Crown Of Thorns Propagation Methods: ( Beginner, Intermediate, expert)

 Native Madagascar species of flowering plant of the spurge family best known for its flowers is the so-called Crown of Thorns or Euphorbia Milii.

Just like you, I once wondered, how can I propagate this plant? I searched YouTube and Google to find out the easiest solution to Crown of Thorns Propagation.  But everyone was using Root Hormone to Do so. But I didn’t have any rooting hormone to begin with. Then I said to myself, “Why not discover all the aspects of the Crown of Thorns and help the world that is also suffering like me?” Then I set my goal to get started with the experiment to propagate Crown of Thorns. Then suddenly I knew that I didn't have anything in my hand. So. I have to start from scratch. And as I started to think what & how will I do? I wrote everything down and created a step table for my convenience. I also thought if I could propagate them by using other cactus propagation methods as well as tropical tree propagation methods. And eventually, I started to experiment with all the propagation methods one by one and tracked down my way till the end. 

Picking a branch: 

There are countless articles out there that recommend picking a healthy, woody, or semi-woody branch. They talk about cutting them about 4-6 inches from the tip. It’s because they have the best amount of survival chances. But I wanted to do something different.

I took my precession knife, cut 3 branches of woody(6 inches), Semi-woody(3 inches), and a new branch of around 2 months old and 1 inch in length. And started to prepare to propagate them.

Attempt to propagate no. 1:

        

Create Medium:

My first attempt was the simplest of all. 

I took some clay soil from around my house. I didn’t know what kind of soil it was. Then mixed ⅗ of sand with it. and at last, I mixed ⅕ of dried cow manure. And my Crown of thorns soil medium was ready to have some cuttings.

Get the pots: This is an experiment and I like to recycle things, cuz I’m a nature lover. So. I recycled plastic bottles to make some beautiful pots. I took three bottles and cut them in a random length. I also did some designing to give it a nice aesthetics to them and to give an extra bit of personalization.

Planting cuttings:

I took all three recycled plastic bottle pots that I made and pure soil in them. Then I just pressed the 6-inch woody crown of thorns branch that I took about 1 inch deep in one pot. The 3 inches long cutting was pressed ¾ of an inch, and lastly, I pressed the 1 inch cutting about ⅗ deep of an inch. After giving the cuttings a thorough watering I simply put them all in sunlight. And not just any sunlight! They were outdoor in the full sun. 

So.

In a brief. I just used some unknown random clay, sand with cow manure, and planted 3 types of cuttings of my Crown of Thorns. I am expecting about 100% success from this method.

A week has passed and the cuttings look pretty okay to me. But I won't be trying if they have rooted or not. I’ll just wait.

2 Weeks later: There ain't any significant growth or anything till now. But all three of the cuttings are healthy as the first day. I’m getting my hopes up now.

4 weeks later: Same as the first day. All cuttings are healthy and in perfect shape. And they all have rooted perfectly. A 100% success. I wasn’t expecting this to happen. It’s been only a month and all of my cuttings survived.

Attempt to propagate no. 2:     

This time I kind of took a cactus-friendly soil mix. You know when you try and try and slowly become a professional. I'm going through that stage now. Ok, less carry on now.

Medium (Soil Mix):

This time I went to a local nursery (the closest to me of course) and asked them to give me a cactus soil mix. 1kg of cactus soil mix for 1$. It was a pretty nice deal. 

I again recycled plastic bottles to make pots to propagate crown of thorns cuttings.

Poured cactus soil mix in all the pots, made a hole with a pencil, put in the cutting, and firmly pressed the soil around the cutting.

A firm wash-off water made everything clean and tidy.

As usual, I put the cuttings in the full sun beside the first 3 cuttings. And was hoping for the best.

After a week, they are pretty much fine. Same for the second two months. And at the one-month mark, we are again 100%  successful. As same as the first attempt.

Now it's time to do it like a professional.

Let's start:

When it comes to professional work, everything has to be the most perfect of all. You need to be very careful about picking the branch that will root no matter what. Get some root hormones, get dimensions of the pot, look at the weather forecast for about a month.

Cutting: The perfect branch means a semi-hardwood cutting. It has to be around a year old branch. Many years of research got to the point that a year-old branch is perfect for starting a new cutting. And about the dimensions! The width of a pencil has hit the most amount of cutting success. Researchers tried from very narrow to about big finger size cuttings. And those close to the size of a pencil got the most success rate in becoming a nursery stock. 6 inches long cuttings tend to do best in rooting and shooting without any big problems. You can root as low as 2 inches long cutting to more than a foot-long cutting. But 6 inches cuttings are the best in everything in rooting, shooting, and time after.

Medium/soil: If you want the most success rate in rooting your cuttings then you will need the best medium available with good drainage. You can make this soil at your home if you have the best resources, but I tend to buy quality soil for the best results. So I went to a well-known nursery in my city and bought a medium expensive soil package.

Pot: This time I didn’t make my pot, rather purchased a pot from the nursery that has good drainage holes in it.

Root Hormone: Normally, rooting your cuttings will have around 60-80% success rate. But if you want to bump it up higher then you have to use rooting hormones. Using rooting hormones will bump up your success rate from 60% to more than 90%. There are two types of rooting hormones, powder & liquid. I’d suggest buying from a local nursery store just like I did. But if you’re buying online then I’d suggest buying one with good reviews.

Planting: After gathering everything, fill the pot with half soil. Now dip the base of cuttings in the rooting hormone. If you’re using powder then shake off the extra powder from the cutting. And if you’re using liquid rooting hormone, you can dip the cutting base in the liquid and wait for the excessive hormone to fall down. Now plant the cutting in the pot and fill it with soil again. And your cuttings are ready!

Weather: Weather can also determine your success rate. If you're in a tropical area then there ain’t much to do. In hot places you have to keep your cuttings away from sunlight.
Put your cuttings in a shady place where sunlight will never touch them.

In cold places or in winter when there ain’t much sunlight or snaw fall area, you might have to keep your cuttings indoors. Tempareture has to be checked frequently. Otherwise what you’ll have is only a Crown of Thorns Ice-cream.

Summury: After my attemp of Propagating Crown of Thorns, I think they can be propagated in every-way possible. No matter what methodology you use or in which weather you propagate, You’ll always have a high success rate with Crown of Thorns.