I took it from pot, very dry and tight in earth. I loosened the roots a bit and placed rootball in pot of warm water, 1/2 hour now. When loosening roots some more noticed wee
insects in among very tight tiny roots. What now? Please help.
Pat

Welcome to ATP, Pat.

Let's start all over with the potting. I grow all my jade in clay and the size of the pot is determined mainly by the size of the plant. I would need to know more (let's have some pictures!) about the plant to suggest a pot size. You can either use "cactus and succulent" mix and that will be available at most big box stores or just custom-make your own. I use 1/2 general purpose potting mix, 1/4 coarse perlite, and 1/4 medium Douglas fir bark for my jade medium. The main goal is to have a medium that retains some moisture but drains exceptionally well. Water that potting mix but allow all excess water to drain from it so that it will be moist but not wet. In other words, you want a slightly moist mix ready when you re-pot.

I would remove every bit of "soil" from those roots. Leaving the entire root ball under water for 30 minutes should either drown those insects or force them to float up to the surface of the water, where you can get rid of them. I don't like using insecticides on weakened plants, but others will differ on that. When you remove that jade from being submerged, just leave the jade in the sink. Then spray it down thoroughly with tepid water (hopefully, you'll have one of those spray facets at your laundry room or kitchen sink). If there are any insects left (probably not), that spray will rinse them off and down the drain.

Do not fertilize and do not water. I would wait a week or even two before watering, and even then, I would only water the plant lightly when the potting mix looks very dry. Until those roots have regained their vigor, they can't utilize much moisture and certainly not fertilizer. It might take a month of this light watering (but only when the soil really looks dry) to see some growth. Don't be impatient. When you see new growth, go ahead and fertilize with 1/4 strength, general purpose fertilizer. That will probably be 1/4 tsp./gal. I subscribe to the phrase: "Weakly-weekly". You don't want to fertilize weekly, at least not a jade, but you can fertilize at every other watering when the potting mix is dry.

Good luck and let's see some pictures.

Thanks, Ken, for your prompt answer. Unfortunately my husband decided it was just too far gone and took it outside. He has been the one looking after the plants.
I wanted to re-pot it last year as it looked root-bound then, but neither of us realized that the soil could get so hard as to not allow water to enter, and he felt it was being over-watered and so quit watering.
But, I will purchase another and if need to will ask questions sooner. I'm looking forward to more e-mails in the future,
thanks again
Pat

Pat, I will be glad to donate you a small jade. They grow like weeds and I really do nothing with them. I let a monster one go this winter. I just didn't want to have it taking up space in a greenhouse. It was 2'x2' (from the soil-line) and flowered every year. It froze but I have plenty more, though way smaller. If you want the jade for postage, let me know via T-Mail. Also check out my website. You might find something you like.

@howl, welcome to ATP !

Ken is right, they really DO grow like weeds...

and I really, really need to repot mine in a succulent soil mix....

If your plant is still laying outside somewhere, cut a branch off, bring it back inside, and stick it into a pot of dirt; it will make roots at the leaf joints and you will get a whole new plant!

Hi Ken. Thanks for the offer but I live in Canada and it probably wouldn't make it across the border. Also, I rec'd an e-mail from Weedwhacker today and she suggested bringing in a cutting from the poor thing and potting it. So, brought the whole thing in and will do that and will also try to rescue the whole thing. She looks mostly ok today. About 1/2 the leaves are plumping up. Will try to send off a pic soon.
Thanks for your offer and your interest.
Pat

They are very easy to root and when you knock off a leaf or two, just stick those leaves, stem-end down, into your pot and they can root as well.

Hello Sandy: Thanks for the tip. I did bring in the Jade after reading your e-mail.
The whole thing is in a pot, and with bare roots. I'm going to re-pot the whole thing minus one piece I will take off and pot separately. Hopefully the both paths will work. She does look some better mostly all over. I'm already loving this forum etc. I usually just go to my books when I have a problem, but this is a lovely thing. :-)
Thanks
Pat

You're most welcome, Pat -- I suspect your plant will recover nicely, given a little time; mine once dropped a LOT of its leaves during the winter when we had a problem with our furnace and the room it is in first got too hot, and then too cold -- it took a while but eventually looked better than it had before the "incident."

Sometimes, as the season transitions from winter to spring, the lower, older leaves will naturally dry out. I used to worry about that, then I saw it is a normal occurrence. So be careful with watering at this time. It is just letting go of the winter leaves, and is actually going to make newer leaves from the middle of a cluster of leaves or up and down the stems or branches; or it could be gearing up for some new blooms. The plant is slowly redirecting its energy to the new growth.