Now that your kalanchoe (ka-lan-ko-ee) has stopped flowering, the plant needs your tender loving care to prepare for the spring and summer growing cycles around the corner. Without careful management in the final weeks of winter, kalanchoe won’t flower as well this autumn as it did over the winter.

First, let’s set the record straight about prospects for future flowers. If you bought the kalanchoe last year, keep the plant because it will flower again this autumn. Plants that are three or four years old aren’t worth keeping because prospects for flowering are poor compared to young plants one or two years old. Since kalanchoes are inexpensive by garden standards, it pays to grow young plants every two years.

Let’s focus on what’s needed to keep your kalanchoe healthy and growing.

* Blossoms. Remove all faded flowers by pinching just above the top pair of leaves below the flower. Old flowers left on the plant serve as brakes to prevent new growth.

* Repotting. Repot kalanchoes in late February or early March after the last flowers. Measure the diameter of the old pot, then buy a plastic pot an inch or so wider. Forget using a clay pot no matter what your preference may be. The pot must be plastic.

* Soil. Insist on the finest possible soil because it will be home to the plant for the next 12 months. You want Pro-Mix Potting and Seeding Mixture which is available at your nursery or garden shop in 8, 16 and 32-quart bags. While you are there, buy a small bag of “Compressed Canadian Spaghnum Peat Moss.” A small bag will last for years.

* Acrylic co-polymers. Most nurseries (never chain stores) carry small packets of acrylic co-polymers which function like gigantic water reservoirs for potted plants and containers. Find the nursery manager (not a clerk) and ask him to point out these co-polymers to you. Buy one packet to take home.

Repotting Scenario

Let the pot go dry (no water for 2 weeks). With your fist, bang the bottom of the old pot and the plant, rootball and all, will come out intact. Scatter newspapers on the kitchen counter or table so you can prepare the plant for repotting.

Use a pencil to dislodge most of the old soil around the roots. Because the rootball is dry, a pencil makes easy work of getting rid of the old soil (trashed when you are through). Work the writing end of the pencil around the roots and the old soil will fall away quickly.

Place a plastic dishpan in the sink, then use your hands to spoon in enough of the Pro-Mix to fill the new plastic pot. Also, take a heaping hand of the compressed Canadian sphagnum peat moss and place it in the dishpan. Now, with hot water flowing from the faucet, add enough hot water to the dishpan to wet down the soil. Put rubber gloves on your hands so you can swish around the soil so everything wets down. Finally, use your hands to spoon off the wet soil onto sheets of newspaper to surface dry for a few minutes.

Reach for the new plastic pot. Lay down a half-inch of exploded popcorn or styrofoam pellets to the base of the pot, followed by a half-inch of your pre-wet soil. With one hand, set the kalanchoe in the new pot, making sure that the top of the rootball is slightly below the rim of the pot. This tells you how much soil needs to be placed at the bottom of the pot to “raise” the plant so it’s just below the rim of the pot.

At this point, sprinkle a tablespoon of pulverized limestone over the soil drying on sheets of newspapers. Fork the lime so it disappears into the wet soil.

Limestone is essential because kalanchoes must have a soil pH between 5.8 and 6.3.

Lift the plant from the pot, and place enough pre-wet soil at the base (over the popcorn or styrofoam) so the plant sits at the proper height in the pot. Pour warm water over the soil, then set the plant in the pot. Backfill with pre-wet soil on all sides of the plant, frequently pouring warm water over the soil to settle it. Add soil until the pot is full, then another watering to settle the soil. Take your hands and press down the soil on all sides of the pot. Add more pre-wet soil if needed.

Now, use the pencil again. The soil being wet, it will be easy to poke deep holes in the soil with the pointed end of the pencil. An inch or so away from the wall of the pot, poke your first hole, followed by similar holes every two inches as you work your way around the rootball. Open the packet of co-polymers and drop a few (3 or so) polymers into each hole; reseal the packet. Scratch the soil at the top of the rootball, then add warm water once more. In seconds, the soil at the top of the rootball will rise as the polymers absorb water and cause the soil to expand and rise. Your repotting is complete!

