kalanchoe rotten

by Lefteris
(Rhodes island, Greece)


My kalanchoe is seriously rotten. I have it inside. I already cut all rotten flowers and leaves but it is like this for some days now. I dont water it at all now. Can I somehow save it? Thank you!

Comments for kalanchoe rotten

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Good News!
by: Jacki Cammidge, Certified Horticulturist

This looks salvageable, providing you do a few things that may seem counterintuitive. You're on the right track with stopping watering. Excess water is typically what gets the rot started, and continuing it is what makes it spread. It looks like you may have caught it in time, so that's excellent.

Most likely, the rot is made worse by the plant being in the wrong soil. Quite often, nurseries and greenhouses that produce these plants for sale 'force' the plant by putting it into water retentive soil, giving them lots of light and warmth, and feeding them and watering them as much as possible.

This prods them into growing quickly and flowering. Then they get sent to the grocery store or florists shop where they no longer get all that great treatment, but they're already blooming and this can continue for a while.

Then, they get sold to us and we can't provide the warmth and light they're used to.

However, most people don't repot them into better soil. We just continue to overwater them, even if we don't have the right conditions for them to remain healthy.

Here's what needs to happen.

Now that the soil is drying out, you can repot the plant, into some kind of cactus soil, or potting soil mixed half and half with small gravel or pumice. Then let it sit. Water it in a few days. Make sure it's in bright light. Not full sun.

Good luck with it!

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