Pilea peperomioides is also known as ‘Friendship Plant or ‘Pass along Plant’ because it is easy to propagate. It is native to China’s Yunnan and Hunan provinces and commonly propagated as a bountiful decorative plant.
The deep-green brilliant glossy circular foliage makes it attractive and desirable to the eyes. Propagating this beautiful plant is essential to maintain its fragile charming appearance and have as many pots as possible; you should plant to repot them once every two years.
I particularly enjoy propagating Chinese Money Plants because they’re so friendly and non-noxious to humans and animal pets alike. You can also place them anywhere: in the sitting room, bedroom, or kitchen table.
Propagating a Chinese Money Plant
They’re best propagated from stem cuttings rooted in water or a soil-based Potting mix. Chinese Money Plants are also commonly propagated by rooting the newborn pups, a method I find particularly easy for newbie propagators.
Let’s get into the details of growing them in your home and office areas.
Propagating Chinese Money Plants from Stem Cuttings
Make a target to propagate your Money Plants between early spring and mid-summer; since they’re known to be fast growers, your chances of success are higher in these growing seasons.
Stem Cuttings are the best to guarantee higher chances of success. Fresh cuttings can be made from any healthy stem with mature leaves.
Make clean cuts of the stem at a point as close to the lower parts of the plant as possible. Each cutting should be at least 3 inches long with two or three leaves attached; you can aim for the point just below the leaf nodes to make your cuttings.
Longer stems can also be cut into shorter cuttings bearing their leaves. Now place the cuttings on a warm, dry surface and allow them to heal for a few hours. Once properly calloused, they can be rooted in a water glass jar or a soil mix potting.
Rooting your Chinese Money Plant Cuttings in Water
You can root the healed cuttings in water, which is the faster and easier way to go; once the cuttings begin to grow new tender roots, you can easily transplant them in a small pot using your enriched organic fast-draining Soil Mix.
First, pour water into the transparent glass jar to a depth of 3-4 inches, then place the cuttings in the jar and set it beside a window where it gets much Indirect sunlight.
Everything should go smoothly afterward, and your cuttings will grow new roots within 7-10 days.
Rooting Chinese Money Plant Cuttings in a Potting Mix
This is also an easy, more direct, and popular method of propagating the Chinese Money plants. Many experienced and newbie propagators prefer rooting by this method because it eliminates the obligation for transplanting.
Just prepare your Potting medium by pouring some of the soil mixes into the pot and making several 1-inch deep holes on the surface.
If you prefer to apply a rooting hormone on the cuttings for better results, now’s the time. Dip the calloused tips of the cuttings first in clean water and then in the rooting powder before planting.
Now insert the cuttings into the holes and fill up the open spaces with more soil mix to improve the rigidity and strength of the plants.
It would be best if you watered the pot after a few hours of planting for the first time, ensuring that the excess water drains out completely after watering. To improve the aeration and drainage of the pot, make shallow holes on the sides and bottom.
After a week or two, you can expect to start seeing new foliage and roots growing on the cuttings.
Propagating Chinese Money Plants by Growing Pups
Chinese Money Plants develop offsets on their stems, known as pups or plantlets, which can be propagated into new plants.
Pups grow faster with little effort when propagated because they’re the vegetative parts of a mature plant that only require some soil and nurturing to grow roots and become a new plant.
Once you identify pups developing on an old stem with healthy leaves, nip it off with a clean, sharp knife or gardening scissors from the node where it attaches to the older plant. This can now be rooted in water or a soil mix potting just as you would a stem cutting.
Pups can also be propagated from the roots of older Money Plants. Once the plant looks leggy, it’s an opportunity to nip off some root or stem pups and grow them in a new soil mix potting.
To propagate money plants from root pups, remove the leggy plant from its pot and dust off the specks of dirt; then, nip off the leggy roots with their leaves fully attached and grow them in a new soil mix potting.
Best Potting Mix to Propagate Chinese Money Plants
Chinese Money Plants can be propagated in a commercially available commercial cactus potting or succulent soil mix. They thrive well in a richly organic soil mix with good drainage and proper aeration.
Please prepare your enriched Soil Mix Potting for the money plants and avoid using regular garden soil. A perfect soil mix for their propagation would be purely organic, with a blend of coir fiber or peat moss and Perlite forming a perfect balance.
Sunlight Requirements for your Money Plants
I’ve come to observe, over the years, how brightly their deep green foliage radiates whenever there’s more than adequate exposure to bright sunshine for up to six hours daily; this especially applies to their growing seasons.
A Southern or Eastern window frame is the ideal place to position the Money Plant pots for optimum growth and development. It’s best to propagate your new pots under indirect sunlight for the first few months before graduating to a few hours of direct sunlight once or twice a week.
You should keep a close eye on their behavior to the sunshine brilliance and ensure it’s not causing any injuries to the tender leaves. You’ll know when the sunlight brightness is hurting the plant whenever there are observable sunburns on the leaves.
Watering your Pilea Money Plants
Chinese Money Plants don’t do so well in an overly humid environment because when the water saturation is higher for an extended period, they tend to suffer leaf and root rots. Always ensure they’re kept in a mildly damp, always warm environment for best results.
Watering once a week is more than sufficient during their growing season, and they require much less watering when it’s winter and they start to hibernate. You should only water them every two weeks during winter, preferably early in the morning before sunrise or late at night after 10:00 pm.
A great indicator of when to water them is to keep an eye on their potting soil conditions. I always watch the topsoil layer for any signs of absolute dryness, and I know it’s time for another watering session when I observe the topsoil is dry and crumbly.
Chinese Money plants are not selective of any particular watering technique; you can water them by spraying, misting, bottom watering or whatever means is comfortable with you; as long as they get their usual water requirements, they’ll be happy to keep bringing good luck into your home.
The Chinese Money plant is a great inspiration for attracting wealth and prosperity into one’s home. One’s prosperity and wealth on the outside begin from the inside, and having this awesome historic species always potted within your view is a great path towards sustaining inner clarity and serenity, especially when you’re lucky enough to get seven leaves on a stem.
A well-propagated Chinese Money plant can grow up to 30cm (12 inches) indoors and can be easily maintained for up to the next ten years. Historically speaking, the oldest Chinese Money plant is known to have survived more than twenty years.