I have a small jade plant that I've had for approximately two years, and re-potted six or so months ago. It seemed to be growing well, but very recently it's begun to droop. I thought it was just the weight of the plant, but it now seems almost unable to hold any part of itself up! Also some of the lower leaves have begun either to rot and fall off, or dry up and fall off. I think I've erred on the side of not enough water. In the pics I just watered it, since the pot felt extremely light (ie very dry). Upon watering the water also runs right though almost instantly. The leaves that aren't sickly seem plump and full however so perhaps it's overwatered? Also some one of the stems is seeming to almost crack. Would this be a case of not enough light? Too much water, or not enough? There are definitely no drafts to speak of, and I haven't noticed any bugs or webs.
the soil type looks fine. i keep jades and other crassula's in unglazed clay to avoid excess moisture staying in the soil too long (the unglazed stuff 'breaths'). are the pot and plate one piece or two? if one, then you're really not getting enough drainage and the glazing adds to the issue of water retention. with glazed, the soil throughout stays moist longer...so, you hold of watering because you're supposed to wait until the soil is dry...then the top looks/feels dry so you water - with glazed pots, especially those connected to a drip plate, the bottom part is still very moist. the end result is overwatering. the other end result is that the soil is so dry at the top that any water you add goes to the sides (between the soil and the pot) and goes straight down and out...so the soil isn't moistened at all and then you end up with soil that is way too dry - which compounds the 'running off immediately' issue. catch 22. first thing i'd do is unpot the whole thing and check the roots for rot. if you see any brown mushy roots, cut them away and then repot with fresh soil into an unglazed clay pot. let the plant sit in the dry soil for a week - the roots need a bit of time to recuperate from being fiddled with and/or cut back. then, water thoroughly until the water just starts to come out the drainage holes at the bottom. check the soil in 7-10 days, if it's dry down an inch or so, water again, if still moist at 1 1/2 inches, check again in a day or two and wait or water as needed. i don't like the look of the clay, so i put them into larger decorative pots to hide it - if the clay is still visible, i use some bits of the long sphangum moss to cover the top of the clay pot. that's a crassula...i don't think it's a jade. not sure which one it is though - there are so many! gets the same care as a jade plant. same soil, watering schedule and lighting - which is direct light or very bright indirect if you can't do full-on.
That poor plant seems to be very etiolated, or elongated due to not enough light or too much fertilizer. Jade Plants are Crassula ovata, which is what it appears to be. This plant will not recover on its own from this state. You could make cuttings from the top few inches of each stem and root them, or take leaf cuttings to start new plants. Jades need to be in bright light indoors, to be fed with very little, if any, fertilizer. I move mine outside every spring to spend the summer in full sun. The move out needs to be done carefully to not sunburn the plant.
Good to know about glazed and unglazed pots, thanks. What do you all recommend for setup of a separate drainage plate, so that the soil doesn't sit in water? The Jade has never been fertilized.. for a year the home I had it in had a very bright south-west facing window, and it grew vigorously. I got it at a very small size, it's three times as "long" as it was. In my current home I don't have nearly as bright light exposure, and the plant all but stopped growing. I'll try to get it out of the pot to check roots within the next few days, (need time and a new pot) I'm a little leary of breaking all the leaves or branches off in the process, but I guess it's probably doomed if I don't check it and/or repot it! I've also never ahd luck rooting leaves/stems in regular potting soil.. what do you recommend to use for rooting? I've heard vermiculite works well? Also I live in Calgary, so how late in the season should the Jade be left outdoors? Would this one benefit from being put outside this time of year, or would that be too much movement? I've moved it to the brightest spot in my house for now.
i usually water from below - i take the pot and set it into a sided plate or a bowl and fill that with water and let it sit so the water is wicked up into the soil. if i water from above (done occassionally to flush excess salts out of the soil) i set the pots in those same dishes or bowls and water thoroughly; let them sit for about ten minutes to let the excess water to drain out and then i remove the water and let them sit another 5-10 minutes for any more excess water to work it's way out and then i put them back into the decorative containers. i usually keep a few fairly decent sized pebbles in the bottom of the decorative containers...so that any excess water that is still going to work it's way out will drip down and the clay pot isn't sitting in it. i've never fertilized any of my jades. it's just not something they need. i've gotten stems to root - never leaves though. i've tried vermiculite, perlite, regular soil, cactus soil, peat. the leaves just never take for me. the stems will though - as long as you let the dry/callous over for a couple of days and then put them in the regular type of soil you use for the plants...let sit for a week in dry soil and then start a watering schedule and it should have good roots going within a month or so. this is the wrong time of year for rooting - it'll take much longer (will still happen though). dipping the cut ends (that have dried) in some rooting hormone might be helpful at this time of year. i'd check the roots first and if there is enough that is still healthy, i'd repot. if not, i'd take cuttings and try to get them rooted. or, maybe a combination of both - do cuttings and repot the base stems. yes, bright light is necessary for this plant. full-on sun is best. do the best you can with whatever windows you have and maybe think about adding a grow light. you can get the tubes in smaller sizes now (as short as 6-8 inches) and they do make them now in incandescent style so you could use any old lamp that you have. i have some lights on a stand and i have a timer on them so that they're on for 10-12 hours a day.
Okay so my next question is, what SHOULD the roots look like? After making a large mess, I found this. The whole soil was very very dry, except the very bottom which was only slightly damp. The roots are brown, which I'm assuming is a bad thing. However they don't seem mushy or... "rotten" so to speak. Here is a picture.
when you repotted it, did you remove whatever soil was around the roots? it looks like you didn't and that what was there originally was peat. peat eventually dries out and becomes hard and then the water can't get to the roots. the white stuff is perlite and that's okay. i'd carefully remove the peat from the roots and then repot it again in that cactus soil - you can mix in more perlite or aquarium soil (no dust like the perlite) for extra drainage...it's not going to hurt anything. it should recover just fine once it's all in good soil and the water can get to the roots.
