Hello! Thank you for being here today. You’re here because you have a snake plant that needs to be divided and you’re not quite sure how to do it. Dividing snake plants is super easy. I’m going to show you, step by step, how to divide Sansevieria. With just a few things (you probably have laying around the house), you’ll be well on your way to propagating the easy way!
*UPDATE – Sometime between 2020-2022 the Sansevieria plant (a.k.a Snake Plant) was scientifically renamed as Dracaena in the Asparagaceae family.
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You’ll need:
-A snake plant
-A sharp clean knife
-A pot
-Potting soil (I use a cactus mix for my snakes)
-A hard surface
I’m using a “Bantel’s Sensation” Dracaena. As you can see, it has two pups attached. Now, there are different times and reasons to divide your plant. Ideally, you would wait for them to be about 4-6 inches tall. I chose not to wait (mostly because I was testing the “you should wait” theory). It’s totally up to you! I’ve done this about 10 times and have had a 90% success rate. We’ll talk about the 10% in a minute.
Dividing:
- Brush away as much dirt as possible and lay your plant down on a hard surface.
- Take your sharp clean blade and cut just about in the middle of the rhizome. You really want to make sure you are left with some of the rhizome and at least 2-3 roots. If there are no roots you should wait.
- Place your little one in new potting soil and give it a bit of water (which should last a while).
- Wait for soil to completely dry before watering it again.
That’s it! You’re all done! You may have been told to let the pup sit out of soil for a few days to allow the rhizome to callus over before putting it into soil. This is where my 10% comes into play. As you can see in the photo, my Bantel’s Sensation had 2 pups. I put one directly in soil and the other one I left out to callus over. That one shriveled up within days and died. Now, this could very well be due to my cutting it prematurely (size and age). But since then, I have put all my pups directly into soil and I have had no problems.
If you visit my Instagram, look for the purple pot and you can see how this pup is doing. He has really great color and you can see the beautiful white stripes which makes Bantel’s Sensation Dracaena so desirable. Dracaena are slow growing so he’s still small but his roots are growing strong!
Have any questions? Leave a comment, I’d love to chat! If you liked how easy this was, you might also like How To Root Plant Cuttings In Water. Thanks for visiting!
All good information for this easiest-of-all plants.
Even people with brown thumbs can grow Sansevierias. There are dozens of varieties to choose from. Short. Tall. Wide. Narrow. I put my plants outdoors on the porch in summer and they are happy as can be. In the fall I bring them in and mostly don’t water them. They sit dormant in my living room window.
Thanks for the article. It makes me appreciate my plants all over again.
Joe
https://www.opuntiads.com/
I did the exact same thing with my snake plant pups , they were a bit less opened up than those in the picture . But after potting them they have stopped growing , it has been more than a month . The pups are not dead as they are bright green and healthy but there is no growth . Why is this happening?
They could still just be adjusting to their new living situation! Moving them to an area that has more natural sun might make a difference though x
Hello – I stumbled on your page and love looking through your IG photos! I’m envious because I can’t seem to keep plants alive! However, the snake plant has survived – it’s been over a year! I bought it on a whim. I have a bud growing from a crack in one of the leaves. I can tell it was an older leaf, but have you ever had this happen? Seems like a random place to grow – but I know nothing about plants! What should I do? I’m excited for the possibility of more plants, thanks!
I have a snake plant that is braided ….is this the same as
Sanservierias? If so , do. I have to transfer 3 pups…and how Divi train them?
Braided snake plants are a type of Sansevieria Cylindrica. Individual tips of leaves of the original plant have been chopped off and rooted and braided together.
I would strongly recommend unbraiding them, straightening them out and giving them space for their pups to grow. You’ll have a ton of plants since each of those is a separate one.
You don’t have to unbraid it, but I did, and my plants look so much better that way. Otherwise all the pups crowd around the base and begin pushing up on the braid and making it look really messy.
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Thanks for sharing your experience and the photos of how to divide them!
It would be ok to let the pups keep growing too, right?
