Do you you have better luck with cuttings or division?

If cuttings, water or soil?

Curious, I've had good luck with all 3, but cuttings take a long time and division is BAM! 2 plants.

I love watching roots develop in water cuttings but don't like the lag time of waiting for them to convert from water roots to soil roots. And some, like Swedish Ivy plectranthus and tradescantia, do much better for me straight into soil. Tradescantia pallida and Tradescantia brevifolia in particular.

My method of 100% success with Maranta- don't own any.
Plectranthus and Tradecantia, practically born with roots, no comparison.
I did root a Calathea/Stromanthe type thing in soil, had made a sort of pup up on a stem.
I assume you'd bag it for humidity.

Did you try this yet?

Not yet:)

Ended up it's a Calathea, still waiting for it to finish its dehydration leaves before messing with it. Beautiful plant but a very slow one.

Oh, I can kill a Calathea much faster than a Maranta, according to my track record, although in retrospect, I may have discarded plants that just went dormant. But I'm not sure which feels worse. Could you say "finish its dehydration leaves" another way? I didn't understand that.

purpleinopp said: Oh, I can kill a Calathea much faster than a Maranta. Could you say "finish its dehydration leaves" another way? I didn't understand that.

Hey:)
That makes me feel a little bit better.

I meant the new curled leaves that started a few months ago but are still developing or recently developed. I bought it 50% off cause it looked so bad with dead edges, but it had new leaves forming. Most of those have crispy dead tissue before they even unfurl. That's what I'm waiting to deal with before messing with anything else.

Just had one that was 3' tall when I got it, took months to develop, 1 week to finally unfurl halfway then overnight to unfurl the other 50%. Dead and crunchy 5% by the tip, the rest of the leaf is gorgeous. Baby steps.

It's doing much better but I'm still waiting for some of those original ugly leaves to die off enough to warrant cutting them.

Root division is easier if they have corms. Then even if the top dies off, it grows back again.
You can root maranta in water easily but they take a while to get going and more often than not, die back before anything happens. I haven't tried to root in soil yet but I think I will go that way next time with a little humidity tent.

LorettaNJ said:
You can root maranta in water easily but they take a while to get going and more often than not, die back before anything happens.

Thanks:)

This is making me smile though.

Root easily or more often than not die back, which is it?

Both.
Kim Beauty I cut back every fall to refresh it but that root system is mature. The new leaves are more colorful. It doesn't work as well for other types but I find as long as the roots have corms developed, I don't lose the roots, and the plant puts up new leaves. It may take some time.
Some leaves just age and yellow. Sometimes leaves are dying back and coming up at the same time.

If you go past a certain point in letting them dry out before watering, they will get crispy but can come back from that. Same with cold temperatures. But sometimes they just die back and I'm not really sure what that final step is for perfection.

I understood what you meant that time, thank you. Sending good vibes!

purpleinopp said: I understood what you meant that time, thank you. Sending good vibes!

Thanks.

Frustrating to wait 2 months for a new leaf to unfurl, only to have a dead smear along the edge!

I keep second-guessing myself over whether that's residual from the condition I got the plant or poor care on my part since then.

Some of the leaves I'm getting are just gorgeous, wow.
Pattern colors, and the texture in particular. Velvety.

Such a slow plant!

Humboldt said:
Frustrating to wait 2 months for a new leaf to unfurl, only to have a dead smear along the edge.

Humboldt said:
Some of the leaves I'm getting are just gorgeous, wow.
Patterns, colors, and the texture in particular. Velvety.

Sorry for the picture quality, it was actually late dusk with no flash.

That is Calathea warscewiczii, not a maranta so forget everything I said.
But that is an easier calathea. I never started a calathea from cuttings in water and read it is either division or seeds. I have divided similar calatheas before and it is easy to do. I do grow this one.