So I bought this beautiful jade (in a TINY container at a shop) about two months ago. Soil was bone bone dry and severely rootbound. Immediately scratched some of the bottom roots and loosened it, repotted into a very gritty and well drained soil mix, mostly inorganic, and waited about one or two weeks before deep watering.
When I water, I wait to see the leaves thin and almost wrinkly, and i submerge the whole pot in water for 30 minutes. However, there has been no sign that the jade is uptaking any water whatsoever: despite submerging, the leaves stay wrinkled.
Note: I am in NYC and grow this indoors. My thermo keeps temperatures ~65-75F through the winter, humidity ~20-30% (down from 70% a few months ago). Also, there is a heat mat, so assuming the Jade wouldnt go inactive. Could this be a pest or unrelated problem?
Thanks!
by Different-Variety-2
20 Comments
Perhaps the mostly inorganic compound you have it in is causing more harm and good. Jade can absolutely tolerate those temps and varying humidity so I don’t think that’s the issue.
I think I would add regular soil to it. I found jades to be tolerate of moister soil. It looks like yours isn’t getting enough water. I would also add succulent food to it.
Yeah, I agree with u/False_Risk296 – jades do need a bit more water and can tolerate a more organic medium than lots of others succulents. This one is definitely totally dehydrated. I would either just re-pot now, or maybe start giving it a good soak more frequently than usual and see if you can get it looking happier before you re-pot.
buy a soil meter, u can detect the humidity
I have jade in pure soil and its fine. I would suggest you to go with 50% to 50% soil to perlite or lower perlit percentage.
You may want to try to remove all the old soil down to bare roots. You can accomplish this by soaking and then swishing it in a bucket of water or if you have a place to hose it off would work too. Then, as dehydrated as it is, you may want to let the roots soak in water several hours or overnight. Let the roots dry for a day or so then re-pot. A good 40/60 or 30/70 organic to grit ratio would be good for jade. Hope it comes out of it okay… it’s a beautiful Jade. Good luck. 👍
With that kind of medium you would need to water more often to encourage root growth and maintain roots.
I wouldn’t say it was “severely root bound…” and the new pot may be too large, and ideally the medium/soil does not go above the rootball (it’s planted too deep).
I have several jades in good old all-purpose potting soil. They are all 5 to 10 years old and doing great.
Lots of good advice here –
Clean off as much of that old substrate as you can by soaking/rinsing. Then repot in a pot only slightly larger than what it came in, in a cactus/succulent mix (I honestly go with Miracle Grow) and perlite or fine pumice, about 50/50.
Also, what I haven’t seen mentioned is:
Top Water it. Stop with the bottom-watering, and water it from the top in a slow steady stream until it runs out the bottom of the pot. Do not let it sit in standing water. Only water again when the soil is completely dry.
Then…wait. It will need time to refresh and reestablish some roots before you see really any change in the top of the plant.
Your jade is very thirsty. I have mine in a 1:1 cactus soil & perlite mix and it absolutely exploded with growth this past summer. It needs at least a little something to retain some water. I’ve found my jades tolerate more water than my other succulents.
Try a bit of soaking in hydrogen peroxide. And totally new soil.
I love the look of the rocks but for me I need to be able to see the soil and test before I water but that’s me. Like most here I would repot in different medium with a little smaller pot but a pot deep enough to balance growth of plant
I agree that it looks super dehydrated and the heat mat will make it dry out faster too. Plain old room temp won’t hurt it. My winters are 60-40F outside and they love that. The pot is also a little big and maybe too deep. I’ve noticed mine perfer smaller pots than you’d think as well as being in straight houseplant/potting mix. They also like a little bit of coffee grounds in my experience, but that’s not super relevant here.
Also, something I haven’t seen here is transplant shock. Two months out might be kind of late to shock but if you repot it you can blend a bit of fresh aloe leaf in a blender with water and use it immediatly after repotting. I’ve used that on some really sad transplants (including moving some large jades) and it helps! A tiny bit of kelp might not hurt either.
Waterrrrrrrr
I water my Jade plant I have at work thoroughly once a week. I have it in my office at work and its my Monday morning routine to water that and my Euphorbia trigona. Both are thriving. Growing like crazy. I’ve had the euphorbia for about 7 years now and its almost 5 different 3 to 5 foot tall stems and full of leaves and thats after one split that cut it down to about 3 foot 2 or 3 years ago. The jade I’ve had for 3 years and its just a 1.5 foot (tall and around) massive bush that started off a little more than a few leaves in a cup when I got it. They love water! My soil gets pretty dry before the next week but it is a solid soak when I water it every week. I will note, my pots have drainage pans at the bottom. I let those fill as well but normally the soil takes that back in within an hour or 2 and plenty dry by the next day.
I agree with most of the advice given here; my jades also tolerate more organic soil mixtures. If you take the advice given and the wrinkled leaves don’t perk up- don’t worry about chopping it back some (once you’ve got it somewhat stable). Jades grow back really well. Also I second the advice that you don’t need the heat mat.
Get some organics in the soil. It’s draining too fast for her to uptake it.
It wouldn’t hurt to raise the Rh% a little. Also make sure she is getting enough bright light.
I just wanted to let you know I have tons of jade outside my house that survives in heavy clay soil. I don’t think it’s an issue with soils. You’re just going to need to water more often and not let your soil desiccate. If it does let it soak in a tray of water overnight. Not submerged, just like an inch or two and also run some water on top.