I have a somewhat large sansevieria cylindrica (44” from top of soil to tip of longest spear). Does anyone know if I can merely divide in half and have 2 mature plants? I’m trying to find a second this size for aesthetic purposes without much luck. Also, it’s not having babies anymore so it must be root bound.
Yes! You should just be able to slice it somewhere right in half and then just repot in 2 different pots 🙂
This helped me so much! Thanks for the easy and clear instructions 🙂
My plant of sansevieria are some of the original and cuttings from the plant that was my grandmother’s and then my mothers. It even bloomed twice in the
years that my mother had it. My sister has some too. Now my sister in law that
lives in Colorado wants me to send her some cuttings. this information is so easy and now I will be able to send some to her. I was going to send the bulbs and the leaves but now I know just to sent the bulbs. Should I wrap them in plastic and mail them . Will this be OK. I will send her a number of them to be safe as I have two hardy plants .
I stumbled upon your page when trying to figure out what’s wrong with my plant. The tag says Boncel Sans, I believe it is a variety of the same plant you have here. Just suddenly, two of the centre leaves in the ‘fan’ developed white patches, almost looks like the green outer portion is scraped off, for lack of a better description. I also noticed several brown spots that were sticky and look like sap. I was able to wipe this off. Any ideas? I had the plant outside, in moderate early summer temperatures, no direct rain hitting the plant, and it is definitely not overwatered, I have watered it once in the month that I’ve had it. I brought it back inside and have it away from all other plants. The reason I stumbled onto your page is that thankfully my plant has 3 or 4 pups that I hope to salvage if the main plant is lost!!
Hello, I was inspecting my sansaveria plant and I accidentally broke the 1 of it’s main roots. Now I have 2 snake plants. I repotted them immediately after. Would it help to apply root hormone powder? Or just let them grow on their own? Thanks.
Hello! Do you have any tips for bringing down the height of snake plants? My sansevieria is about 3.5 ft tall and is starting to splay outwards. Is it possible to cut off the bottom of each stem/leaf at the desired height and then pot in soil, or do the stems need the root to propagate? Thanks!
You can root Sansevierias from leaf cuttings for sure! I found a two inch tall Sansevieria leaf tip that fell off a larger plant and stuck it in soil. After 3 months or so, it had rooted. Usually a minimum of 6 inch leaf cuttings is recommended, and if your Sansevieria has a special characteristic like variegation, a leaf cutting’s pup will not share those traits.
This was just what I needed, thank you so much!
Can you leave your pup in the pot and still cut it to separate it from the mother plant ? I just got the plant and potted it and it a had pup coming up ! It’s about five ins now .and hate to have to take it out of the pot to take the pup !!
I propagated my snake plant and I cut right above the rhizome. I already had three full and tall leaves in that pup or segment. Will it grow? I am a beginner and forgot what I read and didn’t have anything on me, so I just guessed. I’m wondering if my new propagation would survive or I accidentally killed it:(
If you have an old enough pup, cutting too high will just mean that the pup will take a bit to root (but still will). If you have really young pups like those in the photo, they might not be old enough to survive improper separation. In many cases, there’s no reason to separate the pups at all (if the pot isn’t overcrowded). I have many Sansevierias that look like multiple plants in a pot, but they’re all connected by rhizomes, and they’re very happy that way. I’d recommend leaving really young pups on the plant, if you’re worried you might chop them off too high.
I have been gifted a snake plant that is packed in a 15” pot. The plant is almost 5 foot tall! It is beautiful, but very close to breaking the pot.does it make sense to repot the pieces I cut out? Cut them down from top, too? Or will that be a very odd and unbalanced new plant(s)? Or, do I leave it intact and just put in a bigger pot?
How do I know if my plant has pups? Do I need to uproot it to find them? Thanks for all the amazing info.
I found this post really helpful for dividing snake plants. I recently tried it and had great success. It's important to remember to keep the roots moist as you separate them and also to transplant them in well-draining soil. The key is to take your time and be gentle if you rush, you could hurt the plant! After reading this post, I now feel confident about propagating my own plants again!