Alocasia Polly Propagation Step Wise Guidance

Today, you are going to know all about Alocasia Polly Propagation.

After studying this complete blog, we are very confident that you are going to teach your friends or colleague how to do proper propagation of Alocasia Polly.

Before doing the propagation of my own, Alocasia Polly plant I have studied books, different gardening websites, many video blogs about the propagation of this beautiful African mask plant, but believe me, doing my own and reading or viewing video is different.

Many important small things that are very important in the propagation are missing everywhere, so I wrote a step-by-step guide for Alocasia Polly Propagation.

The Latin name of Alocasia Polly is African Mask plants.

Why We Need To propagate African Mask plants

There are two reasons to propagate African Mask plants:

Need for new plant
Making Space to grow roots

Need for new plant

The need for the new plant is a very important reason to propagate the Alocasia Polly. It is a very popular plant.

The look of the plant will attract people and sometimes we feel why not to grow one more plant with this thinking we do propagation of Alocasia Polly.

The market price of Alocasia Polly is between $80 to $150, depending on the place and country we are leaving and the common thing comes in our mind why to spend money if we can do this easily at our home only.

The plant is the best gift for your family and friends and if you are going to gift a special plant, Alocasia Polly, this will create a very special feeling and it will make that event memorable for a lifetime.

Making Space to grow roots

When we grow Alocasia Polly in the pot, after one to two years entire pot will fill with roots of the plant because when our plant is mature, then every year new baby plant will come out from the root zone.

So after some time, we need to separate the baby plant from the mother plant and make space available in the pot to grow roots.

When a plant is young, it requires more nutrients and space to grow, so this is very essential to keep separating young baby plants in new pots and giving them a proper environment to grow and develop.

Now let’s understand what will happen if we do not separate the baby plant in the new pot and regrow it in a new pot.

The first problem that you will face is roots will get filled in the pot and they will start coming out of the drainage hole. Below we have attached one photo to make you understand this.

If we will not propagate African Mask plants, proper time interval it will become dense, roots will fill the pot, growth of the plant will become slow, the water requirement of the plant will increase, slowly leaves will start getting yellow this will warn for propagating them separating them in different pots or it will start wilting if it will reach the stage of permanent wilting point then it will be tough to recover that plant.

Before starting the propagation of Alocasia Polly, there are two important things that we should notice and most of us ignore them.

Soil Requirement
Condition of the mother plant

Soil Requirement

Soil is a very important factor for the growth and development of the plant, no matter how carefully we have done the propagation of Alocasia Polly if the condition of the soil where we are going to grow the baby plant is not good according to the need of the beautiful baby plant it will not survive so soil plays a very crucial role in the propagation of African Mask plant.

The origin place of the African Mask plant is the rainforest, and it grows there naturally because it gets proper environmental conditions and soil conditions to grow and propagate,

I’m not saying you go rain forest dug the soil and fill your pot for proper propagation of African Mask plant, don’t do that.

I am just trying to make you understand that if we will provide proper soil conditions, then our propagation process of the African Mask plant will be easy. Failure chances will decrease.

We will suggest using soil that is rich in organic matter. Water holding capacity should be medium, water should drain easily.

Because the water-logging condition is dangerous for the new growing roots of the baby plants.

We will not suggest using any chemical fertilizer in the initial stage of the plant, just organic fertilizer is enough for the requirement of a new baby plant.

If you want to know the details about the Soil Requirement of Alocasia Polly, you can check the Alocasia Polly Care Guide blog.

Condition of the mother plant

Propagation of Alocasia Polly is not complicated, but we need to understand the way how to do it in many videos and another blog they are saying or sowing that how they have propagated their Alocasia Polly plant by stem cutting but believe me it is wrong and miss-guidance to innocent plant lovers why I’m saying this because Alocasia Polly has only one main rhizome or we can also say it as central rhizome it is very important because the whole plant is connected with that mother plant new baby plant everything.

The only way to propagate Alocasia Polly is root division. So the mother plant we are selecting should be healthy and mature.

We will not suggest using a plant with any type of disease or disorder because we are going to follow the way of propagation this is known as asexual propagation in that the baby plant is completely identical to the mother plant, so there are chances to transfer diseases and disorder from the mother plant to baby plant.

Different Methods Of Alocasia Polly Propagation

Alocasia Propagation by tissue culture
Alocasia Propagation by Root Division

African Mask plant propagation by tissue culture

It is not very common to propagate Alocasia Polly with the tissue culture method, but I am sharing this because it is important to gain knowledge about your favourite plant.

