Kalanchoe luciae: Ottawa Plantcycle

Picture 6. First few kalanchoe luciae in pots, potted Feb. 15, 2012.
These will approximately root 8-10 weeks by about April 15, 2012.

Picture 5. The base of the pot, after cutting some offsets.
This will probably give room for other young ones to develop. By summer, maybe I can try re-poting this mother plant if she does not exhibit desire to retire as this plant is known to be "monocarpic".

Picture 4. Offsets cut off, to callous for 3 day, then to the propagation bed to grow roots for about 8-10 weeks.

Picture 3. Offsets at the base of the pot.

Picture 2. Kalanchoe luciae - flowers (white)

Picture 1. Succulent Plant - Kalanchoe luciae

Kalanchoe luciae - asexual propagation by cuttings.

Val - Ottawa Plantcycle (A) dropped off a plant earlier today for division.
Plant rescue is one of her passions, which alignts to my mantra of "adopt a plant" when you can. It was an amazing succulent that needed TLC, however, it did well and adopted to its previous habitat, even flowered- see Picture 2. Hence, I found offsets (little plant) that are volunteering to grow by the base of the plant.

1. PLANT IDENTIFICATION - Kalanchoe luciae. After dinner, I was staring at this plant, and I remember a young plant I bought from Home Depot couple of days ago. It was tag Echevaria lylacina, which no plant exist on that name. So as I looked around for dessert cabbage, I found it that I have a Kalanchoe luciaea. So, this plant was exactly what I got from Home Depot Monday Jan 30, 2012. (2)

2. CONDITION - The mother plant could use repot, but I am not gonna do it in the middle of winter. The little offsets can be easily cut off - see Picture 4, callous and put in a propagation bed. About 3 days to callous, and 8-10 weeks to root before putting them on individual pots. (3)

3. SOIL MIX - succulents prefer cactus mix, so I am hoping to score some leftover from other friends at plantcycle. I have enough sand and tropical mix to make a propagation bed, but individual pots might be stretch, since I may have 10 little flapjacks by April. I have until April 10, 2012 to secure appropriate mix. For now, these offsets will be ready to put in propagation bed, which I will mix sand/loam after this entry.

Update. february 15. 2012 WED, I prepared my own succulent mix last night, and I have potted half of the babies. The soil mix was 2 parts playground sand, 1 part perlite, and 1 part potting soil mix. This is the first part of the baby luciae in pots (picture 6). My goal is to finish potting them by the end of the week.



A. Ottawa Plantcyle Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ottawa_plantcycle/

References:

(1) San Marcos Growers, http://www.smgrowers.com/info/kalanchoeluciae.asp
(2) 50BucksGift, http://angelinayyz.blogspot.com/2012/01/what-can-you-buy-with-your-50.html
(3) Edenmakers, http://edenmakersblog.com/?p=1363

Pictures: All pictures are my own fuzzy ones courtesy of my Blackberry Curve.