Hello,

Below are pictures of my jade. I've heard of jade leaves going red around the edges from sun exposure but the stem is turning red too. Should I be worried about that?

I watered this yesterday with more water than I thought was advisable. Only a couple of tiny drops exited the holes on the bottom. One day later the soil is dry. I thought succulents didn't need to be watered often. I haven't watered it again but why is the soil drying so fast? Should I water it in a couple of days or leave it a week?

Should the leaves be more plump? They're not very dark green and thinner than I expected succulent leaves to be. Any advise?

Also, one last thing: the root ball will not accept the surrounding soil. I had it in a different container for 6 months (but was advised to switch to a less deep and more wide one so I did) and the root ball stayed the same. It makes cracks around the base because the soil falls through instead of sticking. Is that normal? Does it just need more time to extent it's roots?

Any help would be most appreciated! Thank you! 😊

The discoloration that you see is not a good sign and unrelated to sun exposure.

I think you were ill-advised about the repotting. The consistency of the soil you used does not look very good. Also, it is mounded up high above the rim of the container. The combination of the soil consistency and the excess exposure of the soil are what is keeping it from absorbing water properly.

I suggest that you undo the repotting that you did, assuming the original rootball is still intact. Gently remove the soil you added and put the original rootball back into the original pot or one that is the same size. You should then be able to water normally.

BTW, Jades are semi-succulent and do not want to get as dry as true succulents.

We dropped the ball on this one as @Philipwonel advised repotting and we didn't say NO.

The soil at the surface may appear to dry out faster than the soil at depth (which is what counts)... you can't get a useful idea of how moist it is down there by just feeling the surface. Try putting your finger or a chopstick in there, or if you want to invest, you can try a moisture meter. You might wait a week or two weeks to water in strong light, maybe more than that if it's a very protected indoor location. But generally watering to saturation is a good idea if you can space out the watering over time.

Jades are just as succulent as other succulents. If you doubt this, try cutting through a leaf or a stem.

@WillC

The original pot had the same problem with the soil separating from the root ball and drying out quickly. I'm using cactus mix fresh out of the bag this time and I used garden soil last time in the original pot. Is it the root ball itself? Would it be a bad idea to get the soil that the rootball is holding onto off of it to help it accept new soil? Gardeners on YouTube gently rake the soil off the root ball so it's just the roots and then they repot it.

Why is the red a bad thing? What does it mean?

Red edged leaves are a good thing. That's what happens when the Jade gets lots of sunlight.

It looks like you have planted your Jade in an Aluminum pan. That will quickly erode away, once again leaving your plant potless. Don't remove any soil from around the rootball. At this point, bare rooting your plant would probably be its death. I personally would remove the extra dirt and put it back in the pot it came out of though. I doubt any new roots have grown out of the rootball.

Did you moisten the soil before you used it? Its a 'priming the pump' sort of thing. If you didn't, soak the plant, pot and all, in a tub of water until the soil is thoroughly wet. Its hard to convince two different types of soil to play nice together. One of the soils is always going to be more absorbant than the other leaving the plant (depending upon which soil its rootball is in) either drenched or too dry. The soil you have to test for moisture is the soil immediately around the rootball.

Even if you choose not to repot again right now, the important part of this is to get water to the roots. Then let the soil dry to an inch or so down before watering again. My fear is that, even with soaking, the soil will not absorb moisture.

Get back to us.

I'm afraid I don't understand what the original problem was. The roots normally would be well integrated throughout the soil that makes up the rootball, so I don't understand the "separation" to which you refer.

What was the purpose of piling the soil way up above the rim of the container?

Baja - Semi-succulents do have fleshy stems and leaves, but typically do not like the soil to dry out as much as regular succulents.

Is there a better word for semi-succulents? Because that one doesn't work. The word succulent (which describes the water storing tendency of a plant, not its care) is perfectly apt for jade plants.

WillC

I mean that the soil appears to crack around the rootball in a circle. It doesn't merge with it like a relatively smooth homogeneous surface. It's like how cakes pull away from the edge of the pan when they're ready.

It's piled up because I wanted to cover the rootball properly. Maybe I should put it in something bigger. I was told that jades prefer less deep containers than the one I had it in previously (it was a smallish terra cotta pot). I have a wide, shallow, larger ceramic but no holes in the bottom.

