Hi All, My Jade plants have been growing well this year. In fact, a leaf fell off last spring and it now is an inch or so tall with 4 tiny leaves. My jades are indoors under compact flourescent lights, and I keep my apartment warm. However, today when I came home from work I noticed that 4 large leaves had fallen off of my tallest jade. My plants are not watered much, and I do fertilize and add coffee to keep the soil acidic...so as far as I know they are well cared for. The plants all look healthy, no rot, or anything abnormal...Is it normal for Jade plants to drop leaves in winter? Or is it just my Jade plants way of saying that they are so comfy that they want to reproduce... just wondering. Thanks! Jenniflower
Leaves don't stay on the plant for ever. Is it the lower/older leaves dropping? That's not abnormal. If it were a lot of leaves or the newest leaves falling off there might be more of a problem, but a couple older leaves is fine. Look at the base of any big healthy plant and you will always see dropped leaves and little plantlets.
Jade will drop leaves for various reasons....as long as it's watered correctly, I find the lower winter light levels can initiate leaf drop. Now that I've switched from natural winter light to HID lighting, the leaves have stopped dropping. If you grow your Jade under flourescents 100% of the time, it could be time to replace the bulbs as they decrease in intensity quite significantly over 1 year of 12hr/day use. Quit the coffee thing, Jade aren't fussy about soil pH & there are better ways to modify pH. Simon
Hi Globalist, Thanks for the input. Yes, the leaves that have dropped are the older/lower leaves. Thanks so much! I guess I have never seen 4 leaves fall all at once so I felt concerned. Thanks for your explanation. My plants have access to sunlight whatever little there is and get light from flourescents. As for coffee, I will continue to use it as my jades did not grow at all before I gave them coffee years ago. They seem to flourish abundantly with the starbucks coffee grounds. For those who don't believe in coffee-perhaps they should try a little. Thanks for all your responses. Much appreciated. Jenniflower
