Can you still fertilize a kalanchoe (flaming Katy) when it has flower buds?

Kalanchoe not only has many varieties and rich flower colors, but its blooms are also very delicate and beautiful, and it has the characteristic of a long flowering period. With good care and management, it may even be expected to bloom in all four seasons. After all, kalanchoe is an evergreen plant, and as long as the growing environment is suitable, it will keep growing year-round; you could say that apart from blooming, it is growing. Therefore, kalanchoe is relatively fond of fertilizer and has a fairly high demand for it.

Kalanchoe can bloom multiple times within a year, and because its flower quantity is large and the blooms last a long time, it also consumes a lot of nutrients. If you do not prepare enough nutrients for it, then during the flowering period, flowering will be affected due to insufficient nutrients.

In fact, kalanchoe is different from many other flowering plants. For ordinary flowering plants, you generally need to prepare enough nutrients for them in advance before they bloom. But kalanchoe is different: it can be fertilized during its flowering period, and even if it has flower buds or has already bloomed, it can still be fertilized as usual. However, we must control the frequency and concentration well, because kalanchoe likes fertilizer but does not tolerate it well, and too much fertilizer can easily cause root burn.

Although kalanchoe can be fertilized even when it has flower buds, two conditions must be met: one condition is that the temperature must reach above 15°c, and the other condition is to apply dilute fertilizer frequently. Moreover, in order to promote flowering, the main focus must be on supplementing phosphorus and potassium fertilizer; otherwise, the plant is prone to leggy growth, which will affect its normal flowering.

However, there is one exception, and that is when it grows flower buds but the plant has already become very weak and is completely unable to open the buds. In this case, we generally need to first give it water and a nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium compound fertilizer to encourage it to grow strong, because only when it is strong does it have the ability to bloom. Then we apply a phosphorus-potassium fertilizer such as monopotassium phosphate as a top dressing, which allows it to open its flower buds smoothly and also speeds up continued bud formation.

It can be seen that even when kalanchoe has flower buds, it can usually still be fertilized. It is just that the conditions for fertilizing need to be met. If the temperature is below 15°c, it cannot be fertilized, and watering also needs to be controlled to avoid causing fertilizer damage to the plant or reducing its cold resistance. Also, ordinary flowering plants generally cannot be fertilized after their flower buds open, but even after kalanchoe's flower buds open, if it lacks fertilizer, a small amount can still be applied.