Best Way to Grow Begonia using Leaf Cutting

For detailed step by step direction

please check on my link below on getting the stuff ready:

How to Grow Rex Begonia

Instead of using the whole root ball,

You can use the leaf cutting and poke in between the mop wick medium.
It will take about a month for the leaf to sprout out new plant-let.
Sometimes, the leaf might rot or dried off - the ones that don't grows.

What I want to mention is the countless trials and error of planting them using cocopeat, perlite, rooting in water and a few others - all but failed except this one.

Don't get me wrong, They appear to grow but for some reason the transition between the propagating medium and the replanting them to a soil medium however proof fatal for most specimen.

I almost gave up until I was introduced to this idea.
This is the proof of the pudding - sort of to say on the timeline of progress of success:

BEGONIA  RHIZOME CULTIVATION & GROWTH PROGRESS:

This is the timeline of my begonia experiment with mop wick with leaf propagation.

I had notice that the hardy ones then to grow really well compared to the sensitive ones.

Here, you will notice the growth of the Begonia Rex dormant Rhizome
and how it had stabilize and grown to maturity.

Unlike in the basket,

this one is placed on a cement brick with a slab resting above the water container with the mop wick extended inside it.

I notice the leaves tend to grow bigger at every new leaf sprout.

I had never seen such stable progress with Rex Begonias grown in soil medium as this.
Normally, I face them going dormant or dead after few weeks.

The set back is they are sensitive to disturbance.

I had once had a trouble when a rodent disturbed this mop wick set up
and the plant showed sign of distress.
Some of the growing foliage were knocked off
and did not recover even though the roots were fully formed.

Another important Note:
The Mop Wick is to be considered as a permanent medium,
not to be transferred back to any other medium
or the plant goes through shock, dormancy or death.

I thought that this was a in between transition
for the begonia to stabilize, grow and to be replanted.
I took out the rhizome from the mop wick and
planted in a soil medium - it had a slow death:
It started to loose its leaves and went through shock and the rhizome dead.

I found while washing and cleaning the mop wick
- it was full of root fibers all over entwined between the wick fiber.
Sort of they had incorporated together into one root-ball.

So it is important that they must be placed in a location that nothing disturbs their growth progress.

BEGONIA  LEAF CULTIVATION & GROWTH PROGRESS:

As I had mentioned earlier that I had removed the plant and replanted in a soil medium but the begonia succumb to slow death. However I started a new experiment in using leaf cuttings and this was the results:

BEGONIA  LEAF CULTIVATION & GROWTH UPDATES:

I had reset and redone this all over again as I noticed the mop-wick started to fall under it's own weight without any basket to hold them. This was a big challenge as new cuttings and leaf were fragile and it had start falling off from the mop-wick and some didn't fair well & succumbed to rot.

After redoing it - they seemed to be very stable and had observed some good progress in growth.

Here, I used a plastic basket to hold the mop wick.

Also, you will note the new plant-let growth progress shown here:

Here it's a new set-up where it does a fairly balanced indirect sunlight in this spot.

I had used an aquarium as my water reservoir with guppies to make sure there is no mosquito infestation.

The mop wick is actually on a tray with slight openings where I can push in the mop-wick through them to have a good water flow from top to bottom. I needed to check on this few days to see whether the leaves are well hydrated. You will know by touching the leaves to determine the firmness of the leaves. If it is too soft or floppy - it means not enough water circulation around the mop-wick system.

I also had added Episcia in this experiment and found that they too are compatible and fair well in this set-up.

These are the new growth formation of plant-lets appearing from the leaf cuttings.

It took about few months and so it does requires patience to see any of this progress.

I had also removed the dried / dead leaf cuttings when rot appears.

I had noted that Begonia Chivalry seemed to be very successful in growth in this mention.

However Begonia 'Jive' didn't have the same respond - most of the leaves had succumb to rot.

I had redone this again so that I can maximize the space and have more condensed mop-wick.

I wanted to show how this works over time (few months) How it is so practical and easy for propagation.

Begonia Common Names and Images

Here is the link where I had put together a list of all the begonias that I had come across. A database of all the different types & their characteristics. Please click on the link on the title above for the post.