The snake plant—or the much more familiar Sansevieria—has a clever trick up its sleeve. If you want to encourage the rapid growth of new leaves and the formation of underground shoots (called lateral shoots) on your existing plant, the key isn’t expensive fertilizer, but rather targeted stress and proper pruning.

Here’s a simple trick, very popular in the gardening world, to “wake up” your snake plant and encourage it to produce new shoots.

The “forced lateral shoot” trick (shallow pot and dryness method): Snake plants grow by forming strong underground rhizomes (shoots), from which new plants (called lateral shoots) then emerge. In nature, they primarily form these lateral shoots when they feel they have nowhere else to grow. Here’s how it’s done:

Step 1: A snug pot is essential
Snake plants don’t like much space. In a pot that’s too large, they put all their energy into root growth and have no strength left for new leaves.

Here’s how: Plant the snake plant in a pot that fits snugly (the roots should almost touch the sides). Only when the roots encounter a solid barrier will the plant grow vigorously upwards.

Step 2: Stimulating new growth (the leaf trick)
To encourage the formation of new shoots directly on the mother plant, remove an older, outer leaf.

Here’s how: Cut a healthy leaf just above the soil. The plant receives a growth signal at the cut and, in response to the leaf loss, often sends out several new shoots simultaneously from the underground rhizome.

Tip: Don’t throw away the cut leaf! You can cut the plant into pieces about 5–10 cm long (be careful not to mix up the top and bottom parts) and root them in water or moist sand. This will give you new plants.

Step 3: “Rescue” Watering (Therapeutic Drought)
Sansevierias are desert plants. If you water them only sparingly but regularly, they will grow poorly.

Here’s how: Let the potting mix dry out completely—until it’s bone dry all the way to the bottom of the pot (this takes 3 to 4 weeks). The plant will then go into energy-saving mode.

Tip: Afterward, water it thoroughly (ideally from below into a bowl until it has absorbed enough water, and then discard the rest). This sudden surge of water after the dry period stimulates the plant: “The drought is over, we have water, we need to grow quickly!”

In three words: If you want new growth, repot your mother-in-law’s tongue in a smaller pot, occasionally trim off older leaves, and only water it when the soil is completely dry. In just a few weeks, you can look forward to new green shoots sprouting from the soil!