Caption
Jade can make a great houseplant, especially in a classic ceramic or terracotta pot.
Image Credit:
Olga Miltsova/Shutterstock
Botanical Name
Crassula argentea, Crassula ovata
Sun Exposure
Soil pH
Bloom Time
Flower Color
Plant Type
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 a 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, which 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 callus 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 toward 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 homemade Organic 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:
- ‘ET’s Fingers’ has tubular leaves with red tips. An oddity!
- ‘Hummel’s Sunset’ has beautiful yellow- and red-tipped leaves.
- ‘Tricolor’ has leaves variegated with white and cream.
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Comments
My friend gave me a piece of her Jade/money plant that broke off but I'm very unsure on which way my stem actually goes for it almost makes a complete circle and has like little tiny black hairs on it with new little leaves forming around like the entire circled stem
The jade which I have has been in very low light for too long. The plant is long an straggly. I would like to prune it back to give it the chance to grow more shoots and become bushier again. Could you please tell me what to do? Ideally with clear diagrams as I´m not much of a gardner!
Many thanks in advance,
Christina
my 5ft jades dirt you cant push your finger into it to check if needs watering do i need to repot or what
It sounds like the soil is compacted. If that's the case, the plant could probably use repotting or at least some fresh soil.
I recently got another jade plant, leaves were terribly dusty, dirty so carefully rinsed them under a tap as thought this may help plant. (I do use rain water collected to water).
Have I caused damaged by rinsing leaves? Is there a better way of cleaning leaves?
Lastly what sort of plant food should I use?
Trying to look after plants well !
Many thanks and for your article, which is so helpful.
There's no harm in rinsing off the leaves, as long as the plant is allowed to dry off completely. You can also use a moist paper towel to gently wipe off leaves.
As for what kind of fertilizer to use: A succulent fertilizer would be best, and it's important not to go overboard with it. Jade plants can be sensitive to the salts (nutrients) in fertilizer, so only apply diluted fertilizer once or twice a month in the spring and summer; in the fall and winter (the dormant seasons), don't fertilize.
Hi again,
I wrote earlier to ask if anyone has tried to "bare root" a jade before and if you know if it would survive. I am moving to the US from Canada, and want to take my beloved 35+ year-old jade with me. The border crossing rules stipulate that all houseplants must be "bare rooted" -- meaning all growing medium/soil must be cleaned off the roots. I could drive the jade to my friend's house -- she lives very close to the border -- and remove it from the pot there, gently hose the soil off the roots and lay or suspend the plant in the most supportive position possible in the back of my jeep to drive it over the border. Then, just on the other side of the border in Ogdensburg there is a hardware store that sells the right soil. If I have a clean pot on hand, and buy that soil, I could immediately re-pot the jade on the spot. In all, it would be without soil for an hour at most. The jade is currently very happily root bound in a pot that it has been in for more than 20 years, and has about four trunks. I would really appreciate any advice you can offer on whether this would work. If it is just too risky I will give it to a friend, but I really do consider this plant to be a member of my family. Thank you so much!
How long is the journey from your current home to new home? If you were to gently hose the roots off at your friend's house and then keep the root ball wrapped in a towel for protection, I don't foresee it having any trouble surviving the trip. As a succulent, jades are very tolerant of being without water for extended periods of time, so their roots are tough. Perhaps keep it in its current pot during the journey—just wrapped in a towel rather than soil. It could likely tolerate a few hours in this state without adverse effects.
When you repot it, it may experience some level of transplant shock (as most plants do if completely removed from soil), so expect a few dropped leaves at least. Otherwise, there's no reason for it to not recover!
Best of luck and let us know how it goes!
Thank you so much! I will give it a try. Unfortunately it is going to be a long journey. Once I am across the border I'll be driving from Ogdensburg New York all the way to Denver! So will definitely repot it once we get into Ogdensburg. I'll be very careful about ensuring the car doesn't get too hot or cold en route, and will definitely keep you posted on how it turns out. Also, I can't say how much I appreciate this web site -- congratulations to all of you on such an important and informative resource!
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Thank you for your feedback! We have revised and clarified the watering instructions on this page.