How to Propagate Ficus Benjamina Part 4: Success!

I know it's been almost two years since I've posted here and who knows when I'll be posting next, but I thought I'd share how this guy was doing.Not too shabby, huh? He's about 3' tall now and doing fine. The plan is to just let him do his thing and see what happens.

Here are links to the complete "How to Propagate Ficus Benjamina with Water Rooting" saga:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

It's really easy, all it takes is a little patience, some sunlight and basic houseplant stuff. It's a great thing to do with kids too, shows them how plants grow. Might not be as fast as a potato, but it lasts a lot longer and is more satisfying in the end. Heh.

How to Propagate Ficus Benjamina: Part 3

This is it, putting the cutting in soil. After this it's just maintenance, water, food, all that.

So here's the cutting that I took about three months ago. Good roots, it's ready to go. Just fill a starter pot ~1/3 full of soil. Put the cutting down carefully, try to get the roots as evenly spread out as possible. Now carefully cover it with more soil, water it well and put it in bright indirect sun. You won't need to water it much for the first few months (over watering leads to root rot, repeat as needed for emphasis), it takes a while to get a good root system, but keep an eye on it and don't let it dry out all the way.

And that's that. Now bear in mind, ficus benjamina doesn't grow very quickly indoors. I have a small tree that I started a couple years ago that is still only ~1 1/2 feet high, so don't expect anything too drastic. I've found they tend to grow in spurts, putting out a few new branches/leaves all at once, then going dormant for a couple weeks, then doing it again.

Here are the other ficus benjamina propagation post:

How to Propagate Ficus Benjamina: Part 1

How to Propagate Ficus Benjamina: Part 2

How to Propagate Ficus Benjamina: Part 2

Just a quick update: Roots! Yes, it took a long time to get this far, but if I had kept it in a warmer, more humid environment it would have gone much faster. Probably about half the time. Putting cuttings in a humidity tent isn't a bad idea, although you have to keep an eye on them to make sure it's not too humid and they get moldy.

But, we're halfway to getting the cutting in a pot, so that's good. This is what it looks like when they first start coming out. At this point you need to be very careful when you change the water, the roots are very delicate and can be broken off even by pouring water over them.

See part one in How to Propagate Ficus Benjamina.