Jade can make a great houseplant, especially in a classic ceramic or terracotta pot.
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Growing Jade Plants: Lighting, Watering, Repotting, Propogation, and Pests
Planting
How to Plant Jade Plants
- Choose a wide and sturdy pot with a moderate depth, as jade plants tend to grow top-heavy and fall over.
- Use soil that will drain thoroughly, as excessive moisture may promote fungal diseases like root rot. An all-purpose potting mix will work, though you will want to mix in additional perlite to improve drainage. A 2:1 ratio of potting mix to perlite is great. Alternatively, use a premade succulent or cacti potting mix.
- After planting a jade plant, don鈥檛 water it right away. Waiting anywhere from several days to a week before watering lets the roots settle and recover from any damage.
Photo by trambler58/Shutterstock.
How to Start a Jade Plant from a Leaf or Stem-Cutting
As a succulent, jade plants are very easy to start from single leaves or cuttings. A stem cutting is a great method when a branch of your jade plant happens to fall off. Just put that cutting in the soil, and you have a new baby plant or a gift plant! If you have time, however, you can propagate from a single leaf!
Propagate before the weather gets cool. And make sure you start with a well-established plant.
- For a stem cutting, ensure you鈥檙e using clean clippers or scissors to take your cutting, which must be 3 to 4 inches long. If you鈥檙e using a leaf, it must be the complete leaf, that includes the small pointy bit that breaks off from the stem.
- Once you have your leaf or cutting, allow it to sit for several days in a warm place; a callous will form over the cut area, helping to prevent rot and encourage rooting.
- Gather your pot and a well-draining potting mix. Use soil that is slightly moist but not wet.
- Lay the leaf on top of the soil horizontally, covering the cut end with some of the soil. If you have a stem cutting, place it upright in the soil (prop it up with a few small rocks or toothpicks if it won鈥檛 stand on its own).
- Place the pot in a warm place with bright, indirect light. Do not water.
- After a week or two, the leaf or cutting will start sending out roots. Give the plant a gentle poke or tug a week or so after that to see if it has rooted itself in place. If it hasn鈥檛, wait a bit longer, testing it (gently!) every few days.
- Once the plant seems to be firmly rooted, water it deeply and carefully. Use something like a turkey baster to gently water the plant without disturbing the roots too much. Make sure that you don鈥檛 just get the surface layer of the soil wet, as you want to encourage the roots to grow downward for water, not towards the surface.
- Let the soil dry out between waterings and keep the plant out of intense direct sunlight until it is well established.
Growing
How to Care for Jade Plants
Lighting
- Jade plants should receive at least 6 hours of bright light each day. Young plants should be kept in bright, indirect sunlight; large, well-established jade plants can handle more direct sunlight.
- Kitchens and offices with south-facing windows are typically great spots with just enough light, as are western-facing windows.
- Jade plants that are kept in low light can become leggy and top-heavy, making them susceptible to damage if they fall over, or become unable to support their own branches!
Temperature
- Jade plants grow best at room temperature (65掳 to 75掳F / 18掳 to 24掳C), but prefer slightly cooler temperatures at night and in the winter (down to 55掳F / 13掳C).
- Note: Jade plants are not frost tolerant, so if you keep yours outdoors during the summer, be sure to bring it inside once temperatures fall to around 50掳F (10掳C) in autumn.
- During winter, move jade plants away from cold windows and keep them out of drafty areas. If exposed to cold temps, jade plants may drop their leaves.
Watering
- Watering jade plants correctly is very important! Improper watering is the number one issue that most people experience with their jade plants.
- When the plant is actively growing in the spring and summer, it will require more water than at other times of the year. Water jade plants deeply (meaning that the soil gets sufficiently moistened throughout鈥攏ot just at the surface), then wait until the soil has mostly dried out before you water it again. This means that you could end up watering it once a week or once a month鈥攊t depends entirely on how quickly the soil dries out in the environment where you keep your plant.
- The plant may go dormant in the fall and winter, causing it to slow or pause growth entirely. During this time, it won鈥檛 need much water. Water it less often than in the spring and summer, allowing the soil to dry out fully between waterings. Large, well-established jades may not need more than one or two waterings throughout their entire dormancy period.
- Try to avoid splashing water on the leaves while watering, as this can expose them to rot in a humid environment.
- Jade plants can be sensitive to salts in tap water, so water with filtered or distilled water if your tap water is not ideal.
- If the plant starts to drop its leaves, if the leaves look shriveled, or if brown spots appear on the leaves, it indicates that the plant needs MORE water.
- If leaves become squishy and waterlogged, the plant is getting TOO MUCH water.
Read more about How to Water Plants for Healthy Growth.
Fertilizing
- Jade plants don鈥檛 require high levels of nutrients and should be fed sparingly. Use a diluted mix of a standard liquid houseplant fertilizer or a fertilizer made for cacti and succulents.
If you prefer using your own fertilizer, you can use our Organic Homemade Plant Fertilizer.
