Jade plant care
Jade plant (Crassula argenta) also referred to Jade tree is grown an indoor houseplant that is easy to care for and can last for many years. It can also be grown outdoors in frost-free areas where it can get to 8 feet or more.
Care
Jade plants can be grown in full sun or shade. When grown in full sun it will produce compact bushy stems and reddish leaf tips. In shade, the plant will develop spindly growth. The leaves will be dark green and stems can become leggy.
When given short days and dry, cool growing conditions, Jade plant will bloom in late winter with slightly fragrant clustered flowers.
Water
Water the plant sparingly. Jade is one of those plants that you can forget to water for a month or more and the plant will still look good. In fact, it has been known to survive without water for 6 months or more but if kept too dry, it will shrink, shrivel and loose some of its leaves.
Let the soil dry out between watering. Water less in winter and in humid weather as too much water can lead to root rot.
Soil
Jade is a succulent plant that needs soil that drains quickly. Plant in cactus soil, or amend a good houseplant soil with 1/3 perlite, pumice or coarse sand.
Best time to transplant is in the summer during warm dry weather. Don’t water the plant before or after transplanting. This will give the plant time to heal any damaged roots and avoid rot.
The plant is not a heavy feeder but fertilizer will make a difference in how well and fast will grow. Feed it when it is actively growing with a 10-20-20 mix every 2-3 months.
Keep the plant cool in winter (55F) during their dormant period.
Pruning
You can prune to shape the plant or if it becomes leggy. Cut it back above a ring on the stem up to a set of leaves. New growth will emerge from the “ringed” area.
Propagation
Stem cuttings
New plants can be easily rooted from stem cuttings or single leaves in the spring. Take a 5-10″ cutting, remove lower leaves so that you have a 1-2″ base stem and let the cutting dry for 2-7 days (depending on humidity) on your kitchen counter. This allows the cut to callus (scab over) which will promote root growth. Place the cutting 1-1 1/2″ deep into moistened sandy soil mix and keep the soil slightly dry until it sends out new roots. Stem cuttings can also be rooted in water.
Leaf propagation
You can also try leaf propagation. Take a single leaf from an active growing stem, allow it to dry for a few days and then stick it in soil at a 30 degree angle just enough to cover the leaf end. It should root in several weeks.
If you had any leaf drop, sometimes you can find tiny new plants growing at the base of the mother plant.
Troubleshooting
A healthy Jade plant has little problems. An overwatered plant can be susceptible to Mealy bugs, rot and gray mold.
I had a jade plant out and temps froze a bit. Noticed top leaves wilting.Brought inside and all the leaves started dying. Can I prune of the dead ones, trim up roots etc. Don’t think it was overwatered but could have. Thanks……Stanlee
Hi There.
I have a jade plant that I inherited from a friend it origially came from a cutting of a very large 20+ year old jade. The poor thing has not been doing well as of late it seems to be growing with a lean to one side. I have been rotating it in the window and i placed a stake for support and it is helping.
My bigger problem is with this larger older one as well as one i have from cuttings.
They both live in my office at work. The leaves are wrinkled and shriveled looking. The base of the larger plant is not soft. I have watered them very little. When i research what to do it says water them however the soil still has some moisture in it from watering yesterday. Help! what do i do!
I have a jade that was doing outside but it started to get cold and frosted one night and my jade looks so sad. It’s drooping all the way down the pot and the leaves are squishy. No leaves have fallen off but I was thinking I should trim it back but done know where to cut for fear of hurting it more. It’s been over a week since it’s had water, probably closer to 2 weeks but hasn’t started looking any better. What should I do?
The edges of my indoor jade are getting pitted black spots. Only the edges. The leaves will slightly yellow and fall off within a couple weeks. It is affecting old growth more, but some new growth as well. I water it about once every two weeks. Any ideas? Thank you.
I have a very healthy Jade, 4 strong steams. Over night they were all laying to one side!!!??? Why?? What can I do???
I have had my Jade for over a year now. It is sooooo beautiful. It grows wonderfully out on my covered Veranda with lots of sunlight. I live in California and we are in the middle of a heat wave. I came home one day and the sun was obviously a little harsher than normal. My jade is still green but my beautiful branches have wilted to one side. I immediately brought it inside in the hopes that it would perk back up into the beautiful shape it was before but unfortunately it hasn’t. Is there anything I can do to “reshape” it without drastically pruning it? My heart is broken! Thanks for any advice you can offer!
I have a jade that is three years old. she has a sister plant that is doing fine. I also have several large jades. I started these two and now one is having problems. her limbs have gone limp and are laying on her sides. She is sprouting smaller plant from bottom of stems. I have not watered for 10days. What should I do?
I acquired a plant resently after my grandmother passed. I’m not sure if it’s a Jade or not but so far this is the closest I’ve found.. The leaves are only on the tips of each stem, that kind of remind me of a cactus cuz the leaves a pointed.. Its not healthy each steam are grey & look like ropes some with holes. I did trim the parts I knew were dead… Please help…
I have many jades (the kind with trumpet shaped leaves). The tips of some of the leaves on one of my older ones are turning gray and shriveling, and those leaves are turning yellow. Any idea what this might be? I’m wondering if I should change the soil or what?
