Caption
Jade can make a great houseplant, especially in a classic ceramic or terracotta pot.
Photo Credit
Olga Miltsova/Shutterstock
Subhead
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’t 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’re using clean clippers or scissors to take your cutting, which must be 3 to 4 inches long. If you’re 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’t 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’t, 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’t 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° to 75°F / 18° to 24°C), but prefer slightly cooler temperatures at night and in the winter (down to 55°F / 13°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°F (10°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—not 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—it 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’t 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’t 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’t 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’t 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.
Types
There are many types of jade plants available—from the standard, green-leafed jade to a number of variegated varieties. Here are a few exciting jades to keep an eye out for:
- ‘Hummel’s Sunset’ has beautiful yellow- and red-tipped leaves.
- ‘Tricolor’ has leaves variegated with white and cream.
- ’ET’s Fingers’ has tubular leaves with red tips. An oddity!
Gardening Products
Thank you! Im just hoping not all my big trunks are damaged. I've never had any plant this long. It has 3 large trunks.
I inhereted my mother in law's Christmas cactus in a hanging pot its doing great and even bloomed this year!
Thank you again for the info! Have a great day!
I have a small leaf jade plant growing in the garden outdoors that is getting rather large and I want to prune it back to a more managable size. If possible, I would also like to propgate the cutting into new plants. I prune the plant back a little each year to keep it tidy and have potted many smaller cuttings in the past with great success.
I suspect the tree is over 30 years old and now is approximately 3 meters (almost 10 feet) in height. The main trunk is approaching 200mm (about 7 or 8 inches) in diameter. The top of the tree is tied to the side of my house as it is much too heavy to support its own weight. My plan is to take it down to about 1 meter (39 inches) and use everything I cut to propagate, where possible.
If I were to take slices of the main stem at approximately 15 cm (6 inches) intervals and left the pieces to crust over for a week or two before coating in rooting hormone and planting in coarse free draining soil, do you think I would have much success? Do the stem pieces require some leaves to help them along? Or should I trim them back?
My jade is about 24" across and 20" tall. I grew it from cuttings from my mom's plant which bloomed regularly. My plant has never bloomed even though it appears VERY healthy. Leaves are plump and shiny and it has TONS of leaves and branches. No branches are bare.. It was outdoors for the summer and was brought in before frost, several weeks ago. I should mention that we moved in June. At the previous house it had lots of light and gained a lot of new growth. It went straight to the back patio at the time of our move. Now it is inside. It still looks healthy, but no flowers. How do I encourage it to bloom? Since I brought it inside it has been losing leaves regularly. Probably 2 a day. Is this normal for this time of year? So. . . . 2 questions: leaf drop and flowers Thanks for your help.
Hi Kaymer,
It's normal for jade plants to drop leaves in the fall before new growth starts. For blooms give the plant lots of light during the day and turn the thermostat down at night. They like cool nights. Only water when the soil is dry. Do not overwater.
My jade plant which is about 8 years old is starting to get lots of small roots sticking out from the branches. I repotted it in last year. Does it need repotting again? It is otherwise quite healthy.
Hi, Ophelia: These aerial roots are nothing to worry about, and you don't necessarily need to repot. Your healthy plant is loving its environment, so it's sensing good prospects for self-propagation. If these roots happen to show up at the base of an offshoot branch, you can clip off the branch below the roots and grow it as a cutting. Otherwise, feel free just to marvel at yet one more of Mother Nature's ways of self-preservation.
Great answer! I had mine in the kitchen window and moved it out as I thought is didn't like it there due to the spines growing out of it! It doesn't seem to be doing so well where I moved it so I'm going to cut one of the branches with the spines (roots) and grow a second one. There isn't much information on this topic on the web ten searches later and here it is! Thanks again!
Ive had my Jade for over 2 years. It started as a single branch from a dying jade...well ALMOST died. It was reborn to become a 6 stemmed 8 inch high bush, with each stem producing over half a dozen branches each. I dont consider myself a plant expert but i know personal experience. If at any time a branch vears off to the side, do not hesitate in cutting it off by the segment near the two leaves. Put the branch in a cool dry dark spot and let it dry for a week. Then plant it in a smaller pot and water once then let it completely dry. Give the roots a chance to work for that water on the bottom. When its ready, transport to the big pot as another wonderful addition to the mother plant. Over time the chopped stem from the mother plant splits into more branches anyways. Patience is key. Great mood setting plant, by the way. But maybe thats just me.
Hi Dylan,
Thanks for checking in and for your helpful advice!
I have had my jade plant for 5 months.. it oddly means a lot to me.. suddently it seems to be loosing most of its leaves.. they either shrivel and fall off or just fall off.. I'm so upset and I don't know what to do.. I have it by a window and I water it a small amount about once a week. And I havent had a problem like this.. i dont know what to do. :(
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