Propagating Succulents and Mixing Growing Medium

Sedums are amazing plants. They are very hardly and thrive on neglect, great plants for people with busy lives.

In this instructable, I'll show you how to mix your own growing medium with materials diverted from the waste stream and propagate plants via cloning.

Step 1: Materials and Tools Needed

* Soil
* Pots
* Broken terra cotta pots (please don't break usable ones...just a bit of searching and I'll bet you can find some already broken)
* Hammer
* A few sedum
* Tarp

Safety Equipment

* Gloves
* Glasses
* Something to protect your floor from hammering, I used an old cutting board and carpet
* An old towel

Step 2: Crush the Terra Cotta

Use your hammer and go to town. I found that covering the terra cotta with a towel prevented sharp bit of clay flying around. This process takes longer than you may think. I was shooting for gravel size pieces, but we had to quit due to tired arms before we got there.

Why terra cotta? My neighbor has a large broken pot in his yard, so it was available. I'm sure there are other options, I'd love to hear what you used in the comment section.

Step 3: Mix Soil and Crushed Terra Cotta

You can use up to 75% crushed terra cotta. Sedums are adapted to growing in soils with high inorganic content.

I found an easy way to do this is to pick up the tarp between two people and roll the medium back and forth.

Step 4: Fill Your Pots With the Growing Medium

Step 5: Cloning Sedum

The is very much easier than it sounds. Remove a stem from the main plant. Be as gentle as is practicable. If you can bring along part of the root system then it will establish itself faster. Put part of the stem beneath soil and the other part with foliage above ground. You've done it!