Because of the increasing demand for Alocasia Polly, many big nurseries and farms had started the propagation of Alocasia Polly in the tissue culture lab.

We can’t do this because it requires controlled environmental conditions with very trained scientists. Below, we have attached some pictures of Alocasia Polly in the tissue culture lab.

Tissue culture doesn’t need any mother plant. Any cell of the plant is enough to grow the full plant in the first image A shows how the plant is grown from a cell in the laboratory and B shows how it is growing in natural conditions.

And the second image shows different stages of the plant growing in the tissue culture laboratory.

Alocasia Propagation by Root Division

The most common method followed by all Alocasia Polly growers is all over the world. We are going to guide you step by step on how to propagate Alocasia Polly.

We will suggest plant lovers collect all essential items before starting the process to propagate African Mask plants. Below, we are going to list all the required things to make it easy.

Take the healthy mature plant
Organic fertilizer
Gloves
Sharp scissors/shears or knife
Extra Pot
Water
Old Newspaper or any plastic sheet
Soil

The reason behind listing these things

We need mature plants because only adult Alocasia plants can grow bulbs on their root system, and it is important for the propagation process.
If we want fast growth and development of the plant, organic fertilizer is very important. We will not recommend chemical fertilizer for baby plants.
We will always suggest to all my readers to always use thick rubber globes. It will protect you from any type of injury that can happen during cutting the roots or breaking soil hard clumps. We do not recommend surgical gloves and thin rubber gloves.
Sharp scissors/shears or knives are required to divide the roots and separate baby bulbs from the mother bulb.
Extra pot is required to grow baby Alocasia in the new pot, you can use a small or medium-sized pot.
We will suggest if you are going to grow for yourself only then use a medium-size pot. It is not good practice to transplant the Alocasia during growth share, but if you are thinking to share this with your love once, then use a small size pot it will be easy in transportation.
water will be required at every stage for washing hands or washing mud from bulbs, so keep it close with you.
Old newspapers or any plastic sheet are very much required if you are going to do the entire process of Alocasia Polly Propagation in your home. It will protect your floor from getting dirty.
Without soil, we can’t think of propagating Alocasia Polly, inspect the soil before using it. We should remove all impurities from the soil before using it.

Steps Of Alocasia Polly Propagation

Step1st:- Collecting All important things that are required in Propagation, Like soil, knives, gloves, soil, etc.
Step2nd:- Carefully take out the plant from the pot.
Step3rd:- Identify Roots of the plant and check rhizome.
Step4th:- Trim Extra roots.
Step5th:- Separate the rhizome.
Step6th:- Grow the plant in the new pot.
Step7th:- Add soil and organic fertilizer.
Step8th:- Maintain The plant.

Let’s know all the steps with details. This will help the grower.

Step 1st:- Collecting All important things:-

This is important to keep the things that are required in the process of propagation because during the process going to collect the things one by one when it is required will divert the mind and diverted mind can do mistakes and our whole hard work can spoil.

So we will suggest keeping things close to you. It will help you in the propagation process.

Step 2nd:- Carefully take out the plant from the pot:-

Carefully taking out the plant from the pot is important because in this step many growers do mistakes.

They damage the main stem or roots of the plant. genteelly hold the plant and pull it outside of the pot.

If the plant is mature enough and root bounded, then it will be very easy to take it out of the pot. It will come completely out with the roots.

Step 3rd:- Identify Roots of the plant:-

When we take out the plant with the pot, we see roots that are completely bound with soil. From them, we need to identify the major root of the plant.

After separating all the soil from the roots of the plant, we can see the rhizome in the middle of the roots.

We will suggest growers do it genteelly don’t be in a hurry to remove soil from the roots. It can damage the major roots of the plant. Do it with a soft hand.

Don’t give pressure on the plant, if required, pour water on the bound soil. It will become loose, then identify roots.

Step 4th:- Trim Extra roots:-

After removing the soil from the root zone of the plant, we suggest you cut all the extra root hairs of the plant.

Keep in the mind you have to remove extra root hairs not cut or damage any major roots.

Keep yourself calm during doing this. Do it carefully when we cut the root hairs. New roots will grow fast and it will not affect the growth and development of your plant.

The plant always generates root hairs and after some interval, old roots will dry or stop working.

New root hairs will grow, so it is very important to trim root hairs when you take out your plant from the pot, and this will make it easy for you to identify major roots and rhizomes.

Step 5th:- Separate the Plant:-

This is the most important process. After removing all extra root hairs and soil, you can easily identify from where we need to separate the mother plant and baby plant.

We suggest you do the entire process of Alocasia Polly Propagation with your hand.

