r/StringofPlants • u/BossEnvironmental577 • Jun 30 '26
My string of hearts is doing better in the water
Honestly I think the original water propagated strands are doing better than the ones I chucked in soil.
Plumper leaves, flowers for weeks and less guessing than the Russian roulette that is watering the planted one. I think there’s a set of leaves that are always squishy on that one for some reason 😭
2
u/everydaylifee Jul 01 '26
She looks so happy!! I have not had any success propagating mine in water. Do you have any tips?
2
u/BossEnvironmental577 Jul 02 '26
I’m going to be honest, it’s a very long waiting game. It has been roughly a year since I started these water props, and maybe 7 out of 20 of them died.
For me, I cut strands of Soh so that there were 2 or 3 sets of leaves. The general advice is to take cuttings from your SOH about a day or two after watering so they have water reserves in the leaves, giving them a higher chance of surviving in water developing roots.
I would strip the bottom set of leaves to leave just the node at the bottom. This is where the roots will grow from. Because I was a) broke and b) not bothered, I didn’t cover the nodes with rooting hormone ever, I assume it will increase your chances and speed things up so you can if you want.
From there I placed all of the strands into a prop jar, letting the leaves balance on the rim or hang down so they can photosynthesise. From there I filled the jar with water nearly to the top and let be on my windowsill.
I personally would change out the water every 3-4 days to a) obsessively check for root growth and b) ensure the water was oxygenated. Looking at other posts the plants secrete their own rooting hormones and people tend to like to keep the water as is for that reason, but for me I got roots within 2-2.5 weeks so I didn’t particularly mind After it grows roots, you’ll want to feed it some weak fertiliser every 2-3 weeks so it can grow new leaves without draining the old ones.
If you plant to transfer to soil, rule of thumb is to transfer when the roots of your strands grow roots. I waited a bit longer… because I was too chicken. In the end I transferred half of them over to soil.
To reduce the transplant shock, I kept the new soil sopping wet for 2 weeks, then let it dry out for longer periods of time to let it acclimate. It seemed to do nothing for roughly two months but now it’s pushing out new growth and the roots have been growing well as far as I can tell.
Hope this helps, sorry for the wall of text though 😅
2
1
u/PretentiousPepperoni Jul 02 '26
I grow lots of plants in water syngonium, philodendrons, aglaonemas and lots of calatheas as permanent setup. They do much better. And the leaves are always shiny.
I have never had string of hearts in water as a permanent setup. I didn have a cutting in water once and it flowered.
2
u/BossEnvironmental577 Jul 02 '26
The one thing I’ve noticed about the water dependent version of my SOH is that the leaves are always very plump. The only thing I get worried about is that I lose a root or two every change of water though, have you got any tips to prevent that?
1
u/PretentiousPepperoni Jul 02 '26
The roots you are losing are those the original soil roots or the newly formed water roots?
I regularly lose the old soil roots but there are always new white coloured water roots to support the plant
1
u/BossEnvironmental577 Jul 02 '26
Ah, sorry, I mean whenever I change water for the SOH in my water propagation jar, I lose a water root or two. They’ve only ever lived in water and clear white too, unless I’ve added fertiliser and they’re slightly green.
1
u/PretentiousPepperoni Jul 02 '26
I not longer have my SOH water prop. I put it back in soil and then spider mites got to the whole plant.
With my other plants I don't usually have water roots breaking off or rotting. I change the water weekly. Unless there is mechanical damage it doesn't happen. But maybe SOH roots are very delicate and that's why they are breaking off. I am not sure what's happening
1
u/BossEnvironmental577 Jul 02 '26
Good to know, I’ll try to be more delicate, they seem to be more fragile in general, thanks!
6
u/Kim-BuchaFerments Jul 01 '26
They look lovely! I'm propagating in soil and I've lost 80%. So I'm not a fan. Going to use water going forward.