Is cactus soil okay for the jade? It's what people plant succulents in so I thought it'd be good for it but it seems to drain faster than the jade's rootball soil. Should I mix the cactus soil with garden soil? I don't want to make the soil too water retaining though because I don't want it's roots to rot.
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Daisyl

I watered it on Monday. Should I soak it today or next week?

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Anyone know why it's turning red? Some of the leaves on the other two stems are starting to redden too. Jades I see online are dark green. What's going on?

Baja - As you know, succulents is not a precisely defined botanical term. It is more descriptive than anything else. In my field, which as primarily concerned with the care of potted plants and their culture, the term semi-succulent is used as a way to describe that that particular plant needs to dry out more than most, but not as much as other succulents. Not a big deal, but I am open to suggestions!

Unless there is a problem with the consistency of the soil, the cracking or separating of the soil from the inside of the original pot would only occur if you were allowing the soil to get too dry between waterings. I suspect you were simply letting the soil get too dry between waterings and only needed to water more frequently and/or more deeply.

Unless a Jade is being grown as a bonsai, it is usually grown in a relatively shallow pot called azalea pot that has a height that is about 3/4's of the diameter. But Jades can also be grown in standard pots.

I think yours would be better off in a pot that is deep enough for the rootball to sit on the bottom of the pot and the top of the rootball would be about a half-inch below the top of the pot. It should just wide enough for the rootball to fit into. You might consider using a terra cotta pot that will dry out sooner than plastic.

All kinds of packaged soil are labeled as being for Cactus or succulents. In general, you want a potting mix that is more porous than a standard potting mix, but not quite as porous as Cactus soil.

Here is the original thread:

The thread "Jade plant stem assessment" in Ask a Question forum

Thanks, Daisy. Out of all the information offered up in the original thread, one sentence was selected and acted on and caused this problem. Oy vey!

Try to be as gentle with the roots as you possibly can, if you have to handle them. The cactus mix should be good for your jade, and better than the garden soil, to the extent you might be able to gently liberate some of the latter. The most important thing is to avoid watering the plant in right after you repot it. Give it a week or so in a protected location to heal first before you water. The primary risk after repotting otherwise is rot secondary to infection through a damaged root or the base of the stem.

Thank you for the link, Daisy.

Will, jades are true succulents. I don't think that is controversial.

Okay so please help me out with an order. Is this right?

1. Re-pot it back to the terra cotta.
2. Let it sit for a week without watering it so there's no root rot.
3. Submerge the whole pot (with the plant) in a tub of water.

Is that a good plan of action? Should anything be re-ordered or added?

Yes, you can do that. I don't do the submarine part (maybe I should try)... instead I am just really careful to water to completion over a period of time. Water a little, wait a few minutes, water some more, etc., until water comes out the bottom. The clay pot actually absorbs a significant amount of water too if you give it time to fully saturate. More about this here.

The thread "Sunday afternoon experiment: watering in multiple passes" in Gardening Ideas forum

Oh wow, that's cool. I never knew that. I always watered once until it came out the bottom. Maybe that's why the soil dried out so quickly all the time. So water little by little till it drains out the bottom, right? Giving the soil some time to absorb the water between the consecutive watering sessions?

Thanks for sharing!

Yes, if you are going to move it back to the Terra Cotta, follow Baja's advice. But, this is a one time watering to rehydrate the soil, not an every watering. After you have the soil rehydrated, it should absorb moisture when you water once.

Then should I submerge now then wait for a few days then transfer it to the terra cotta (using the rehydrated soil that I had submerged to fill the rest of the pot around the root ball) and water as needed the Baja way?

I'll let Daisy answer about the dunking but my preference is to repot when the soil is dry or almost dry... maybe a couple of days before you would otherwise be watering. Actually I like to time the repotting so that I can visually check my best guess about how fast the soil is drying out. It seems like a neater operation that way too.

When you use soil right out of the bag (assuming this is bagged cactus mix) it tends not to be bone dry to start with. That little bit of moisture is key because that means the fresh soil will be very receptive to absorbing more water. The difference that and bone dry soil (otherwise identical, just minus the moisture) lies mostly in their ability to absorb more water. Bone dry soil will require a "warmup round" or two of watering to get it to be as receptive (especially if it's peat-based, but really anything organic will behave similarly).

If you water before the soil goes bone dry on a regular basis, you won't necessarily encounter this phenomenon. And to be fair, there is no particular benefit to leaving the soil dry for any extended period.