Pilea Peperomioides Propagation Guide

Looking for info on pilea peperomioides propagation? The pilea peperomioides, aka Chinese money plant, couldn’t be easier to propagate. Learn all about how to do it with this post.

Pilea peperomioides propagation guide

Hey all! Today I am talking about what might be the easiest plant to propagate—the pilea peperomioides! Why is pilea peperomioides so easy? Because the plant basically propagates itself. There’s a reason that one of its names is the “pass it on” plant.

Overview of the pilea peperomioides Chinese money plant

So where does this plant come from? Pilea peperomioides is a species in the Urticaceae family, and it’s native to East Asia, specifically China. In nature, it grows in shady, damp weather. But it has adjusted very well to life as a houseplant.

Another reason a pilea peperomioides plant makes a great houseplant is that it remains relatively small. It typically grows to about 1 foot tall and 1 foot wide, but I have seen them grow even bigger! Their bushiness really depends on pruning and how many babies it produces.

The plant has a main stem that sprouts thick, succulent-like round green leaves in all around. Generally the leaves are a few inches wide. Since the leaves grow 360-degrees around the stem, it’s important to give this plant even light. If you can’t do that, make sure you rotate the plant so it doesn’t grow lopsided.

To learn more about the pilea peperomioides plant, you can check out my pilea peperomioides care guide!

How to these pilea plants grow?

These pilea plants grow really beautifully if they are happy. A sure sign of a happy pilea pep is that it will begin growing babies (aka “offsets”). These offshoots will first appear as new stems/runners coming off of the mother plant’s stem. They may be under the soil and hard to see, or they can be right at the soil line.

These runners will root themselves in the soil and sprout new leaves, essentially becoming their own new little plants in the same pot as the mother. You can keep the babies on the mother for a nice, fully look. Or you can chop and prop!

For more easy-to-propagate plants, check out my guides for how to propagate pothos plants, five ways to propagate snake plants, how to propagate monstera deliciosa from cuttings, and how to root spider plant babies!

Pilea peperomioides propagation steps

If you choose to chop and prop, it’s really easy. You’ll need a clean, sharp knife, as well as a small pot and well-draining potting mix for your transplanted baby. Here is what you need to do.

First—wait until the plant is relatively established. This is subjective, but I would wait until the baby has several leaves, the largest of which is about 1-inch wide. Of course this is just a guide I go by. You can wait for the plants to get a bit bigger, or you can cut them off when they are a bit smaller.

1. Use your knife to cut down into the soil. I recommend cutting somewhere between the baby and the stem, cutting a bit closer to the stem than the baby. Try not to cut other stems if you are only cutting one baby off, and remember that the baby stems typically shoot straight out from the mother stem.
2. When you feel that you’ve cut the stem, cut about an inch lower. This is something I like to do to ensure I am taking a bit more of the established root system with me when I remove a baby from mom.
3. Gently wiggly the cut baby plant out of the pot, shaking off excess soil. Fill in any holes left with soil.

Below is an example of an easy baby to cut off. The third pic below shows about how much of the stem and root system I like to get when cutting a baby off. When you bring this much of the root system with the baby, it rebounds really quickly in its new pot.

Simple plant this new cutting in its own small pot using well-draining soil. Keep the soil moist but not soaking wet for a few weeks, monitoring the leaves and how the plant is doing.

Once new soil roots begin growing, you can back off watering and treat the plant just as you would any other pilea peperomioides plant! Keep it for yourself or pass on to a friend 🙂

What is you don’t get any roots with the baby?

But what if you cut the baby plant off and only bring some of the stem with it? What if there are no roots? That’s okay—you just have to take another step to help ensure the baby gets what it needs on its own.

Note that you definitely do need some of the brown stem part. If you pull just a few leaves or a single leaf, it won’t root. You need a bit of the stem part. Once cut, pop the stem-end of the baby into water and let it do its thing. Refresh the water every week or so.

Once new roots develop, move the baby pilea plant into fresh well-draining soil. Keep the soil a bit damp for a week or so as it begins rooting. The plant might go a bit limp while the water roots adjust to soil, but it should rebound. You can add a bit of rooting hormone powder before planting as well.

And that’s it!

That’s everything I’ve got to share about pilea peperomioides propagation. It’s a fun and easy plant to propagate, and I love chopping babies off and passing them along to others. As a bonus, this helps keep the waif-like bonsai look on my mother plant, which I really like!

Pin my pilea peperomioides propagation guide!