Hey there, I'll do my best to give you advise based on what's been successful for me.

First, Light has never been an issue for succulent leaves to callous or start growing roots. I recently just set a tray of echeveria leaves in a dark guest bedroom with the blinds closed and they starting rooting in about 2 weeks.

Second, I prefer to keep the leaves as dry as possible (even protect from my summer FL humidity and bring them inside) until you have roots that are at least an inch or so long.

The leaves should take approx 7-10 days to callous over. From there, some leaves will start to put out roots or baby plants immediately, some take weeks longer to do anything at all. For example, I recently lost an echeveria to crown rot due to a night time heavy rain. I took as many viable leaves as possible and set them inside to start the propagation process. About 3 or my 12 or so leaves calloused and started to root. 3 or so turned black and started to rot (tossed away immediately) and the rest are still sitting inside doing nothing for the past 6-8 weeks. Its important to accept the fact that not all your leaves will propagate. Take several samples and hope 1 or 2 start to root. Depending on where you live, your success rate can vary greatly (IE: easier in CA as opposed to FL)

I keep my newly propagated babies very dry. Keep in mind they can/will pull any water they need from the plump leaf that has calloused over. Biggest mistake I've made in the past is watering too soon and promoting rot to form.

Your propagation medium seems right on. I would keep the leaves dry until they form roots, then plant them in your mix and put in bright light for a couple more weeks. Once the roots start to take hold in your mix is when i water very lightly.

Lastly, please remember to pot these babies in small containers. I use 2-3 inch plastic pots with very course medium so the mix doesn't retain moisture too long. The best advise i can give with succulents is not to over pot as rot becomes exponentially more common when you do so.

Remember, keep them dry and be patient. Leaves can take a couple weeks up to a couple months to do anything for you!

These are my burro's tail cuttings I planted early spring last year. They had no problems rooting. If any of the leaves fall off. I just throw them back in the pot and they grow. It hangs outside from spring to frost. I hope I get flowers this year. It's in gritty mix.

Hi David,
I can't think of anything to add to what Calzoner has shared. It seems crazy, but yes, just set them on top of dry mix and forget about them for awhile. lol..

WOW!
Laura that is beautiful!

Wow big thanks to Calzoner for the detailed response! And others for the contribution as well. Sounds good, here the waiting begins~

Gosh Laura, it's just gorgeous! You must never touch it or move it huh?

Thanks :). You would think that I really baby it, but I don't. One thing is that I hardly watered it when it was inside all winter to keep the growth compact. I think I watered it twice or three times from November to April. In summer, it took all the rain. The cuttings were at the edge of the pot at the beginning of the summer last year! It grows fast during the growing season.

Laura, Thank you for posting this! I have one of these and was wondering about it..does it do better in more direct light in the summer??
Christina

I have it in full sun most of the day. Just be sure to acclimate it to full sun.

This post was edited by LauraRobichaud on Wed, Jun 11, 14 at 11:15

I am so jealous of your burro's tail, Laura! I have one going, and several are long enough to chop in half and start again ... but the only previous time I did it, it took a very long time to root. It was so dehydrated and wrinkly, I feared it would always be that way. I guess it finally put out enough roots, because one day I realized it had completely bounced back. Today I can't even tell which branch it was.

In the photo below, if you look at the right side of the pot, you can see a stub right at the lip of the pot, where someone STOLE a clipping from the plant. Who does that? A really long one, too! If they had only asked, I have several small starters. Really uncool.