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Help! My Jade Plant Is Getting Weaker

Ask The Plant Expert:

Hi there
Thanks for your help with my Jade plant, but I still really don’t know what’s wrong with it. I water it when the soil gets dry. I fertilize & mix its water with Bonsai’s vitamin too but it’s still loosing leaves.The great number of its leave wilts & drops. I attached you some photos that you can see its changing over these 2 months. I’m really worry. The color & shape of the new leaves are different. When I received it, the leaves were dark green & plump. But now all of them are light green & thin. I’m not sure if these leaves can store water as much as the prior leaves, & 1 more problem: It’s small branches are wilting & falling; as u can see in one picture the short branches are wilting & some fell off branches are in my hand. In your previous reply you told me “if it’s high in the pot” ,sorry but I don’t understand your meaning by this sentence. Plz guide me through taking care of it. My Jade is too weak; its leaves & branches fall off by itself & even with a small shake. It has no new sprout anymore too.
thanks. -Gisou

Weak Jade Plant - before & after

Weak Jade Plant - before & after

Weak Jade Plant

Flower Shop Network Plant Expert Reply:

Gisou,

Jade (Crassula ovata) needs bright light and a well-drained soil. Although you may only water when the soil is dry, excess water maybe pooling around the roots causing root-rot. This issue, combined with insufficient light is most likely the problem. I recommend re-potting the plant into a container with a drain-hole and using a succulent soil mixture. Your local garden center should have the soil that you need.

Before you add the soil to the pot, place a few rocks or broken pottery pieces in the bottom to keep the drain hole from becoming plugged. Once you have re-potted the Jade place it in front of a window or in a very bright room.  If the sunlight is extremely hot and bright coming though the window, don’t place it in the window; instead step it back a few feet.

In a few weeks you should see an improvement in the plant. I would not fertilize during this time period. When you do fertilize use a very weak solution.

Hope this information was helpful. Please let me know if I can help with anything else.

Comments

  1. Jamie Woods says:

    Haley,
    Your jade has most likely been burned from too much sun exposure. You will need to keep your plant in bright, indirect light for a while and just give it some time to recover. Depending on how badly it was damaged, it may or may not make a full recovery.

  2. Help! I moved a few months ago and I brought a tiny Jade clipping: it had roots and a few leaves, a truly tiny plant. The air port security machines killed the roots, and I covered a water bottle, got some muddy water, and stuck the bottom of the stem in there. The roots have grown back!!!! And no root stem rot!!! Its actually doing well; as in no roots rotting or leaves falling and after having done this a few times (repotting but in winter at 30 degrees latitude) it is having new leaves.

    Why is my plant loosing roots when I take the water away and try to repot it? Is it because I did this in the not cold winter? Why arent the roots rotting, just standing in clay-silt water that is covered from the sunshine?

    What can I do to successfully repot my tiny little jade?

  3. Aynsley Broom says:

    Hi Joe,
    Your jade plant sounds like a fighter. It can still also be in some shock from the move. We do have a great blog about house plant propagation with great tips here: https://www.flowershopnetwork.com/blog/newsletter-june-2006/

  4. My jade plant is very fragile. If i bump into it brances and leaves fall off. The plant is quite large and over 10 years old.

  5. Jeffrey Balch says:

    If the rest of the plant is still healthy, it sounds like it may need to be in a larger container. When you repot, you’ll also want to replace the soil so that root rot doesn’t become an issue.