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My prickly pear plant (Opuntia microdasys) fell over in the wind today and a paddle broke off. Luckily it was a clean cut so I decided to just drop it into a pot and hope it grows!
Also in the pot is an unidentified aloe cutting from the plant beside it. No clue what that is but it's been doing alright despite not being in the desert!
A good way to protect the cutting and speed up the cutting calusing and subsequent rooting is to sprinkle/dip the cutting in either rooting powder or cinnamon. Rooting powder is the better bet for something you want to root, cinnamon is perfect for where a cutting has been taken from as you probably don't want your established plant to start sprouting roots half way up
You've gotta let the broken end callus over before you can propagate succulents from leaves. Exposing the wounded tissue to soil before it finishes scabbing up makes it almost certain that you'll lose the leaf to fungi.
Didn't know that. I cut a weird 10 cm long offshoot off of a cactus a few years ago and planted it right away. I must've gotten lucky.
It's a bit easier with cacti especially if you aren't overwatering them. Succulents are a lot more susceptible to rot.
I specifically got the cactus because I'm incredibly bad at remembering to water plants.
It only has a tiny cut cause the whole pad fell off at once, but I moved it out of the soil to try and let it scab over before planting it again!
Did you let the cutting dry before? If not, you may risk rotting
I'll second this. The easiest way to get it to grow is to just set the pad on top of the soil. It will naturally root from the portion touching the ground and eventually sprout some new growth.