Q.Starting a plant from a cutting
Can I start a desert milkweed plant (asclepias subulata) from a cutting?
Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) can be propagated by cuttings or by seed. It is easy to propagate from cuttings.
Clean soil should be used to root cuttings and a container for the soil (or foam root cubes) should be prepared. Soil should be watered well before cuttings are made.
Ideally, cuttings will include three leaf nodes. A leaf node is the area on the stem where leaves grow.
Leaves can be taken off the cutting or left on the cutting. If leaves stay too wet, they will begin to rot. This rot can infect the cutting and it may die. If leaves are not removed, do NOT allow leaves to stay wet.
The cutting should be pushed half-way into the soil. If it is pressed to the bottom of the pot/soil, roots will not have as much space to grow.
The cutting should be watered from the bottom, if possible.
These should root quickly and they can then be moved into larger pots or into the ground.
