When to stop taking succulent cuttings?

[phil75]

I am just wondering when to stop taking cuttings from my collection of echeveria's, haworthia's, crassula's and aeoniums?

Not taken loads, but recently noticed a couple on my echeveria's that i cut within the last week, as i did not want to bring them in soon for the winter only for the offsets to go mega leggy and having shocking cuttings which i hope to swap/sell next season, as i recently got some beauties from ebay

PS - if i do notice offsets forming in the colder months, do i leave them or cut and plant up once calloused?

regards
phil

[dave2166]

Firstly I am not an expert still very much an apprentice

For me I would only take em if forced too the plants will shortly be going into winter dormancy as you reduce the watering which will make them slower to produce offsets I would think

It's my first winter with them really so I have stopped taking cuttings. Maybe in the south you can carry on a bit longer but unless I broke a piece off I would leave after the end of this month for sure.
I don't know if a little bottom heat will get the cuttings going a bit I suppose it can't hurt.

[paul h]

Hi Phil you can propagate all year round, but you will find things slow down in winter unless indoors it does not hurt to leave cutting material on and as Dave has already suggested bottom heat will help. I tend to do a lot next mth or so as bedding for the other half as I will not bring aeoniums and echeveria in that have been out planted to avoid vine weevil they all come in rootless, but take ok.

[Dave Brown]

I recall watching a Gardener's World programme a year or so ago, and the woman on there, just ripped leaves off and stuck them in peat in November in the greenhouse. My thoughts were, they were surely going to rot... but apparently not. By spring they had small plants

[Chalk Brow]

Any time for cuttings is fine. If kept warm they should root quite quickly.

Alternatively, assuming the cuttings are not minuscule they will some through the winter even if they do not root until the spring. I have often kept cuttings just sitting on the shelf overwinter in the greenhouse and then potted them in the spring.

Many years ago I tried rooting a difficult cactus, after two years I gave up trying to get it to root and eventually grafted it successfully. Many can live quite some time on just their reserves.

[JoelR]

Echeveria cuttings will etiolate if you give them warmth to get them rooted over the darker months but will be cutting material for next year if nothing else. I left a Echeveria Glauca cutting on my potting bench all winter in sub zero temps and it rooted in no time. It was repotted yesterday.

[phil75]

Hi Phil you can propagate all year round, but you will find things slow down in winter unless indoors it does not hurt to leave cutting material on and as Dave has already suggested bottom heat will help. I tend to do a lot next mth or so as bedding for the other half as I will not bring aeoniums and echeveria in that have been out planted to avoid vine weevil they all come in rootless, but take ok.

hey paul, a tad confused here, your aeoniums and echeveria stay out all year round?? or do you bring them indoors but knock all the soil off, and then re-pot in fresh when temps are ok for them to go back out in spring etc...got a bit lost in understanding at the end of your quote

[redsquirrel]

i read it that he cuts them off and brings them in,then re-pots and re-roots. would make sense and mean you could use smaller pots over winter

[paul h]

Hi Phil
Darrens nailed it after having lost a lot of plants in the past I don't take any chances now and also use the vine weevil killer,often this is done end Sept /Oct and they all root okay and in many cases will have grown enough to give new cutting material for next year about January.