This is how to propagate kalanchoe (Kalanchoe blossfeldiana) by cuttings for fast rooting and sprouting: fertilize after half a month

Kalanchoe is very well suited to propagation by cuttings to produce small potted plants, and you can either take stem cuttings or leaf cuttings; the survival rate is usually very high either way. But compared with leaf cuttings, stem cuttings have the advantage in sprouting and flowering, because kalanchoe grown from leaf cuttings usually sprouts very slowly, normally taking several months, so we need to wait with enough patience.

After rooting and sprouting, kalanchoe grows fairly quickly, and generally after about 3 months of care it can bloom. And its flowering period is especially long, blooming one flush after another; a single flush usually lasts 1 month, and one full flowering cycle can last as long as 2 months. So if you take stem cuttings, not only do they sprout faster, they also bloom earlier than leaf cuttings. In terms of propagation efficiency, stem cuttings beat leaf cuttings.

So you can see that kalanchoe grown from stem cuttings roots and sprouts faster than from leaf cuttings, usually taking only about half a month for the stems to root, and once rooted they sprout quickly. Therefore, about half a month after taking stem cuttings of kalanchoe, we can fertilize it, which better promotes the growth of the cuttings.

But when fertilizing kalanchoe after rooting, you must focus on supplementing nitrogen, because nitrogen is the most important nutrient element for promoting plant growth. At this point, giving rooted kalanchoe cuttings some nitrogen can speed up root growth and also make the cuttings sprout more quickly. And it is best to cut a sturdy, healthy stem from the mother kalanchoe plant as the cutting; the survival rate and sprouting rate are often much higher.

But to improve the survival rate of cuttings, after cutting the stem you should not rush to plant it; instead, let the wound dry before planting, generally air-drying for 3-4 days is enough to let the wound dry out. In this way, the cutting is less likely to suffer wound infection after planting, and it will quickly survive; at most 2 weeks and you will see it root and survive.

Once the kalanchoe stem cutting has rooted, we can give it a little weak fertilizer. But at this time its roots are very tender and fragile, so the fertilizer must be chosen well, and the concentration must also be controlled well. Generally, to promote growth at this stage, we mainly supplement a little nitrogen fertilizer; it is best to choose mild soybean water, which has a very high nitrogen content and also contains a certain amount of phosphorus and potassium nutrients.

As for concentration and frequency, generally dilute it with clean water at 1:500, then keep watering it once a month. In this way, kalanchoe can keep growing vigorously. Of course, the care environment must also be suitable; both temperature and humidity conditions must be met, and there must be some scattered light, and ventilation must also be good; only then will kalanchoe cuttings grow quickly and healthily.