WOW!! Georgeous photos!
Both of my jades are definitely minileafs (they appear to be from your photos anyway). I love the red tint on that first photo specimen, but didn't see that tint in the photo of your
plant from last year. I assume that is just due to angle, light from flash, etc.?? My
plant at work seems to be a very healthy green with a very dark, very think red outline around the leaves.
Now that I think of it . . . my
plant at work gets almost NO sunlight! At least not REAL light! My cubicle is under a sky light (hole in roof with clear plastic / glass cover sort of thing), but it is so high up (over 2 stories) and so incredibly filthy that you really can't even sense any additional light to the artificial lights in the rest of the building. You can't even tell that you are under a skylight when you look straight up into the window . . . too much tinting and too much dirt! Besides, the
plant is way under my overhead cabinets, so it can't possibly be benefitting from the skylight. So . . . those little plain jane flourescent lighting strips under my overhead cabinets (supplied to every cubicle by company) must be enough light to keep it going because I have had it for a few days short of a year now and it is still going very strong!
It seems that yours is doing well by the windows. I am in a walk-out basement so I only have windows facing one way, but they are pretty much the whole side of the apartment, ceiling to about 3 ft. off the ground with just pillars between them. Even the door is ceiling to just off the floor glass. (This is a real selling point as the view is magnificent--looking into wooded ravine with Lake Michigan just to left of straight on view -- I walk the beach a lot since I moved here!). There is a large overhang above the windows, so I get plenty of light, but not too much direct light to burn
plants. It seems to work out great for most of my
plants so far.
With all the light in this apartment, plus all off-white walls throughout, plus all floodlights in dropped ceiling), I can not believe that we are talking about a light problem here! Unless, perhaps, we are talking about too much light. However, there is no 'heat' coming from the lighting (too far away), so I really do not think that is the problem! Yeah! Eliminated one concern. Unless . . . it is too much lighting? I am not sure I believe that there is any such thing!
Hmmm. That still leaves me stumped about the real problem here. I will definitely try much less water!! I bought the
plant from a very small, one-man store and went back to him and he swears he sets the
plants in troughs of water about 1 inch thick for about 10 minutes 1 - 2x per week (depending on dryness). However, this
plant is NOT HAPPY! So . . . I will definitely try a lot less water! I am concerned that the leaves are so mushy and not firm. They do not seem to be holding much water, so I don't know whether that indicated too much water or not enough. Probably too much . . . if it sensed a need for water it would probably store more in the leaves.
Hey, the more I type the more I seem to be figuring out!
I did leave the
plant in the original planter that it was sold to me in . . . trying to minimize the shock of bringing it to a new place. As it is a bonsai and as the owner of this shop keeps very few
plants and fusses over them all the time, I do not think a new planter is needed. The current planter is beautiful! The shop keeper said this
tree is about 12 years old, relatively young for a bonsai.
I may try turning the fountain off at night and see if that helps. I have the grow lights (not fancy -- just those bulbs from Lowe's in a regular lamp, not even sure how much good they really do!) for my hydroponics system (located elsewhere in the apartment) on a little timer from Lowe's. Works great to regulate the light since I am so bad with such a sporatic schedule. I think I will set the fountain up with the same system and see what happens (timers are only about $9.00 at Lowe's by the way . . . I love them for my
plant lights, etc.)
Well, if anyone has any additional thoughts about the leaves turning such a light color, or any of the other symptoms or thoughts I have mentioned, please let me know! In the meantime, I will set the fountain up on a timer for about 16 hours per day . . . same as my hydroponics. Wish I could get a tiny grow light to replace the tiny bulb in that fixture!
Thanks for everything!
Cheri