The Mother of Thousands succulent, scientifically known as Kalanchoe daigremontiana, looks like a high-maintenance plant, thanks to its attractive foliage.
Whether you’re a gardening enthusiast or beginner, you’ll love that it’s easy to take care of.
What is the Mother of Thousands succulent?
This succulent plant is striking and unique because it has tiny plantlets that keep growing on the edges of its leaves. These can take root and produce new plants.
Hailing from the tropics of Madagascar, the Mother of Thousands is an intriguing plant. If you want to grow it in your own garden, there are some important things to know.
How To Grow Mother Of Thousands
If you want to grow the Mother of Thousands succulent at your home, you’ll have to ensure that you give it temperate conditions so that it will thrive.
Here is what you should know about caring for your Mother of Thousands, based on its water, light, and fertilizer requirements.
Water
You should ensure that its soil is moist but not too wet. The container you choose in which to plant your Mother of Thousands should be a pot that has excellent drainage.
When you first water the plant, you want to give it water until it comes out at the bottom of the pot. Then, only water it when the first two inches of soil are dry.
Sun
Along with enough water, this plant requires bright light. It survives in extreme heat, but it isn’t resistant to frost.
So, if you’ve found the perfect place for your Mother of Thousands plant in the garden but you live in a cold region, make sure you keep it in a container so that you can move it indoors when the weather is very cold.
The best temperatures that Mother of Thousands needs to survive and thrive is between 65- and 75-degrees Fahrenheit. So, your best bet is to place it somewhere in the garden where it will get strong, but indirect, sunlight for many hours a day.
Pro tip: You will know that you’re giving your Mother of Thousands enough light and sun by checking out its leaves.
If they’re a bright, healthy green and they have red edges on them, then those are signs that the plant has enough light to meet its daily needs.
Pot Requirements
Make sure you put your Mother of Thousands plant in the correct pot. Since it needs well-draining soil as mentioned earlier, a terra cotta pot is a good choice as it has holes in the bottom to drain excess moisture.
Adding pebbles to the bottom of the pot can be a good way to ensure that the drainage works well.
However, note that if you want to be able to move your Mother of Thousands plant from outside to inside when the weather becomes cold, a terra cotta pot might be too heavy. It can also break easily.
You can control the size you want your Mother of Thousands to become by choosing the right pot size. If you keep it in a small pot, it will remain a bit smaller.
If you want it to grow larger, a bigger pot will encourage it to grow with larger leaves and greater height.
If you want to you’re your plant small, make sure you still ensure you have enough space for your plant – about an inch of space between the plant and container should be enough.
When your Mother of Thousands becomes too large for its pot, you’ll have to repot it. Do this during the springtime as the warm temperature will encourage the roots of the plant to grow once it has been transplanted into its new pot.
Fertilizer
From March to September, you should give your Mother of Thousands a liquid fertilizer every month.
However, make sure you dilute the fertilizer by half so that you don’t give the plant too much of it. When it comes to the soil that this plant needs to grow, commercial cactus soil mix is sufficient for its needs.