Sorry Maggie, But with so little info. it's near impossible to say. Don't know what kind of plants you've got or where you are, w/out pix it's too tough to say. Don't know why you'd have cuttings on the roof, leaf or stem cuttings. Roof & desert sound scorching even tho' you said 'filtered sunlight'. Could you pls. provide either names of plants or pix or both? Also, you could just take new cuttings & leave them INDOORS dry, on your window ledge for several days then into tiny (2") clay pots of Cactus & Succulent mix w/ 50% more perlite. Don't water them until you seen new growth.

1: this is a succulent called a ghost plant 2: this is rotted from overwatering. 1.5 weeks is too often to water succulents like this i go weeks without wayering them. i would cut back to like once a month on the watering. i literally fixed this exact problem 5 minutes ago on my ghost plant (same as yours) that looked almost exactly like your picture. succulents are from the desert and hold water in their pedals and dont need/like a lot of water. they do however like LOTS of sun. 3: how to fix… take the plant out of the pot, cut the rotting part of the stem off maybe like a half inch abpve where the rotting starts. you want a nice healthy stem to replant, so cut it high enough above the rot that youre sure it has no rot left on it. then remove a couple pedals from the healthy top and replant the succulent, making sure to bury the nodes where you removed the healthy pedals… those nodes will grow roots if burried in the soil. then put it in the sun and cut way back on the watering. like i said i literally did this a few minutes ago because one of my three ghost plants looked almost exactly like your picture. i was wondering out loud why only the one was having this issue and they are literally all the same plant (two of the three are peopogated from the ”mother” plant, the first one i owned and took cuts from to make two more. the mother and one of its clones is doing just fine) and my girlfriend pointed out ”wasnt that the one that got rained on a bunch this summer”… sure enough it totally was. it stinks but you can save it succulents are easy to propogate just cut the rot off and replant. and cut way back on the watering. succulents can go for months without water. hope this helps.

Karen I was going through pumice like it was going out if style;). That was truly the main reason why I started buying perlite again. But then I noticed the perlite really lightened the load. Not so heavy and dense. I feel like the perlite is great for aeration and the pumice is good at water retention. Personally I like the particles in my mix all different sizes. The pieces of pumice are slightly bigger than the perlite. Westes, I know you don't like the look of pumice, but give it a try. It's really wonderful. Pumice is one of the best things you can use in your mix. I can understand not using it because it's too expensive, but not because of esthetic reasons. There is so much info out there on how great it is and you have it so readily available;). I really enjoy bonsai and admire the people that can do it well. A man named Micheal Hagedorn does really amazing bonsai. He used turface in his mix before using pumice. Check out these two pics from this blog Life without Turface Mr. Hagedorn wrote. This is a pic of Pine tree roots planted in a Turface mix for 5 years. Below is Pine roots planted in a mix of pumice after 3 years. I know bonsai and succulents are not the same thing, but their mixes are definitely in the same vein, and we all want great roots. Amazing roots below equal a beautiful plant up top;). I mean come on who's lookin at the mix when the plant is stunning;). I don't filter my pumice, definitely do rinse and strain the two to get rid of any dust. It would make life easier if you put the cutting in pumice and water like normal. Give the plant the opportunity to dig and anchor itself with some good roots. The way you're watering is very counterproductive. I know people have already told you this, but we aren't just saying it just because we feel like it;). At first I didn't realize that's how you were watering that little guy. Doesn't surprise me one bit that there are no fine roots. How could there be the plant never has a chance to grow them. Roots need at least a few hours to absorb water. I can't imagine they absorb anything within a few minutes. That could be why the plant is absorbing the bottom leaves. I'm not trying to tell you how to do anything. They're your plants do what you want, but I'm just trying to help you see the other side of the coin;). If you take anything away from all these comments it's just to leave your plant be and give it a chance in pure pumice and water like normal once the mix is dry. I'm sure you will start to notice a huge difference in root growth;).

This is long post, so I apologise in advance :) After cutting top parts off, you could leave all lower trunks with roots potted, and they may grow. It likely depends on how healthy plant is. Here are some 'leftover' stems after tops were decapitated, and they are growing new plantlets and/or branches - they are all different plants:Another possibility is that they may grow from the roots, right at the soil level; here are couple of examples - hope you can see them as they are quite tiny:Top parts that were cut off - cuttings, would be best to let callus = heal just for few hours, unpotted. After that, stick them into well draining mix and let grow. These should be kept out of strong sunlight until they start growing, and then slowly - every few days - moved into best light you have. 8cm pot isn't too small, I would put 2 - 4 cuttings in it, depending on size. You may want to consider another approach: try to get existing plants to be healthier. They may be quite weak from being in very low light. Let them grow for a while, but in better light - I would use those great windows you seem to have. After they get much sturdier, you could behead them as suggested. Cuttings that don't have any roots shouldn't be watered until they start growing roots. You'll be able to tell when you very lightly tug the cutting and feel some resistance - that means roots already started growing into potting mix. Or when new growth starts appearing. Leftover stems with roots can be watered regularly. I would improve the mix for potting them. If nothing else, get a bag of coarse perlite and mix it 50:50 with soil. I would not follow advice you were given - ..." only water with a syringe, only a few drops will do"... Succulents need to be watered thoroughly when all the potting mix in the pot is almost completely dry. That could be few days or longer. It all depends on the mix and the temperatures. That is why you need to improve drainage of the mix and use pots with drainage holes. Plastic pots are just fine (I have about 200 succulents in plastic pots), but if you prefer terracotta, use them. If you have water-retaining mix, plastic or terracotta pots will not make too much of difference. Your Kalanchoe tomentosa needs more light too. They will grow woody and longer stems as they get older. Rosettes should be quite tight and leaves will get rich color in good sun:Pls. ask any questions you may have :)