Why must you add co-polymers to the soil?

Kalanchoes must not be watered all that often. Overwatering will kill the plant almost as fast as lightning. Co-polymers hold 800 times their weight in water, so as the soil starts to dry, polymers release their moisture to the surrounding soil because of “osmosis” (releasing material from a dense to a less-dense subject). The soil will be watered less often for this reason, thereby eliminating chances of over-watering.

How can you tell when to water your kalanchoe?

When co-polymers have released their water to the surrounding soil, it will be a few days when the completely dry soil “pulls away from the wall of the pot.” When this happens, kalanchoe should be watered, not from the top as with most plants, but from the bottom via a saucer.

A few tricks will yield better plant performance. First, set the plant in a fairly deep bowl filled with warm water. The soil being bone dry, the plant will gulp down a humongeous volume of water. When the bowl is dry, add more warm water in case the roots have not had their fill. Keep adding water until plant roots no longer absorb water. Return the plant atop a dry saucer at this time.

Second, use a small plastic watering can with a LONG gooseneck spout to wet the soil at the top of the pot. Use warm water for this. The end of the spout must rest atop the soil, and must not apply water on any of the leaves. Wet leaves trigger powdery mildew disease, so avoid wetting the foliage at all times. Kalanchoe leaves naturally retain large volumes of water, so avoid wetting them for any reason.

Maintenance

Having repotted the kalanchoe, find a dark place in the home or apartment (very poor light) and put the plant there. Don’t water for at least two weeks so roots have a chance to grow into the new soil around the rootball. At some point in the third week after repotting, water the kalanchoe FROM THE BOTTOM using a large bowl of warm water. Having watered, let the pot drain before returning it atop a saucer.

Care hints from then on:

* Watering. Using warm water, water kalanchoe every 8 to 10 days from then on, always watering in the morning. By late May (Memorial Day), increase watering to once a week. Water from the bottom. If leaves droop, it means the plant has been overwatered; allow the soil to dry an extra day or two before watering the next time. Leaves will harden and turn red if you grow the plant in strong light and warm temperatures.

* Plant food. Kalanchoe needs fertilizer when it is actively growing. Ideally, use a water-soluble plant food (Jack’s Classic all-purpose 20-20-20) at the label rate whenever the plant must be watered (when you rest a finger atop the soil and you sense the soil has started to dry). Since weekly watering is the norm, you should be using 20-20-20 everytime. Jack’s Classic contains eight micronutrients in addition to nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Pre-mix the plant food in a plastic gallon milk container, labeled accordingly for storage.

* Pruning. Once a month from then on, prune the top of upright stems by removing the uppermost pair of leaves. This cosmetic pruning activates basal tissue to grow a bushier plant.

* Flowering. Like poinsettias, kalanchoe must be subject to short days and long nights to develop flowers. The schedule works out to 9 hours of indirect sunlight and 15 hours of darkness (absolute darkness). During this cycle, temperatures must be between 65 and 68 degrees for flower initiation to occur. If the plant is subjected to higher air temperatures (such as 70-75), flower production will be substantially delayed. It is imperative that you check air temperatures during this sunlight-darkness cycle. If you don’t follow these requirements, kalanchoe will flower on its own in February instead of autumn when you find plants flowering at the nursery.

It should be mentioned that kalanchoe only needs six continuous weeks of “short days and long nights” for the plant to flower a month later. For autumn flowers, you could launch the “short day/long night” cycle in late August to enjoy abundant autumn flowers.

Potpourri

* If you buy a kalanchoe at the nursery, choose plants where only half the miniature flowers have opened and are showing color. Should you find any faded leaves, don’t buy the plant; the kalanchoe has been improperly watered and will soon come down with one or more foliage diseases. Finding black spots on any leaves means the plant has come down with powdery mildew disease, and shouldn’t be purchased.

* Beware of leaves having dropped from a plant. If you see leaves on the bench or table at the nursery where they display kalanchoes, it means plants have been over-watered. More often than not, overwatered plants are headed for the trash can.