Hello everyone,

I was surprised to find some leaves on my kalanchoe humilis plant very soggy and squishy whilst watering a few days ago.
It's been quite hot the past week or so (+30°C) and I watered the plant two times (maybe three) on several evenings as the soil was dry from the heat and I didn't want the plant to dry out... I didn't think I had overwatered it, but the soggy leaves beg to differ. The affected leaves are essentially the lowest ones and also the oldest - maybe that's got something to do with it?

Any help is welcomed; what can I do at this point?

Thanks!

Can you share a picture of the plant? How big is the pot?

How hot? I turned a Crassula ovata to mush once watering in hot weather. It had been growing here for more than 20 years and was a great speciman. It was clearly stressed and very dry, so I gave in and watered it after the sun was setting and the temperatures were letting up some. By the same time the following day it was soft mush - trunk, branches, leaves - everything. I've done the same thing other times with succulents. They clearly get stressed from lack of water, but they can survive being stressed for a long time. It may not work that way other places, but I've done it too many times. It's really difficult to not give them that water, but I've learned to be really carefully when it gets excessively hot.

I am attaching pictures of the plant. The pot is not that big and the temperatures were well over 33°C (~91°F)
Should I leave it be or cut those leaves off?

It doesn't look bad from appearance alone.

I wouldn't cut any leaves off (more potential for harm than benefit), but I would get it out of the sun if that's possible. Bright shade, filtered light, morning sun would be ideal. When a plant enters a crisis (like a sudden dramatic deflation of the leaves, or the squishiness you have described) it rarely benefits from full sun. At this time of year the days are the longest, and the sun reaches the highest point in the sky. It's especially intense at mid day.

Donald has more experience with heat than I do, and his words sound like a wise note of caution about when it's best to water.

Our average high temp during summer is 22-25°C so heat is never an issue (except for lack thereof, in a few cases). I would only add what I have read about heat tolerance and succulents.

High temperature tolerance is relative to a plant's recent history (thus a plant accustomed to heat will be better able to deal with it). And in many cases the critical variable is the nighttime low temp. When it does not cool down at night, your plants are more vulnerable to melt down after watering, and will probably be in some kind of general (visible) shock.

As Baja suggested, I'd move it out of direct light and hold off watering it further and watch it to see what happens. I wouldn't remove the leaves unless they fall off with a gentle touch.

91F would not be in the excessive heat range here, but no cool down at night is something a lot of plants have trouble with even at that temperature. As was pointed out, a temp of 91F can be hot for the plant if its a sudden change from normal cooler temperatures.

The mush event I've observed is sudden and cataclysmic. I don't see that in the photo, but what you describe may just be a milder version of the same thing. If it were mine, I'd move it into bright shade and wait and observe for a while. That's all I'd do. If it's beyond recovery, it will continue to degrade. If goes into a holding pattern and just sits, there's the hope it's working on replacing damaged roots in the potting soil. The plant above the soil won't reflect that recovery for a while, but eventually new growth should begin again once the root system has recovered a bit.

Good luck.

When I enlarge the pics, I see some spider webbing. Hopefully from an actual spider, not spider mites, but worth investigating.

Interesting discussion, night heat. Another one of those often overlooked variables when comparing growing in steamy SE US vs. desert/western US. I think dew, or lack thereof, is probably another. This is my primary complaint about buying unlabeled plants, I can't investigate their natural habitat.... to see how little it is likely to appreciate the accommodations I can offer. LOL! If it's really cute & not too expensive, I'll give it a try usually. : + )

Hi y'all,

just FYI the plant wasn't in full sun, twas just for picture purposes. I'd left the leaves be, but they've gotten worse so I removed them by twisting.
These are the affected leaves:






If I remember correctly, the plant had similar brown spots on some of it's old leaves when I bought it (it seemed stressed); hopefully you'll know what this is.
Thanks!

I don't know exactly what to call it but I wouldn't worry about it.

I would suspect oedema. I wonder if hot nights plays a role in this.

Thank you for the replies!

But the wrinkly and soggy bits seem kinda bad, or am I wrong? Was it good I removed those leaves and should I do the same with any other with the "symptoms" of sogginess?

