If you’re a houseplant enthusiast, chances are you’ve got a beautiful heartleaf fern in your plant collection. Naturally, you’ll want to propagate those heart-shaped plants to expand your collection instead of purchasing the ferns.
So, how do you propagate heartleaf fern?
Propagation through division is your best bet for successful fern growth. Plus, it’s the easiest way since you don’t need the extra pot-transferring step. Still, you can get numerous heartleaf ferns through spore propagation.
Read on to learn how to propagate heartleaf fern through plant division and spores.
Related reads: Growing tips for Heart Leaf Fern
How to Propagate Heartleaf Fern by Division
Typically, you can divide those heart-shaped plants by separating the root crown or rhizomes.
For those who don’t know, rhizomes are modified horizontal stems. They usually grow underground in the soil, but you can also find them on the surface. Rhizomes form roots and let new plants grow on top of the soil.
Heartleaf ferns are usually rootbound. However, those plants can also send rhizomes onto the pot’s surface.
Here’s how to propagate heartleaf rhizomes and root crowns by division:
Step 1: Separate the Plant
All you need for this step is a little shovel and a soil knife. Make sure to clean the tools using alcohol or soak them in a bleach solution before using them. The former step is necessary to prevent contamination and infections.
For Rhizomes
- Look for baby plants that surround the mother plant.
- Using the shovel, dig around the rhizomes, around 4 inches away.
- Pull out the baby plants using the shovel.
- Use the soil knife to cut the rhizome from the main plant.
For Root Crown
You might need to re-pot fern plants once every 3 years. That’s especially necessary if the plant outgrows the pot, shows smaller leaves, grows much slower, or dries out quickly.
In that case, you need to re-pot the ferns, which is a great opportunity to split the houseplant.
Here’s what to do:
- Flip the pot upside down and tap on the sides and bottom to loosen the plants.
- Using your fingers, try to loosen the soil to distinguish the smaller plants coming from the mother plant.
- With a clean soil knife, cut around the smaller plants all the way into the root ball.
- Continue the same steps until the main plant no longer has surrounding baby plants.
- Cut off rotten roots and unhealthy fronds to ensure each section grows well.
Step 2: Prepare the Soil
Heartleaf ferns can be unforgiving when it comes to dry soil. They prefer moist, fertile, organic-matter-rich soil.
Ironically, those heart-shaped plants are susceptible to root rot. For that reason, opt for a light, well-draining potting mix.
You can also prepare the potting soil by mixing four parts coco coir or peat moss, two parts compost, and one part perlite and worm casting.
Step 3: Plant the Sections
Here’s what to do after preparing the soil:
- Choose a pot that’s at least 1-4 inches wider than the diameter of the roots with drainage holes.
- For plants with small rhizomes, fill the pot with soil, leaving around an inch below the rim.
- Dig a small hole and place the small plants.
- Press the soil down and water the plants each time the top inch of the soil is dry.
- Keep the plant in a partially shaded area with a warm temperature and high humidity.
For large root crown sections:
- Fill around one-third of the pot with the potting mix.
- Place each plant section in the center of separate pots. Make sure the plants are upright.
- Fill the rest of the pot with the potting mix, leaving 1 inch below the pot’s top.
- Press the soil down to secure the plants and water them.
- Keep the plants in warm temperatures—around 65ºF to 75ºF—with moderate humidity, and fertilize them once a month.
How to Propagate Heartleaf Fern Using Spores
Like most ferns, heartleaf plants don’t flower. They reproduce through spores. Spores are inside a sac known as sporangium, which are the dark dots you see at the back of fronds.
Propagating through spores can be slower since you don’t have an established root system already.
Here’s how to propagate through spores:
Step 1: Extract the Spores
This step is pretty simple. All you need to do is snip off leaves with dark brown lines or dots using a clean pruning shear. Don’t pick fronds with white or light green lines because those spores are still unripe.
After collecting a few fronds, place them in a paper bag and leave the fronds to dry for around four or five days. By then, the sporangium would have released the spores in the bag.
Alternatively, you can scratch the sporangium arrangement using a clean knife over a piece of paper.
Step 2: Plant the Spores
- Fill around 1 inch of a clean plastic container with peat moss. Tap it down to level it.
- Pour over 2 inches of pure peat moss. Ferns at that stage might not grow in coco peat.
- Tamp the mixture down to level it.
- Pour boiled water over the container and leave it covered for around 30 minutes to cool. That’s to kill pathogens found in the germinating mix.
- Alternatively, microwave the container for around 3 minutes until the mix steams, then let it cool.
- Sow in the spores by sprinkling them evenly over the soil.
- Cover the container with a plastic cover or put it inside a zip-lock plastic bag.
- Keep the container in a partially shaded area and keep the temperature at 65ºF.
- Wait around 3-5 months until the spores reach the sporophyte stage, producing young fronds.
- Pot the young frogs in separate 2-inch pots, mist them with water, and feed them seaweed solution.
- Cover the pots with transparent plastic bags and keep the young ferns in proper growth conditions.
Wrapping Up
Learning how to propagate heartleaf ferns is pretty simple. All you have to do is separate young plants from rhizomes using a shovel and re-pot them.
If the fern plant is overgrowing the pot, you can make multiple plant sections by cutting through the root crown.
Alternatively, you can propagate ferns from spores. While the former method takes much time and effort, it’ll help you propagate numerous heartleaf ferns.
Whichever method you choose, make sure to provide partial shade, grow the plants in a warm, humid area, and water them regularly. This ensures that the new ferns grow healthy and last a long time!