Here's another.

Mother plant

It's the usual suspects...water retentive potting medium, not enough light, too large a container...and here is the obligatory "Do the pots have drainage holes?" question.

Tons of info about Crassula ovata care on this forum to help you turn them around.

Christopher

Yes, they both have drainage holes. Should I water more often? Is the mother plant in to big of a pot?

The pot should be much smaller, yes, and the potting medium is the largest issue. Please do some forum searches on very well-draining soil for these plants. You are losing leaves because of the heavy, peat-filled soil.

The leaves on a jade will tell you when the plant needs to be watered. They'll start to have a slight 'give' to them, or to look slightly less plump than they normally do. Don't wait to water until the leaves are wrinkling--that's waiting too long--but these plants do not need water incredibly often.

The soil can be very deceiving. I repotted several Crassula obliqua today. The plants are about a year and a half old. They look healthy enough, but haven't really grown - at all. Maybe I've gotten 2-3 new leaves on each plant. So I (very belatedly!) decided to see what was going on at the root level.

I found healthy roots, but not many. I just gave them new homes in the gritty mix and imagine I will see great improvement in their overall health. I thought I had a good mix for the soil, over 1/2 of it was perlite (before I knew about the gritty mix). I haven't watered in over 3 weeks, but we have had 1/4 inch of rain. I was really shocked to see how wet this mix was! Here it is -

So how would I replant them without upsetting them?

You have to get as much of the soil off the roots as possible, and then plant in proper soil. If the plant needs help standing up after the re-pot, I'd use rocks to prop it up until it has firmly re-rooted.

If you leave any of the old water-retentive soil on the roots, the plant can still rot, even if the rest of the pot is full of good well-draining soil. I've had it happen.

Crenda gives a good warning. You can think it's well-draining enough when it's not. The mix needs to have much, much more perlite or pumice in it than it does the dark-looking peat-filled soil. It should look very gritty.

Searched around for a thread with a soil mix photo...

Here is a link that might be useful: soil mix

This post was edited by teatree on Fri, Jan 10, 14 at 17:31

I used to worry about upsetting my plants with repotting, too. Surprisingly, jades have been very resilient and actually did better after repotting.

When I am repotting a plant that may get broken limbs if I lay it down, I try to hold onto a good spot in the trunk while I carefully tease off as much soil as I can with a chopstick. I try to soak off as much of the peat that sticks to the roots as possible, since I am trying to get it into a healthier, free draining soil mix. I use warm - like body temp - water. Not cold and not hot. When all else fails, I trim the hard peaty parts off.

Remember that you will damage some small roots no matter how careful you are. So don't water for a while after repotting to give those roots time to callus, or heal.

Since my plants can enjoy the sun all year long here in Florida, my advice to you would be to find the sunniest warm window you have during the winter. Good soil and sunlight will have your jades looking great. And don't forget to use diluted fertilizer so they get the nutrients they need.

Pls. don't be concerned w/ 'upsetting' the plants or their roots. These are tough, rugged plants, they can take it & will be MUCH better off after change of mix.

Just make sure to get ALL the old mix off, maybe crumble it off w/ your fingers, I've even used a small fork, to get it all off.

From my own experience, growing in a sunny, preferably south facing window makes a big difference. That and not overwatering are key, in my opinion, based on my experience, and the fact that though I have not been able to transfer all my Jades to a perfect mix, they still thrive.

Christopher

Hi,

i need help help with my jade plant.

Hello, could you start a new thread as you will then stand a better chance of getting good responses....this thread is an old one, ppl don't always reply to them :-)

Thanks. I will.