Love your Raindrop Peperomia (Peperomia polybotrya) and want to propagate more of them? It’s super easy! Use this simple guide to water propagate your Peperomias and you can have dozens of new plants! And what Plant Parent doesn’t want more plants?
Where to find them
Peperomia polybotrya, also known as Raindrop Peperomia, Coin-Leaf Peperomia or Owl Eye Peperomia, is a lovely, sturdy little houseplant that has glossy, somewhat succulent, heart-shaped leaves. They tend to grow about a foot high and will sometimes need to be pruned to retain their bushy form. They can be found pretty easily online, so definitely try Etsy, Ebay, or independent online or retail nurseries. I’ve had two plants for the last two years, and unfortunately, I’ve been a bit lazy about pruning. Don’t judge, we’ve all been there…
Propagate Raindrop Peperomia with cuttings
My plants were starting to get tall and somewhat leggy, so I decided to give them a substantial haircut. I ended up with a bowl FULL of cuttings.
Tip
When you’re taking stem cuttings of your Raindrop Peperomia, make sure you include at least one or two nodes. The nodes are the little bumps on the stem where the leaves emerge. If you’re new to plant propagation, I would recommend having at least 2-3 nodes on each stem cutting to give yourself a higher chance of success if one of your nodes rots off.
Round up all of your cute glass bottles and jars and put them to good use! Just fill them with fresh water and place your cuttings into them. Pull off any leaves on the lower parts of the stem so that you can fit them into the jars, but don’t throw them out yet!
Make sure the water covers as many nodes on your stem cuttings as possible. If you would like a more consistent aesthetic instead of a bunch of random jars everywhere, you can find plenty of very stylish propagation stations on Amazon. You are bound to find a few that will fit your decor styles and aesthetics.
Propagate Raindrop Peperomia with Leaf Petioles
Here’s the reason why you may not want to discard any leaves that you pull off your stem cuttings: You can also start baby Raindrop Peperomias from the leaf petioles!
It takes a lot longer and the success rate is much lower, but if you REALLY want to squeeze as much use out of your plant material as possible, it’s worth a shot. However, I would not put all of your propagation hopes and dreams on this technique. Using stem cuttings is much more reliable.
Only use healthy green leaves if you want to try propagating from the petioles. In the photo above, the yellowing leaf on the far left is a definite no-no. Don’t bother with it and throw it out.
Immerse the ends of the leaf petioles into a jar of water and place in a warm location with bright, indirect light. Your stem cuttings should also be located in similar areas.
Potting up stem cuttings
At around 4-7 days, depending on your environmental factors, you should begin to see new roots popping out of your stem cuttings. To ensure the highest chance of survival, change the water every 3-5 days and remove any cuttings that appear to be rotting as soon as you see them. Leaving the decomposing biomass in the water will breed bacteria that will end up compromising the health of your other cuttings.
As you can see in the photo above, the majority of roots are popping out from around the nodes of the stem. Nodes are extremely valuable in plant propagation so you must make certain to preserve their integrity as much as possible.
When the majority of roots have reached about an inch long, I remove the cuttings from water and pot them up into potting soil.
Potting up leaf petioles
As for leaf petiole propagations, it takes an average of about 3 weeks to 1 month for the first roots to form, and then another 2-3 months for the first tiny leaf to emerge from the end of the petiole.
In the photo below, you can (barely) see the beginnings of a cluster of tiny leaves among the roots. That’s your baby plant!
After a couple of weeks, you will see that the leaves are more distinct and starting to get bigger. Continue leaving the petioles and baby plants submerged in clean water. I keep my plant propagations in bright, indirect light and add a little bit of very diluted kelp fertilizer every couple of weeks to give them an extra boost of nutrients. Unlike synthetic fertilizers, kelp fertilizer will not burn the leaves of your plants, so it’s perfect for growing seedlings!
By month four, you should have quite a few itty bitty leaves like in the photo above. Aren’t they cute? I probably should have included a coin for scale, but it totally slipped my mind. That being said, the overall size at this stage is probably around a US quarter.
Once your baby Raindrop Peperomias have formed a sufficient root system (i.e., enough roots to be buried well into the soil), then you can remove them from water and pot them up. Sometimes I have to use a U-shaped metal wire to anchor the leaf petiole into the soil (see photo above). Otherwise, the mature leaf can be so heavy that it will end up pulling the baby plant right out of the soil before it has the chance to establish itself. After spending months getting to this stage, the last thing you want to do is find that your baby plant has fallen out of its pot and has wilted beyond rescue.
Tip
One awesome thing about propagating from petioles is that the initial growth form of the new plants are very bushy and lush. With stem cuttings, unless you’re consistently pruning your plants, the growth form tends to be columnar in shape. If you want a nice, bushy display, I would recommend putting multiple plants in a single pot in addition to occasional pruning.
I hope this simple guide on water propagating Raindrop Peperomia was helpful! As you can see, it’s super easy and there really is minimal effort. In no time, you will be up to your eyeballs in Raindrop Peperomia plants!
Now it’s time to figure out what you want to do with all of them…
Always Keep Growing,
Heather (a.k.a. The Botanical Chick)
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Hello. Loved the post. I was wondering, how much fertilizer do you add to the leaf petioles?
Hi Lyanne,
Thank you, I’m glad you found it useful. Once the roots start to grow, I would recommend using fertilizer diluted to 1/4 strength of what is recommended on the label. This would be especially important for synthetic fertilizers, because they can burn if not diluted enough. For natural fertilizers like liquid kelp, this is less of an issue. Hope this helps!
When potting leaf cuttings that have grown roots and baby leaves, do you need to keep the original leaf? Could you just cut it off?
Hi Jeff,
If the original leaf is still healthy and green, it’s not really necessary to cut it off. It’s still providing photosynthesis to the baby leaves and helping them grow. If the original leaf is turning yellow or clearly degrading, then it makes sense to remove it.
My leaves were doing really well for the first 1.5 months. They’re now turning yellow and have some brown spots. I’ve been changing the water regularly and have maintained the same light conditions. Any idea what the issue might be?
Hi Michelle,
Some leaves just won’t turn out to be viable no matter how much you try. I’ve gotten some die off of leaves, and I would just remove them and replace the water. If all of your leaves are dying, then that is very unusual, and there is probably something wrong with the conditions that you’re keeping them in. You’re light conditions may be the same, but it may not be enough. It’s hard for me to say without seeing your setup and environment.
Good luck!
Heather
This is exactly the info I needed. I scooped up a fallen leaf in the local hardware store and have had it in water for over a month. I’ve given micro-doses of liquid fertilizer, using a syringe, and now have roots and one tiny leaf. I was wondering what the next steps should be and found you. Thanks so much for your clear and helpful information and advice.
I’m so glad that the post is helpful! Congrats on your new baby plant!