The Flaming Käthchen or Kalanchoe is one of the lushly flowering houseplants that bring cheerful colors into the living room with their mostly red, pink or orange flowers. These plants are often only cultivated as an annual, but they can also be encouraged to bloom every year and can also be propagated quite easily using shoot or leaf cuttings. The plant only does not produce offshoots, which only have to be separated from the mother plant and planted separately.
How can you propagate Flaming Käthchen?
Flaming Käthchen (Kalanchoe) is best propagated through shoot or leaf cuttings. For shoot cuttings, cut off he althy shoots without flowers and plant them in loose substrate. For leaf cuttings, large leaves are cut off and the veins are scored before being placed on the substrate.
Almost always works: propagation via cuttings
The propagation of cuttings works excellently with Flaming Käthchen. The cut offshoots - you can use whole shoots or just individual leaves - root very easily, so you can grow a whole range of new plants easily, cheaply and quickly through your own breeding. The best time to cut the cuttings is directly after flowering, although you can also take the cuttings in spring or early summer. Practically, you combine the propagation with the pruning.
Propagation via shoot cuttings
If you want to propagate the Kalanchoe using shoot cuttings, it is best to proceed as follows:
- Cut off shoots that are approx. 10 to 15 centimeters long.
- These should be he althy and not have any flowers.
- Use a sharp and clean knife,
- so as not to squeeze the plant and destroy sensitive conductive pathways.
- Let the cut surface dry for about a day.
- Then plant the cutting in a loose substrate.
- This should be kept slightly moist, but not wet.
- Place the plant pot in a bright and warm location,
- However, avoid direct sun.
Propagation via leaf cuttings
If you prefer to use leaf cuttings for propagation, you can proceed with individual large leaves as described above or in this way:
- Cut off individual large leaves.
- Score the large leaf veins on these.
- Place the leaf side with the scored veins down on the substrate.
- Weigh down the leaf with a stone or something similar
- Spray the leaf regularly with water from a sprayer.
The new plants will emerge from the scratched leaf after a few weeks and can then be transplanted into individual pots if they have grown large enough.
Tip
Instead of planting the shoot cuttings straight away, you can also let them root in a glass of water first.