Hello everyone, hope you're having a good day!

The problem with the leaves being very soggy and squishy seems to have continued. I'd say they are now wrinkly and thin, more than "very soggy".
But new leaves seem to still be forming.

I'm planning on repotting the plant into a mixture of cactus soil and perlite whilst checking the roots in the process.

Images of the plant attached below - please bare in mind that the plant is not normally in direct sun, I've moved it for picture purposes, and forgive the dusty leaves...

Any help is appreciated!

I'm not sure if the normal thick, fleshy feel of the leaves is mistakenly being interpreted as the plant having a problem? It looks a little etiolated and faded but otherwise OK. If it is getting too dry, or the roots have moisture but aren't healthy enough to deliver it to the foliage, the lowest leaves will "deflate" and fall off. All Kals seem to do this. Are you able to ease it into an hour or two of morning or late evening sun?

purpleinopp said:I'm not sure if the normal thick, fleshy feel of the leaves is mistakenly being interpreted as the plant having a problem? It looks a little etiolated and faded but otherwise OK. If it is getting too dry, or the roots have moisture but aren't healthy enough to deliver it to the foliage, the lowest leaves will "deflate" and fall off. All Kals seem to do this. Are you able to ease it into an hour or two of morning or late evening sun?

Thanks for the reply! This Kalanchoe has thin leaves, as opposed to thicker, meatier leaves... I'm not sure about giving it more sun, as it is already in a spot with several hours of direct evening sun (and partial shade during the rest of the day). Rainy days are slowly upon as, as well as colder weather in general so I'm gonna have to start moving my plants inside, where they'll suffer a bit from lower light conditions... I'll just repot the plant then and leave it as is, if I don't find any damage to the roots, ofc.

OK, on Wed you said, " the plant is not normally in direct sun..." I wish you the best!

Hi, what I meant was it's not in direct sun all day (to avoid sunburn and such). All my plants have been moved inside for fall/winter, hopefully they survive without much damage.
Thanks for the help and good wishes!

My pleasure! The struggle is real for those of us with winter frost/freezing. ; )

I'd say that your plant has never been given sufficient light and is suffering because of that lack. The internode length is too long, the leaves are thinner than normal and it lacks the characteristic red striping that has people marketing it online with the incorrect name Kalanchoe tigrina. This data base has many pictures of K. humilis to indicate what it should look like. Plants grown in insufficient light tend to be weaker and susceptible to many issues. I don't know where you live so I can't address temperature/watering issues. We have very high humidity here and it rains often in the "winter" when you might expect excess water to cause issues for this plant. It doesn't. Also we have a dry season in the middle of summer when it doesn't rain for a week or more and then it pours. Plants grown in full sun don't even blink, in fact they flower. I would find a way to slowly move your plant into a high light situation as it recovers. If your temperatures are already dropping you may need to move it inside so that it has time to recover from its weakened state.

Wildbloomers said:I'd say that your plant has never been given sufficient light and is suffering because of that lack. The internode length is too long, the leaves are thinner than normal and it lacks the characteristic red striping that has people marketing it online with the incorrect name Kalanchoe tigrina. This data base has many pictures of K. humilis to indicate what it should look like. Plants grown in insufficient light tend to be weaker and susceptible to many issues. I don't know where you live so I can't address temperature/watering issues. We have very high humidity here and it rains often in the "winter" when you might expect excess water to cause issues for this plant. It doesn't. Also we have a dry season in the middle of summer when it doesn't rain for a week or more and then it pours. Plants grown in full sun don't even blink, in fact they flower. I would find a way to slowly move your plant into a high light situation as it recovers. If your temperatures are already dropping you may need to move it inside so that it has time to recover from its weakened state.

Thanks for the reply! I got this kal at a garden shop sale - it was in pretty bad shape then, so it would fit your theory on the lack of light. I sohuld've put it in more direct light over this summer, but now it's inside suffering again... Won't make the same mistake next year!
I'd appreciate if you could check out my new post about placing a grow light over it at The thread "My plants are etiolated, aren't they - and an inquiry about grow lights" in Houseplants forum

My Kalanchoes used to have very healthy plants. Now stems are drooping down. Stems / leaves have brown bumps size of pencil points