Thank you.
I have had a very healthy jade plant for probably 3 years now, it doesn’t seem to get much taller, maybe it needs to be in a bigger pot? I have always just left it in a room with indirect sunlight. I have seen many jade plants outside in full sun so the other day I decided to put mine out thinking maybe it would help it grow. I should have done my research. Now my plant seems to be sunburnt as I am now reading this can happen. I have noticed a lot of the leaves are dropping. Is there anyway this plant will recover? Will the redness go away and the plant become healthy again?
I have had a jade plant for many years now. Last year I have moved from up north to northern Florida. I keep my plant in a bright room, but not in a direct sun. Jade leaves now have some white spotting which looks like white mold. Gradually leaves develop brown-black spots. There are too many leaves that look like that now. They look like they have some sort of disease. I have recently changed the pot and soil. Please help. Thank you so much.
Gollum Jade plant
We just got an amazing gollum jade plant. It’s probably 4 1/2 feet tall and I’m worried about how much sun it should get. We have it inside where it gets partial shade/indirect sun. Is that going to be enough? Does anyone know the symptoms of not enough sun just sono can keep an eye on it? Any insight is appreciated. Thank you!!
I’ve had a Large Leaf Jade which was given to me as a housewarming gift 10 years ago. Over that time, I have had neighbours try to kill it and break off large portions of it (they were being bitchy and childish) and so I pulled up my front garden and planted out my back yard with all my succullent plants – including my Jade.
With the assistance of Bunnings (a huge gardening and DIY mega-store here in Australia), my Large Leaf Jade had flourished beautifully. I have repotted it twice and it’s grown to three times its original size… and I’m very happy with it.
However, I have noticed in the last two years it hasn’t flowered. It doesn’t get any pests on it, nothing is wrong with the leaves, no stickiness… it just doesn’t flower anymore. I have back-filled with a bag of potting mix (as that’s what I normally used for it and the bottom of the massive pot it filled with large uncut pieces of granite so it drains well)and I’m wondering if I’ve done the right thing? I water this plant only once a month with the same can I’ve used over the last 10 years; otherwise, it only gets water when it rains. Have I done the right thing to bring it back into bloom? Or is there something else I could be doing to assist it?
I recently repotted my jade to a larger pot. It was in the pot that I bought it with for almost 4 years. The stalks grew tall and the leaves thick. Now that it is in a larger pot, the top leaves have been growing more flat and broad. Is this due to over watering?
hello, i have a large jade plant that last year looked amazing, we brought it into a heated well lit sunroom, in oct, but now It has dropped most of its leaves, and these long leggy stems are growing with tiny leaves, it looks so sparse, I do not water it often It gets good light and warmth, so what could be happening to it ?
thank you.
hello, yes to most of the above, it is an old plant, It did get cold some nights, in the sun room and the leaves turned yellow, do you think it will ever pick up again ?
Wrinkled leaves
I recently bought a Jade plant online (it actually may be a Portulacaria/Dwarf Jade). I didn’t water it since I got it (which was about 5 or so days) but I suddenly noticed a few wrinkled leaves. I read somewhere that this is a sign to water, so I did. The leaves were almost completely back to normal until yesterday when I noticed even more leaves were wrinkled. The soil is still moist, so it can’t be dry. Are there root problems such as mealy bugs? I would really like instructions on how to fix this! Thanks so very much!
P.S. The plant is still in the pot it was shipped in. It is wired to this pot, and it is the right size pot. It has drainage holes, but the plant is wired to the pot through these holes, but there is still room for drainage)
Oedema/Edema of Jade plant
I have a five year old indoor jade plant that fluctuates between healthy and sick. I live in Florida and it seems decline in health during the winter months. It finally seems be on the path of recovery and great health, then the same thing happens around each January. Leaves rather quickly develop black bumpy spots on the underside, they start turning from deep green to pale green, get limp and shriveled, then fall off. The first time it happens twenty leaves will drop over night, then more over succesive days. This always begins with the lowest leaves on the branch. It is not scale or rot, the plant is in the original pot. In the past I have had problems with spider mites and some other type of knat in the soil and I have successfully treated those with a soapy water spray. I brought the plant indoors several years ago to limit expose to insects, which seemed to help. Could it be that it is not getting enough sun in the winter months, and that I have overwatered? I read that overwatering can cause “Oedema”, black bumps on the leaves. Any ideas? Thank you.
Top-heavy plant
I have a beautiful jade plant that is growing huge on top but the base is still quite small. Is there a way to prune it so that the base grows bigger to support the top?
wrinkly leaves on Jade plant
Hello, I have a jade plant that is about 12 years old. Recently all the smooth plump leaves have become thinner and wrinkly unhappy looking. Basically the whole plant is that way. I have not watered it very often, perhaps every two weeks. I wonder if I need to repot it. It stands in indirect sun most of the day. The pot it is in is 13″ high and 10″ diameter , about one fourth the overall span and volume of the plant.
