Dieffenbachia question

I have had a Dieffenbachia for about four years now. Its stems are all crooked, so I'm going to attempt to propagate it. My plan is to take cane cuttings, root the tips with the leaves, and let the bases grow back. Any tips?? I read they can get 5-6 feet tall, and I've seen plants that tall, but their leaves are much bigger than the leaves on my plant. Is it just due to the age of the plant? The leaves had the same pattern as mine.

Thanks,
Dana

Here are a couple of links I found online:

http://plantkingdom.com/kingdom/araceae/d_seguin.htm

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/Dieffenbachia.html

I've had one for many years that was originally started from stem cuttings, and have cut it back several times over and given the new starts to friends and family. I've noticed that the leaves will get bigger as that particular stem ages.

Here is what I was told to do with the cuttings, and it works for me: simply place the tip cutting or stem cutting directly in water, and I also put in a drop or two of my liquid miracle-gro every so often. I also make sure I add fresh water every few days or so. For the stem cuttings in water, I don't completely submerge them, but leave a little of the top sticking out of the water. For me, this reduces the chance of the cutting rotting in the water. For the tip cutting, I just wait until I see good roots growing, then I replant it.

For the stem cuttings, when I see roots growing and new leaves getting ready to emerge from the little "eyes" or "nubs" I plant the cutting in dirt and it goes from there.

Now that I've looked this up, I might try laying them in dirt and see how that goes. Mine is getting kind of gangly looking again, so need to give it a trim.

Good luck with yours!

I've grown them successfully, I suppose you could say, for a number of years. My biggest complaint used to be that they quickly became "leggy" and "ropey" with long bare stems with a few leaves on top.

This, BTW, indicates they are not getting enough light in their location. But they seldom do as a houseplant. They really like being placed outside in a shaded but light area, like a northern exposure, in warm weather.

I actually threw mine outside one day in disgust! Now I live in a warmer climate, and it was summer. But a few months later, I noticed that I had a whole bunch of new ones were coming up where I had tossed them.

I realized that the ugly stems had rooted and produced new plants at each node on the stem!

The next time they got "leggy," I just put a few inches of soil in the bottom of a long window-box type container, planted the root in one end, and covered the root and whole stem with more soil, leaving only the leafy part up out of the dirt at the other end of the pot.

You can plant one at each end of the long pot, opposite each other. Very soon, many new plants emerged from the stem under the soil, which had formed roots. You can leave it this way for a while if you wish, and just enjoy it.

Then you can separate the individual plants at each node with roots, and put in another planter. Or several plants in a larger container. But it was the easiest plant propagation I have ever tried. I wish more plants would propagate this way.

I am trying other "leggy" types the same way. Some work, some don't, but none of them have died using this method. I would recommend giving it a try, rather than cutting them in lengths and going through the rooting process.

Judith