How To Propagate Caladium. The Best Method

Learning how to propagate caladium is straightforward, and the best method to do so is by division. You can also consider growing in the greenhouse to ensure that the divisions will establish faster and ready for transplanting later on. While division puts you at a headstart compared to other propagation methods, it’s still crucial to place the plant in a stable growing environment to help them grow vigorous. 

The list of caladium cultivars is also extensive so that you can choose your region’s appropriate one. And since these plants are fast-growing, one can assume that propagating them from division will be fuss-free. Caladiums also tend to mature in only one season, which means propagating these plants will be fast. 

How To Propagate Caladium. The Best Method

 

How To Propagate Caladium For Beginners

 

Dividing caladium

The best method for propagating caladium is by division. This also works as a maintenance practice to keep your plants in the garden looking neat. More so, dividing caladiums ensures that you’ll get copies of your favorite plant using its tubers. 

However, you want to practice precaution in propagating caladiums because they can cause poisoning and reactions upon contact or ingestion. You also want to check and disinfect all the tools you’ll need before and after using them. Soaking your gardening tools for half an hour in a diluted bleach solution is highly recommended before rinsing them. 

 

Overwintering caladium tubers

Before anything else, it’s essential to clarify a common mistake with terminologies used by various guides. When one says overwintering caladium bulbs, it refers to caladium tubers. In fact, the correct term should be tubers, and they are what you’ll divide for propagation. 

The best time to do so is in spring, but overwintering tubers are common, especially in cold regions. Remember that caladiums struggle in cold climates, so it’s better to dig the tubers, divide them, and store in the greenhouse. They will stay in the greenhouse temperature between 70 to 75°F somewhere dry until planting in spring.  

 

Digging caladium

How does one dig a caladium plant? Much like in dividing other plants, you want to dig around the plant’s perimeter to make the lifting more comfortable. You can loosen the area with a spade and lift the tubers from the soil. 

Remove the soil and damaged parts such as foliage, tubers, and buds, to prevent them from spreading to the healthy divisions. Some gardeners also treat the tubers with a fungicide before storage as a precautionary measure. It would be best if you also dusted them off before planting.  

 

Replanting caladium

Before planting the divisions, you want to cut and lift out the bigger central bud of a tuber. This technique will lead to a fuller and bushier plant because the remaining smaller buds will create more shoots. And as mentioned previously, you only want to plant healthy tubers and discard those with damages and signs of diseases. 

You can plant the divisions in fertile, moist, well-draining, and acidic soil in the greenhouse to ensure that they won’t get exposed to direct sunlight. A maximum of six hours a day would be best to help the plants establish themselves. But if you’re outdoors, check the soil’s warmth because caladiums will thrive between 60 to 70°F, which is around spring.  

A space of 12 inches among them at a depth of two inches is expected for planting caladium tubers with their eye buds facing up. You also want to check the soil’s quality and use a slow-release fertilizer for the first six months of the growing season. Lastly, ensure soil moisture to help the plants grow, but be careful not to overwater and encourage fungal growth. 

 

Caring For Caladium

It’s not enough to study the best propagation method for caladiums. You also have to educate yourself on the plant’s ideal conditions and requirements to keep it healthy and avoid diseases. As you can assume, the two maintenance practices that influence caladiums are watering and fertilizing. 

While you don’t want to overwater caladiums, they will require a moist medium, and you can do this by mulching and using a good medium itself. If your area is dry and hot, you want to water them more than the recommended weekly. This is also applicable to container caladiums because they take up water much quicker than those that aren’t in containers. 

How do you fertilize caladiums? Fertilizing caladiums is essential for the production of good tubers for the next season. They will benefit from a 5-10-10 fertilizer every four to six weeks during the growing season, and some gardeners also feed with high potassium and phosphorus in summer along with watering. 

 

Conclusion

With proper caution, caladiums are one of the best plants to propagate and multiply in the garden. Learning how to propagate caladium involves mastering the best method, which is dividing the plant’s tubers. You can dig the tubers and overwinter them for replanting in spring. 

The greenhouse makes a perfect space for storing the tubers during winter or starting them in spring if your outdoor soil still hasn’t warmed up. In general, it’s relatively easy to divide the tubers and help them establish themselves in a stable and ideal environment. Perhaps your most significant problem to avoid is fungal growth from infected tubers or overwatering. 

 

Leave a Comment