It looks like you may be asking about a cactus or succulent. In addition to any advice you receive here, please consider visiting r/cactus r/succulents for more specialized care advice.
A common problem with cacti and succulents is etiolation. This is when a succulent stretches or becomes leggy. Reply with “!etiolation” for advice.
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RainyDeer
I posted about this plant 3 months ago hoping to figure out what was wrong with it. I was told that it needed less water and more light. So I did that. But the plant never improved.
I noticed recently that when I did water the plant. It didn’t seem to be absorbing anything. The leaves still looked like they were lacking water.
So today I took the plant out of its pot to look at it closer. And the roots are pretty much nonexistent. At this point I just want to try and save it from dying. Is there anything that can be done at this point?
TythonTv
Maybe. Jade plants have super thin and shallow root systems so they don’t like heavy soil that the roots can’t push through. It looks like it could actually be rotting and not drying out, if any parts are squishy then it might have started to spread rot through the trunk before roots developed. I’d try and put it in a succulent mix with lots of pumice or lava rock and let the base completely dry out before watering (1-2 weeks in dry soil).
If it was a lack of water, putting it in super moist soil, without a root system will only cause it to rot anyway instead of taking up the water.
Your best hope is that the trunk isn’t rotted and there’s enough water stored for it to develop some roots. If the trunk is squishy near the base then there’s probably nothing you can do and I would try and salvage any parts farther up that aren’t squishy and do the same lava rock dry out method.
SAMartinezSloan
Yes. Google “3 Ways to propagate a jade plant” and go to the Martha Stewart page. Those three ways have seen me through many propagations. Your only issue might be that the plant is not optimally healthy, but at this point, you have nothing to lose.
Dark_Angel14
You’ll have to propagate the plant. Looks like rot from overwatering to me. Either you were still watering too often or your soil was holding too much moisture.
HiTechHomestead
It looks like it’s alive and has plenty of nodes so if it were me I’d chop and prop the stem and each of the branches! I haven’t actually propped jade so someone else probably has better/more specific advice, but I’ve found with most succulents if I stick the stem (cut right below a node and let it callus for a day) into some coco coir, water it, and forget about it for a month or two, it’ll root and form new plants! Sometimes I just stick the stem into the pot with the parent plant since that’s about how often I water my succulents anyways lol.
jesslow
I would cut the tips plus a few segments, and wait for them to root, I think they will.
Fae_Fungi
Jade propagate really easily, this one might be toast but you can probably get 6 healthy props out of it still
joannalee74
So, I had pretty much the same situation. The leaves were paper thin and falling off. I took it out of the dirt and saw that the root system was pretty small. I was overwatering it, apparently. So I left it out of the dirt for about an hour and a half. I mixed some cactus dirt with a lot of perlite and put the plant in it. I didn’t water it for around 10 days. It stopped losing leaves! So, then I gave it a little water then waited a few days. Then I gave it a little more. I started stirring up the dirt occasionally to make sure it didn’t stay too wet at the roots. The leaves started to plump up again!! I was sooooo happy! It started growing again too! So now I only water it once every 2-ish weeks, and it looks amazing! Good luck!! I hope this helps!!
9 Comments
Thank you for posting to r/plantclinic!
It looks like you may be asking about a cactus or succulent. In addition to any advice you receive here, please consider visiting r/cactus r/succulents for more specialized care advice.
A common problem with cacti and succulents is etiolation. This is when a succulent stretches or becomes leggy. Reply with “!etiolation” for advice.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/plantclinic) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I posted about this plant 3 months ago hoping to figure out what was wrong with it. I was told that it needed less water and more light. So I did that. But the plant never improved.
I noticed recently that when I did water the plant. It didn’t seem to be absorbing anything. The leaves still looked like they were lacking water.
So today I took the plant out of its pot to look at it closer. And the roots are pretty much nonexistent. At this point I just want to try and save it from dying. Is there anything that can be done at this point?
Maybe. Jade plants have super thin and shallow root systems so they don’t like heavy soil that the roots can’t push through. It looks like it could actually be rotting and not drying out, if any parts are squishy then it might have started to spread rot through the trunk before roots developed. I’d try and put it in a succulent mix with lots of pumice or lava rock and let the base completely dry out before watering (1-2 weeks in dry soil).
If it was a lack of water, putting it in super moist soil, without a root system will only cause it to rot anyway instead of taking up the water.
Your best hope is that the trunk isn’t rotted and there’s enough water stored for it to develop some roots. If the trunk is squishy near the base then there’s probably nothing you can do and I would try and salvage any parts farther up that aren’t squishy and do the same lava rock dry out method.
Yes. Google “3 Ways to propagate a jade plant” and go to the Martha Stewart page. Those three ways have seen me through many propagations. Your only issue might be that the plant is not optimally healthy, but at this point, you have nothing to lose.
You’ll have to propagate the plant. Looks like rot from overwatering to me. Either you were still watering too often or your soil was holding too much moisture.
It looks like it’s alive and has plenty of nodes so if it were me I’d chop and prop the stem and each of the branches! I haven’t actually propped jade so someone else probably has better/more specific advice, but I’ve found with most succulents if I stick the stem (cut right below a node and let it callus for a day) into some coco coir, water it, and forget about it for a month or two, it’ll root and form new plants! Sometimes I just stick the stem into the pot with the parent plant since that’s about how often I water my succulents anyways lol.
I would cut the tips plus a few segments, and wait for them to root, I think they will.
Jade propagate really easily, this one might be toast but you can probably get 6 healthy props out of it still
So, I had pretty much the same situation. The leaves were paper thin and falling off. I took it out of the dirt and saw that the root system was pretty small. I was overwatering it, apparently. So I left it out of the dirt for about an hour and a half. I mixed some cactus dirt with a lot of perlite and put the plant in it. I didn’t water it for around 10 days. It stopped losing leaves! So, then I gave it a little water then waited a few days. Then I gave it a little more. I started stirring up the dirt occasionally to make sure it didn’t stay too wet at the roots. The leaves started to plump up again!! I was sooooo happy! It started growing again too! So now I only water it once every 2-ish weeks, and it looks amazing! Good luck!! I hope this helps!!