The paddle plant, known botanically as kalanchoe luciae, is a lovely succulent with broad, paddle-like leaves. It grows easily in many different conditions as long as it gets enough sun and the right amount of water. If you have a paddle plant, you may know it gets big quickly.
Once your paddle plant is too large for its pot or denying sun to other plants, it’s time to make cuttings and spread your plant to other gardens. Whether you give them away or keep them in different pots, paddle plants are straightforward to propagate.
How To Propagate a Paddle Plant
If you have a jealous gardener friend who wants a cutting from your paddle plant, it’s easy to snip off a leaf, let it heal, and send it to them without hassle. You won’t have to worry about killing the plant or cutting, as paddle plants don’t need much extra care. Here are the steps to propagating a paddle plant correctly.
How To Prune a Paddle Plant
First, you must know how to make a proper cutting of a paddle plant. If you cut too deeply, you could wound the mother plant. If you don’t cut enough, the cutting won’t last, and you’ll have to throw it away. Finding the perfect middle isn’t too hard – the trick is to separate your cactus by leaves.
To correctly prune a paddle plant, cleanly cut an entire leaf off the plant using shears or kitchen scissors. Ensure the plant won’t be exposed to bugs or pests over the next few days so the cut can properly heal.
You can repeat this process as needed until your paddle plant is the ideal size. However, ensure you’re not over-pruning by taking leaves from the edge and not the middle of the plant. Mature leaves might fall off on their own, and you can propagate these if you put them in water immediately.
How To Plant Cuttings
Once you have your cuttings, you should let them heal for a minimum of a few days. Some gardeners insist that cuttings should sit in water for at least a week, but you don’t have to wait that long. As long as a callous has appeared over the cut, you can plant your paddle plant leaves and form new plants.
Once you’ve let the cuttings heal, plant the callous end in a pot of succulent soil. Succulent soil has specific minerals that regular potting soil doesn’t and is lighter and airier. If you don’t have succulent soil, you can use regular potting soil and add pumice to the mix to preserve the lightness.
How To Care for a Paddle Plant
Once you’ve planted the cactus and let it settle, you are ready to care for your cutting. With proper soil, water, and light, it will soon be a completed plant. Not long after that, you’ll be able to take cuttings from your new plants and have even more succulents in your home.
A succulent needs sparse watering and plenty of sunlight. You should only water your plants when the soil is dry and always keep them in the sun. Ensure that your paddle plant doesn’t get too cold, and you should have a long-lasting, healthy paddle plant.
Final Thoughts
Whether you are planning on giving unique gifts, you want to prune your paddle plant without wasting the leaves, or you simply want more paddle plants, it’s easy to learn how to propagate a paddle plant yourself. Propagating a paddle plant is more straightforward than it may seem and will leave you with several new, vibrant succulents in no time.