# Propagating Crinum calamistratum



## Forever-mango (Apr 21, 2008)

I have written up an article teaching members how to propagate on an Australian Plant forum, and 
thought of sharing my experiences here as well. The article was written on the *30th March, 2011*.

I have been experimenting of my Crinum calamistratum and i think i found a way to propagate them.
It is basically very similar to propagating onions.

The bulbs of both the Crinum and the Onions (the ones we eat) is very similar. They consists of scale
like structures which are formed by the leaves. If you cut open an onion you will see layers of flesh, 
these are called scales. Basically when trying to propagate the onion bulb you can cut the onion into 
quarters and new plant-lets will form, but instead of cutting the bulb of the crinum, you cut the leaf 
off, making sure you cut most of it off. Once cut you should only have a thin piece of layer on the bulb.
Eventually the layer will melt towards the base, and a new plant will form. Tried this out 3 times with 
100% success. Make sure you do this on larger bulbs approx 2cm thick. All my baby plants are still small
, so havent removed them yet. Here are some pics.

Removed 3 leaves around 3 weeks ago (6th Feb, 2011), now got 3 new babies coming out between the
old leave scale and the bulb.









The 3 babies 









*Now the updated results (27th May, 2011)*

This specific Crinum calamistratum (#1) now has 7 pups growing, the largest one has a bulb size around
6mm and growing plenty of roots. I insert 5 or so fert tablets every 3 months to give them the extra
nutrients and ferts, seems to be helping them alot!




























*Another update done this morning (30th May, 2011)*

While doing a daily scouting around the tank, i noticed randomly around 2inchs infront of my youngest Crinum calamistratum,
was a baby plant look alike. After hands on inspection, its confirmed it was a baby Crinum calamistratum. I noticed the bulb
of that specific Crinum was buried too deep, so i decided to lift it higher, and next thing i noticed was the pup was attached
to it. This Crinum calamistratum was originally purchased from kingfisher on this forum and the bulb hasn't grown much. The
bulb is around 13mm wide and 3.5cm tall. Its a small plant compared to the other larger plants in my tank, and for it to throw
me babies is surprising. I have previously removed a couple of leaves, but never noticed if it grew pups or not because the bulb
was buried very deep. Now its currently got a 10cm tall pup with a smaller one emerging 

Mum, smaller baby and larger pup 









Side view









Front view









Sorry about the messy layout, hope you can understand it.

Cheers
Stephen


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## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

kool, i wil defenitly try that!


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## pepetj (Oct 2, 2008)

Thank you for that!

Pepetj
Santo Domingo


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## Forever-mango (Apr 21, 2008)

Tonight was the most exciting of all. I decided to uproot my main crinum. Some pics before the results:





































And the new additions to my Garden of Swiggles...





































4 large healthy pups 

Trying to replant the mother plant...will update tank photos later 

Stephen


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## 2ManyHobbies (Sep 11, 2007)

That is interesting. I have had my calimistratum loose numerous leaves but never got any plants out of them. I have even had it flower twice. Maybe I need to purposely cut the plants down below and see what happens. Thanks for sharing!


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## m00se (Jan 18, 2011)

Hoping to resurrect this thread somewhat.... I was gifted one of these beautiful plants and I don't know anything about it yet but I google and come to this old thread. I trimmed down the leaves and stuck it in the substrate with osmocote plus caps underneath it. Unfortunately the pictures here have disappeared so I don't know what the heck the OP did to get the plant to propagate. I read that he slit the membrane of the leftover leaf and it grew new pups from there. If anyone else who might have done this could elaborate on it a bit I would be most grateful. 

Thanks!


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## Speed (Dec 24, 2013)

Pictures not showing!!


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## CrazyForPlants (Oct 28, 2014)

Speed said:


> Pictures not showing!!


Same for me! I am new on here so I am still trying to get the hang of it. But I have one crinum calamistratum and it is currently growing a new plantlet! I got it about a month ago. So that is good growth for that small of a time. I use florite for substrate, if that helps anyone. All my other plants do great with the florite. Thanks


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