Use rubber gloves, because Alocasia Polly is a very delegated plant. A minor mistake can also damage the plant.

You can use Sharp scissors/shears or knives to separate the roots if required. Do a complete process with a soft hand don’t damage the major roots of the plant.

Step 6th:- Grow the plant:-

Hare, we have two different options

keep the baby Alocasia Polly plant in fresh water and wait for rooting.
Directly grow Alocasia Polly in the soil.

When users ask about our experience, I will suggest growing directly in the soil because there are chances that the plant will not survive in the water because of water PH or any other water-related issue.

But in soil, there is over a 90% chance of survival.

Mix the soil and organic fertilizer in equal portions before filling it in the pot.

Make sure that drainage holes are there or not, if it is not there or blocked with anything open it and keep one solid object at the hole that it should not block the water or not allow the soil to block the hole of drainage because young alocasia Polly plant cannot survive in waterlogged condition roots will start toting and this is dangerous so it is important to keep eyes on these small things.

Step 7th:- Add soil and organic fertilizer:-

Adding soil and organic fertilizer is very important for the growth and development of the baby Alocasia Polly plant.

We will suggest making a base layer of organic fertilizer, then adding a mixture of soil and fertilizer, because organic fertilizer release nutrient very slow this will help plants get nutrients when require in the growth stage.

We have heard many times with plant lovers about the problem of leaf burning and roots burning in the young stage, and the common reason behind this is a reaction of chemical fertilizer we can easily stop it by using organic fertilizer because we don’t face any problem of leaf burn and root burn after we started using organic fertilizer.

Put plant gently in the pot without disturbing or breaking the roots or leaves of the plant, always place your plant in the centre of the pot.

Step 8th:- Maintain The plant:-

We will suggest protecting your plant from direct sunlight, but indirect sunlight is required for the growth and development of the plant, before watering the plant, we suggest checking the moisture content of the soil irrigate only when soil is totally dry, over-watering is dangerous for the growth of the roots, there are chances of root rot with over-watering and the plant can die.

After some time, you can see your Alocasia Polly plant growing normally and by seeing this, you will surely feel happy to see the result of your efforts as growing Alocasia Polly.

Now we will Answer of Common Question Asked By Our Regular readers

1. Can you propagate Alocasia Polly into the water?

Alocasia Polly is moisture is a loving plant. It loves to grow in moist conditions. The origin of the Alocasia Polly is in the rainforest, But it can’t tolerate waterlogged condition roots of the plant will start sowing root-rot condition, you can wash the plant with water and keep it for sometime after separating baby Alocasia Polly from mother plant but keeping it and growing it permanent in water is not possible, it will not survive.

2. How do you take a cutting from Alocasia?

There is no use of cutting in Alocasia Polly, we can’t propagate Alocasia Polly with the cutting the reason behind this is the plant with rhizome don’t grow with stem or leaves cutting for that we have to grow it from root cutting and in the blog; we have described root cutting stepwise.

3. what is the best time for African Mask Plant Propagation?

For all the variety of African Mask plant, we will suggest propagating it in the month of spring because in this environmental condition plant will grow well, never propagate African Mask plant in winter because the time plant will be in dormant condition and there are more chances of failure in this condition.

4. Can we use chemical hormones in the process of propagation?

Yes, we will suggest plant growers use rooting hormone to increase the success rate in the propagation of African Mask Plant, hormones that can be used in the African Mask Plant propagation are Indole Butyric Acid (IBA), Indole Acetic Acid (IAA), Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA).

5. It is required to clean tools before propagation?

Yes, clean the tools that you are using in the process of propagation.

This will decrease the chance of infection in the plant because we use the same tools and through that, tools viral and bacterial disease can spread through the plant to plant.

6. Why can’t see new roots in my African Mask Plant?

Don’t take tens about this, it is very normal when the new plant will separate from the mother plant.

It will take time to adjust to a new type of soil. After some time, it will be normal.

7. Why leaves of my African Mask Plant is getting yellow?

There can be many reasons behind leaves getting yellow. It can be a reaction to chemical fertilizer, so we always suggest using organic fertilizer.

Sometimes it happens because over-watering roots will start rotting, and leaves will become yellow. Another reason for getting yellow leaves in direct sunlight.

It is a very common reason we always suggest protecting your African Mask Plant from direct sunlight. It only requires indirect sunlight.

Thanks for your time and attention. We have written this blog on our growing experience of African Mask Plant. you can read details about the Alocasia Polly Care guide. Please comment on your queries and your review of this blog.

I took help from different websites to understand proper propagation details thanks to all of them 1. plantcelltechnology 2nd ncert