My son got me an Echeveria plant for my Birthday...



It has several offshoots/babies attached. I have read websites on what to do with the offshoots, but am lost. It says to cut, lets sit for a couple of days, then plant. Where exactly am I cutting? Near the base of the plant or at the base of the stem ? (near the main root).
Right now, I re-potted the plant into a larger pot. (talk about pot bound). If the plant survives, I can either start cutting when it settles down, (if I know where to cut), or wait 'til I re-pot again at a later time. Plant hopefully has room to grow now.

There is absolutely no rush to remove the offsets. I would wait a couple of months or more.

When you do remove them, draw an imaginary line in your head from the center of each offset to the center of the main rosette. You are going to cut along that line. Aim for a spot about half an inch in from the offset, meaning that the cutting will have about that much naked stem below the leaves. Usually you have to kind of spread or lift the leaves of the mother plant to see where you're cutting. I would use fine scissors, like nail scissors, which will fit better into narrow spaces.

Thank you. That helps.

Once you have made the cut . Set the cutting is dry place to let the callous (where the stem area where you cut heals over ) you can usually see / feel that it has gone hard , you can then pot up your little offset the cutting should have a bit of stem that will sit in the soil . Now at this point people take different approaches . Some give a little water to encourage new root growth . Others wait until roots are formed before they add any water . You can check a cutting is rooting by gently pushing up on one of the base leaves , if the whole plant flexes , there are no roots . You will feel resistance as the cutting starts to root . At the early stages you do not need to be drowning the soil there are no roots to take up the water and a very wet soil causes succulents to rot . The pot should have drain holes and the soil should be gritty and fast draining for the best chance of success . When you are ready to do it check back in and we can talk you through it. echies are not hard to root . Better to do it in the growing season 👍

Should I use a Rooting Hormone Powder on the cut? Before or after the callous forms?

It's not necessary and may not even make much of a difference.

Milford69 said: Should I use a Rooting Hormone Powder on the cut? Before or after the callous forms?

It can depend on the product , most say right after the cut . But I have used ir after the calloused stage . I do wonder sometimes whether ir makes very much difference at all. I have had plants in rooting gel take a lifetime to root whilst others have rooted straight away using nothing at all . I find echies always root very easily in the growing season . I once beheaded a plant and threw a bunch of leaves in rhe compost behind my shed , leaves were mixed into the soil there was very little light , well you guessed I am sure when i went back to the compost weeks later it was like and echie farm with dozens of babies forming from the leave bases in all directions.
As long as you get the soil , temp , watering and light in the right area the plants will root . I would be more surprised if they didn't. Another key point is not to bury base leaves into the soil , these will catch and hold water and potentially lead to rot .

Baja_Costero said: It's not necessary and may not even make much of a difference.

😂 a lesson in concise vs long winded answers to say the same thing 👍
Steve

I guess we can forget about this plant. It died in 2 days. Found a website that said it needed 6 hrs. of direct sunlight. So we put it in the sun. Started to look sick. Then moved it to the shade and watered it a little. Wife pulled out the offsets. Plant ended up looking like it was shriveled up. Offsets had roots so we planted them, but a couple of days later, kaput for all of them.

We've all had experiences like that. So sorry!

In the future, know that any plant that isn't already used to a lot of sun will burn if suddenly moved to a sunny spot. If you start with the first or last hour of sun per day, then move a plant gradually, like adding 30-60 more minutes per week, a lot of them can acclimate. I would aim for the first half of the day eventually, or last half if that's the only option. But not a lot of middle of the day exposure, in any case.