Thank you for your insight
Sticky leaves
My Jade plant leans a little and I just found that everything that has been under the plant is VERY sticky. do they normally produce ‘sticky droppings’?
Top-heavy jade plant
How do i know when I need to re-pot my jade plant. My plant is growing tall and is top-heavy. The pot looks small to me — it was given to me about 3 years ago. If I repot, does the pot need to be wide to allow for root growth or deep — or both?
Cold temperatures
Hi
I have several jade plants, some over 20 years old. I grow them outside in the summer and inside in the winter. It has become unseasonable cool, with highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s for the next few days. Should I bring the plants in now or wait until it is consistently these temperatures? (Normally I bring them in mid to late October.)
Thanks!
Blooming Jade plant
About 15 years ago I started a jade plant from one leaf. I still have the plant but it has never bloomed. I live in Maine, the plant is growing indoors, by a large window that gets eastern sun. I don’t tend to it much, water occasionally. Do you have any ideas as to why it doesn’t flower?
Jade leaf drop
I have a large indoor jade plant, about 15 years old. Gets light but not in direct sun and temp in room never exceed 85 degrees F. It’s been in different locations (moving around over 15 years) and always healthy. In the past 2 weeks it is dropping leaves that look healthy (about 10 per day). I water it about every 2 weeks. Pot has good drainage. Reading your blog, that may be too much water but it’s been doing well on that watering schedule all these years. What could be causing leaf dropage now?
Shaping plant
I have a jade that I started from a leaf. It is healthy, but just growing straight. How can I get it to branch out?
I have a Jade plant which has just in the past week started having black spots and black edges on the leaves, what can I do?
Insect problem
I have a small jade plant that I started from a small piece that got knocked off of my neighbors house plant. It’s doing wonderful except there are these incredibly tiny bugs that come out of the bottom (from the soil) of the pot in the drainage water. There aren’t any on the plant itself though. The foliage is just fine, but I’m afraid these bugs are eating the roots and will eventually cause damage. Any ideas about what they are and how to get rid of them? By the way, there are several hundred of them, if not thousands, floating and actually swimming, in the catch basin for the drainage water.
Watering Jade plants
I acquired a jade plant that was transplanted by the florist. It is situated in a sunny window (southern exposure) and I water it every couple of weeks. I have been watering the center of the plant and not sure if this is an issue since the outside leaves seem to be shriveling/wrinkled. The florist seemed to think so but doesn’t know much about jade plants. There is no drainage whole on the bottom of the pot which is aproximately 11″in diameter and 10″ in height . The plant fills the pot and is robust in size at this point it would be heavy & awkward to try and drill a whole in the bottom of the pot where is probably should have been drilled by the florist, in the first place.
Thank you,
Beatrice
Overwatering
I have two beautiful jade plants which we keep on a partially shaded outside deck. we live in Austin, TX, and it’s been unusually hot here, over 100 degrees for many weeks. One Jade is getting yellow leaves, and the other is showing signs of stem rot. The branches are falling over, and the broken sections show rotted areas. They are in regular potting soil.
I fear they may be getting too much water, in my attempt to protect them from the high heat with no rain. Other plants show wilting within a day or two if they don’t get replenished.Please help, what can I do to save my jade plants!
Thanks in advance,
Dan
Heat stress
I don’t have a reply but I also am having leaf-drop problems with my 30+ year-old jade plant. The leaves are turning black on the edges and shriveling up. Many are falling off that look very healthy. I live in TX and have never had a problem with this plant. I water it about every 3-4 weeks. We are having extremely high temps and a severe drought now. HELP!!
Root cuttings
Hi – I live in Austin, TX and we just returned home after being away for 6 weeks to find our beautiful big jade just about entirely dead. The branches have laid down, the beautiful leaves are almost all gone, and there is only a little green left at the tips of the branches. Our house-sitter said it started dying 4 weeks ago, though confessed that she watered erratically. Our other plants look fine, so I doubt it was her watering that caused it. I wonder whether it isn’t likely that the extreme heat – it has been outside in the sun with 100+ temperatures the entire time – killed it. This was it’s first summer in this spot, as my mother-in-law brought it to us from her home in Colorado last fall. Also, can I do anything to take a part of it, even just a small cutting and try to re-grow it?
Thank you,
Sarah Beth
After many years and great growth, My Jade plant is suddenly showing browning on it’s leaves. I doubt it is lack of water as it has rained some in the past week. I am keeping it on the patio now but put it in the garage in the winter.
Does it need food?
Leaf drop
I have a large Jade that is about three or four years old. It was fantastic until about three weeks ago when it started to shrivel its leaves and now has dropped all of them. Should I prune it back and change the soil or what. I really like this plant.
Ron
I have had a jade plant for about two months. I have watered it twice, the last time about three weeks ago. Today I picked it up and lots of leaves fell off. They were plump and healthy looking. It it is in a light room…not direct sunlight. Help!