Repotting Jade Plants
- Jade plants don鈥檛 mind being root-bound in a small pot. In fact, keeping them root-bound will keep the jade smaller and more manageable.
- Repot young jade plants once every 2 to 3 years to encourage growth. With older jade, repot once every 4 to 5 years or as necessary.
- Transplant in the early spring, just before the growing season begins.
- After repotting, don鈥檛 water the plant for a week or so. Wait at least a month before fertilizing so as not to burn fresh roots accidentally.
Photo by Mauricio Acosta Rojas/Shutterstock.
Catherine Boeckmann
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Make sure you are not watering too much; leaf drop can be a sign of overwatering. Also make sure that your plants are getting adequate light; plants that grow unusually leggy and tall are typically looking for more light.
My two large jades that I started from another huge one have had this problem for about a year. A leaf will get one black spot on it and then the leaf turns yellow and falls off. They are growing ok and look healthy otherwise but are starting to look pretty scrawny with the leaf loss. Anyone know the cause and what I can do to stop it? Would appreciate the help.
Hi Nadine,
The black spots on your jade plant can be caused by a few things, the most likely being over watering. Try repotting the plant in a sandy and well-drainging soil mix. Not enough light (at least 4 hours daily) or a fungal disease are next on the list. For the disease, there is not much that can be done; your plant can recover from it, but there’s nothing to be done otherwise.
My 30 (or more!) year old jade is the poster child for plant abuse. It's never been transplanted or fertilized, is watered when I remember to do so (if the soil is dry), and is living in the same pot it got stuck in when it arrived as a gift. Once every few months, I splash some water laced with 1/4 teaspoon of epsom salt dissolved in 8-9 ounces of filtered water. I sense this helps me more than the jade.
Some rangy and horizontal shoots surrounds a reasonably strong trunk and a few offshoots. It's not what I'd call an attractive plant by any means鈥攁 'tree' only a mother could love. But after over 30 years, I'm not about to part with it unless I manage to finally kill it鈥攚hich I've come close to doing more than a dozen times鈥攄espite its best efforts to survive in the face of utter neglect.
The sole decent light is the eastern exposure, SoCal Mojave desert. Hours of sunlight vary but rarely exceed five to six. To complicate matters, we're the proud fur-parents of an 18-pound Maine Coon whose job it is to try to eat anything that grows. The jade is fair game, of course, and has to be kept higher than a Maine Coon can leap. The roof would be ideal but difficult. A repurposed four-drawer dresser must suffice.The second choice is a bookcase that'd place the jade about seven feet from the east window. Would that still be close enough to sustain jade life and growth?
I know I could do this better but I'm suffering from jade information overload and conflicting advice. Can you help me pare this down to a manageable level, point me to a how-to transplant video or post that may help me improve my care protocol, to help me save what's left of my 30 (or more!) year old jade, please?
Greetings!
I live in india where we have abundant sunshine round the year with a couple of showers.
I live in a apartment and I'd like to grow jade in a west facing window. The sun pours in between 2pm to 5pm after which a shed blocks it. I have bright indirect sunlight.. Can I put a jade there?
Thanks
Hello!
It’s generally recommended to give your jade plant at least 4 hours of strong, filtered light each day. You can try putting the plant in your west-facing window, but if it starts to grow long and thin, it’s telling you that it needs more light.
I bought a Jade plant for my mom 7 months ago, and the lady who sold it to me said it should be watered only once per week and only keep it in a place when the morning sun reaches it! I continued doing so but the leafs kept falling and eventually they all fell, even the tree. I bought a new one a month ago and today I saw three leafs falling down. What do you think I should do? Water it more often?
Thank you very much!
Leaf drop is a sign of overwatering, so we would recommend cutting back on the water. Jade plants should only be watered when their soil has had a chance to dry out quite a bit. Depending on how long it takes for yours to dry out, you may only need to water it once a month. Gently stick your finger in the soil (away from the stem, so as not to disturb the roots) and see if the soil is dry. The top inch of soil should be dry before you water again. The plant should also get at least 4 hours of sunlight each day, but if you can increase that to 6 hours a day, it would be even better.
I really don't know anything about jade plants. Other than I like them. My plant doesnt look Iike a tree. It's growing, but I like the look of tree. How do I know if I have the kind of jade that looks like a jade tree ?
I was looking at my plant & decided I had to much potting soil in the pot. So I gently took some out. Now the 4 pieces that are in the pot are falling all over! They don't want to stand up at all. Also, I can now see the roots. Did I take to much soil out? Maybe my pot is to deep? The pot is about 5 inches tall & I now have about 3 inches of soil in it. I'm worried to repot again b/c I just repotted it for the first time a few weeks ago. All 4 of the (I guess this is what everyone is referring to as leggy) pieces have new little growth. So I guess I was doing something right. But I want the look of the jade tree plant. Obviously I want a healthy jade plant too. :) I just don't even know if all Jade plants are supposed to look like the tree type plants. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've had this plant for probably 6 months and would love to have it for many years.
