Growing Psychotria viridis/alba/colorata

 There are some plants where you can also use leaves for propagation, such as the the usambara violet, among others. Among those plants from which you can also make leaf cuttings, also include for example Psychotria viridis, Psychotria alba and Psychotria colorata.

There are various teks to get these leaves to root, this is not meant to be an exhaustive guide, but just to show how it might work. Some simply use soil for rooting, some use a glass of water, some slightly bend the leaves to encourage rooting, others cut them in half, etc. You can of course try different substrates for rooting such as cocohum or sphagnum moss. A good tutorial is the Takeaway Tek with cocohum can be found on the Herbalistics blog: Takeaway Tek.

Here for rooting Psychotria viridis/alba/colorata various things were used like soil, a glass of water and a homemade DWC.

PSYCHOTRIA ALBA LEAF CUTTING IN SOIL

The leaves were donated by a kind member of a forum. Upon arrival, the leaves were rinsed well with water. In the lower half of the leaf, the leaf center vein was CAREFULLY nipped several times, but not completely bent through, and placed vertically into normal potting soil up to the leaf half. A plastic bag was placed over the pot with the leaves to increase humidity. It is necessary to ventilate regularly to prevent mold growth. Spraying or watering only if the soil is too dry. The leaves were planted in summer, and were near a sunny window with about 2-3 hours of direct sunlight daily.

About 2 weeks after planting in soil, there were first signs of root formation on one alba leaf. The root seems to be pushing through one of the kinks.

Progress of root formation after another week.

A better view where you can see how the sheet was bent.

Progress after about another 4 weeks, the leaves are now in the ground for a total of about 6 weeks since planting. Several shoots are already visible pushing through the kinks.

Roots and shoots in the front view of the leaf.

Another 6 weeks later, the shoots are about 15 cm tall. Meanwhile, started to make holes in the plastic bag to accustom the plants to lower humidity. With a razor blade the shoots including roots were separated from the leaves, and repotted. The plants were slowly weaned from the high humidity under the plastic bag, which they do well with (however, this causes the leaves to stunt). The plants like it when you keep the soil relatively moist.

PSYCHOTRIA VIRIDIS LEAF ROOTING IN A DWC

For this experiment, a self-made DWC (Deep Water Culture) was constructed, a hydroponic method of plant watering. However, there are simpler methods to root Psychotria viridis leaves (soil, cocohum, sphagnum moss,...) a DWC is actually not mandatory. The extra air supplied by the aquarium pump, is simply to enrich the water with more oxygen, which should prevent rotting. As said, however, this is not mandatory if you want to root Psychotria viridis leaves.

The leaf was planted in the summer, and the DWC placed at a window. A net pot was filled with seramis to give support to the leaf.

The leaf was placed halfway in the seramis and the pot was placed in the container with water. This time the leaf midvein was not bent.

After 2 weeks, the first root formation appears in the place where the leaf was broken off the plant.

Another 2 weeks later, more root growth is visible. The leaf has been in DWC for exactly 1 month.

PSYCHOTRIA COLORATA LEAF ROOTING IN WATER

The colorata leaf was placed in a glass of tap water so that the water was about halfway up the leaf. The leaf midvein was not bent. The glass was placed near the window, this was done in winter, the environment was apparently not optimal for rooting. The water was changed every 1-2 days. Even after more than a month, no roots could be seen, and the leaf was forgotten. In the meantime, it was placed in a greenhouse, the water was only refilled, no longer changed regularly.

After almost 2 months, the first roots were discovered and the leaf was planted in a pot with potting soil.

Progress of root formation after 5 days.

CONCLUSIONS:

There are many methods to root Psychotria colorata, alba or viridis leaves. Usually this does not seem to be very difficult and happens quite quickly. However, I also had some failures, which are probably due to non-optimal environmental conditions during rooting. In summer with higher humidity and higher temperatures, I often had more luck with rooting.