Philodendron Mamei Propagation - Teak And Terracotta

Welcome to our guide to philodendron mamei propagation, we cover a few methods including soil, leca and sphagnum moss. I run down water propagation first as I always water prop before using the other methods so that the cuttings already have roots to get started, I have found this is always the best way as long as you don’t leave the plants in water for too long.

What You’ll Need to Propagate A Mamei

You will need:

A mamei plant, big enough to take a node cutting or two
Clean scissors or a knife
A pot or plastic cup
A potting medium: soil, leca or sphagnum moss

For our full guide to caring for this plant see: Philodendron Mamei Care, and check out our Philodendron Propagation section.

How To Propagate Mamei In Water

Step 1

You want to get at least one node in the cutting, as the plant will root from there. On the image below you can see the node on the bottom cutting more easily, it is where the plant branches out and the stem is wider. You want to cut below this with a sharp knife. You want two leaves per cutting ideally, one will be ok too.

Step 2

Put the cuttings in a jar, but do not fill it with water yet. You want to wait a few hours so that the open wounds close up and seal over.

Philodendron mamei cuttings in a jar – let them callous over before adding water.

Step 3

Once the wounds are healed you can fill the jar with water, I used filtered tap water, filtered with a brita jug.

Step 4

Put the jar somewhere it can get plenty of light but no direct sun. And keep the water topped it. They should start rooting a week or so but it can take up to 2 months to establish a good healthy root system.

You want to check it a couple of times a week to make sure the water is not going cloudy. If it is change the water and remove any cuttings that might be rotting. Make sure no leaves are in the water as they can rot.

Step 5

You can keep them in water if you like as they can grow there ongoing as long as you keep the water topped up and change it if it goes cloudy.

Or you can then move it to soil, water or leca, as we go into below…

Philodendron mamei cuttings propagating — Philodendron mamei cuttings – they look great on display while you’re propagating them.

How To Propagate Philodendron Mamei In Leca Or Moss

First of all you want to water propagate the cuttings as above so that they are already rooted. If they have water propped for too long you can get shock when moving them, but if you propagate them for 6-8 weeks in water I find you get a much better success rate as the cuttings have started to root already.

You want to get a cup or pre-soaked moss (squeeze any excess water off) or pre-soaked leca and then fill a plastic cup a third full with the medium, then add you cutting. Hold the cutting upright and then fill in around it with your leca/moss, so that the cutting is kept upright.

Philodendron mamei cuttings in sphagnum moss. — Philodendron mamei cuttings rooting in sphagnum moss. I put leca at the bottom of the cup for drainage so I do not have to put holes in the cups.

Keep it warm and humid and in indirect sunlight for a a month or so. Keep the medium moist during this time and you can increase humidity by putting a bag around the pot that is taller than the cuttings, but keep the bag open a bit so you don’t get rot. Keep it like this until you see good root growth and new foliage growth from the top of the plant. You can then move it to soil, or you can keep it in the leca/moss and feed it a very well diluted feed.

A humidity bag to increase air moisture around a propagtion. — Here’s a humidity bag I used for a different project: put a bag put around a cutting to keep it humid. The bag needs to be open at the top so the iar can circulate and avoid rot. Sphag it and bag it!

Mamei Nodes (Wet Sticks)

If you have any nodes without stems (also know as wet sticks sometimes) I would definitely use moss (without water propagation). Put them on the top of some moist moss, and then push them into the moss so it is touching most of the surface area of the wet stick. The moist moss will encourage rooting. You want to keep it really humid to encourage rooting, you can cover the cup with a lid or a bag over it. Allow a small amount of air to circulate with holes in the bag or cup. It can take a lot longer for a node/wet stick to root than a normal cutting, so you need to be patient, just keep it well lit and moist (but not soggy) and humid.

How To Propagate Philodendron Mamei In Soil

A philodendron mamei propagation in soil

You can take a cutting from a mamei and stick it directly in soil, but I have got much better results from water propagating it for at least 6 weeks first. When you move it to soil you want to keep it humid (with the bag technique I mentioned above) and keep the soil moist but not soggy until the roots are established and you get new leaf growth.