you can put them in potting soil.

The rooting process happens very quickly. The 1st roots started appearing after a week (pictured above). It’s now been about 2 weeks since the cuttings were put in water & roots have formed on both of the stems.

Once the cuttings are rooted, you can plant them into a proportionately sized pot. My cuttings are on the smaller side so I’ll put them all into a 4″ grow pot because a 6″ pot would be out of scale at this point.

For this baby plant, I used 1/2 potting soil to 1/2 succulent & cactus mix. My  DIY succulent and cactus mix has a lot of coco fiber & pumice in it so it’s a great alternative. As for potting soil, I use I use  this one as well as  this one.

I also added in a few handfuls of a local compost & topped it all with a 1/4″ layer of  worm compost for extra richness.

You want to water your newly planted cuttings as soon after planting them as you can. Mine had been rooting in water so I didn’t want to keep them dry for too long.

Water it every 5-7 days depending on the temps. You don’t want to keep it soaking wet but you don’t want it to dry out either. Once the plant gets well-rooted in & established, then you can water it with the same frequency as you would the established mother plant.

As for exposure, this is just like an established Arrowhead. You want too put it in bright natural light & make sure it doesn’t get direct hot sun.