A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 Please Save My Jade Plant

I've never Had good luck with jade plants; so this is why I thought I might have better luck with one that was allready growing well. It was so beautiful but now it has no leaves and very little new growth. What can I do to save it?

hi & welcome!!

could you post a picture? that can be helpful in trying to figure out what's happened.

also, please tell us a bit about it. what kind of soil and pot is it in? what's the watering schedule been (how often & how much)? also, what kind of lighting have you been keeping it in - amount and direction?

I'll have to have my son show me how to post a pic. I got it from my mom so i'm not sure what kind of soil its in. I would think just regular potting soil. I try to water it about once a week or whenever the soil is dry, usually til water comes out the bottom of the pot. I have had it in a room with mostly artifical light. I guess i'm not much help am I?

pics are easy. start an account at a hosting site (photobucket.com is on and it's free) and then upload your pics to the site and then copy the link and put that in your post. photobucket provides the coding right by the pics after they've been uploaded. it's a really easy site to use...there are more than a few others too.

glad to hear there are drain holes in the bottom of the pot...hopefully it's an unglazed clay pot too!

best to water from below. set the pot in a container/dish and fill the it with water. let the pot sit in the water until the water is absorbed up into the soil. you'll want to refill the water until the side of the clay pot changes color and becomes cool to the touch up to about halfway up the side. depending on how large the pot is, watering should be done about every 10 days or so in winter. usually a set 7 days in the summer (cuz it's hotter).

artificial light is okay. real sun is better, not totallly necessary tho it will just not grow as quickly with the fake light (and they don't really grow all that fast to begin with anyhoo).

how long have you had it?? if you've just recently brought it to your house, it might just be in a bit of shock.

jades can be finicky when moved. if the lighting is different now from where it was before, you'll see leaf drop. if you can, try to duplicate the lighting from where it was before...just for a little bit if you really want to keep it where you've got it...let it get situated and then gradually move it to the new location (over the course of about 2 weeks if you can do it).

if it's been doing okay and suddenly started losing the leaves, you may have overwatered it. if it's in regular potting soil, that can happen easily as it doesn't really drain all that well. jades do better in cactus soil or even a mix that has bark bits/lava rock in it.

do the trunks feel mushy? are there any odd-looking spots - brown or black in color? what about bugs? anything like white fluff in the spots where the leaves come out of the branches? or little brown spots that flake off if you get them with your fingernail?

a pic would really help!

if the stems look 'wrinkly', you are probably over-watering.

if the leaves are turning brown and falling off, especially the newest, then you are under-watering.

Thanks for all the info....It doesnt have any bugs or brown/black spots nor does the trunk feel mushy. I got it from my mom who kept it outside, but I cant have plants outside where I live, and I have had it for about 6 months. I have I dont have a scanner so I cant post a pic of the plant. Is it ok to transplant it into some different soil right now? I have it in a plastic planter right now but it does have good drainage (it leaked all over my foot when I was carrying it back to where I keep it ). Could being in to small of a pot cause the leaf loss too?

if it was in sun outside, and you brought it inside, it could just be shock.