Journal: Portulacaria afra

October 20, 2025 — Cutting

This portulacaria began as a cutting. The photo below is from about a year ago: a young plant in a plain nursery pot, a leaning trunk with two leafy branches and not much structure yet.

A year of method

Nothing complicated — the same few gestures, repeated:

• Pruning after every second pair of leaves, so the plant keeps branching instead of stretching.
• Fertilizing with Biogold.
• Substrate: a mix of volcanic rock and pumice.
• Repotting last spring, into the pot it lives in today.

October 10, 2026 — One year later

Almost a year after the cutting, the trunk has thickened and splits into two main branches, with secondary branching building out from each one. The leaves are smaller and denser than before.

The photo at the top of this page is from today.