How to keep Jade Plant from getting leggy?
Seeing your Jade grows big has been the dream of every gardener!
Taking care of Jade Plant sounds simple enough…
…yet it’s something many of us struggle with doing correctly in order to know How to keep Jade Plant from getting leggy?
That’s because there are actually many variables that can make it tricky to know exactly when to water and how often….
when to prune it…
and the required sunlight…
As usual, before jump in directly in answering all of your questions…
…in order to know How to keep Jade Plant from getting leggy?
Let’s us first take a look on Sharan’s story!
I still remember that day…
…the day when my Jade turns leggy….
My jade which I have been taken care…
…and I’ve thought I have taken care of rightly…
…yet all of sudden it turns out leggy…
I can’t stop blaming myself…
What have I been doing?
How To Keep Jade Plant From Getting Leggy?
IN THIS ARTICLE:
credit: houzz.com/discussions/4281930/need-help-with-leggy-jade-plant
From Sharan’s story above…
It underlines the fact that…
It’s all about how we taking care of our Jade rightly and even more…
…willing to look on ore information in dealing with all of problems arise…
Sounds complex?
Let me tell you one thing…
Nothing is complex when it comes to gardening…
as long as we know the secrets techniques..
Ups, I’m sure that you can’t wait any longer…
So…
How to keep Jade Plant from getting leggy?
First thing first…
What Cause Your Jade Turns Leggy?
credit: https://www.almanac.com/plant/jade-plants
First, it is important to know why your jade plant got leggy in the first place.
If your plant is not compact and looks stretched out…
…chances are that it has become etiolated.
This just means that the plant has stretched out because of insufficient light.
Jade plants like several hours of direct sunshine… .
…and should be placed right in front of a window for best results.
If you have a nice southern exposure window…
…this will be ideal for your jade plant.
Now
Re-Pot Your Top Heavy Jade Plant Into a Much Heavier Pot
credit: https://www.almanac.com/plant/jade-plants
Jade naturally gets quite top-heavy as a plant.
There’s not much you can do about it in the long term besides make sure the pot you have a jade plant in is heavy enough to keep the plant up.
Succulents shouldn’t be over-watered…
…as they’ve adapted to take in as much water as they can when they get water since they come from climates that don’t get a lot of rain.
If they’re over-watered, they’ll continue to absorb moisture to the point where they rot.
Over time, this can lead a plant past the point of no return…
…where you’re no longer able to save it, and can lead your plant to die.
Terracotta as a pot material, so long as it’s left unfinished…
…helps reduce the chance that any plant potted inside of it will be over-watered.
The terracotta clay material wicks away moisture from the soil…
…and since it’s exposed to the air, the moisture evaporates more quickly,
…thus allowing the soil in the pot to dry out faster.
Since terracotta clay is also a relatively heavy material…
…the weight of a terracotta pot is also beneficial in making sure top-heavy jade plants stay upright.
In most cases, switching to a terracotta pot with a drainage hole is usually enough to keep a jade plant up long term.
Don’t like the look of terracotta clay?
You can use ceramic plant pots with drainage holes – those come in all sorts of shapes, colours, and with pretty designs.
Like a modern, sleek, and industrial look?
Why should you prune your Jade instead of repot it?
Pruning may scare some people, but it is the only way to fix a leggy jade plant.
Spring or early summer are the best times to prune your jade plants.
The plant will be in active growth during this time and will begin to fill out and recover much more quickly.
Jade plants may be simply pinched off at the growing tip if they are very young or very small.
Pinch it off with your thumb and forefinger.
The new stems that grow from the point where you crushed it should be at least two.
You can prune it back harder if your plant is larger, older, and has several branches.
If you prune your jade back, you should not remove more than a quarter to a third of the plant.
Make sure you use a sharp pair of pruning shears and that the blade is sterilized so that you don’t spread disease.
You can do this by cleaning the blade with rubbing alcohol.
Then, envision where you’d need the jade plant to expand and utilize your pruning shears..
..to make cuts directly over a leaf hub (where the leaf meets the stem of the jade).
At each cut, you will get at any rate two coming about branches.
On the off chance that you have a plant that is a solitary trunk and you need it to look more like a tree and branch out..
..you can undoubtedly achieve this with persistence.
Basically eliminate the greater part of the lower leaves and squeeze off the developing tip.
When it begins developing and grows more branches..
..you can rehash the interaction and squeeze out the developing tips..
..or prune the branches back until you accomplish the ideal look you are going for.
If you don’t particularly like the look of your jade plant at the moment…
…say because it grew in a little leggy and you’d like to give it a second chance, placing it in a better lit location, to grow in leaves that are much more dense…
…you might want to use this tactic and prune your succulent instead of re-potting it.
You might also want to prune your top-heavy jade plant if you’d like to have more jade plants, which you can easily make from the cuttings you take away after pruning.
You can use these to start up multiple pots of jade to place around the house…
…or even place these cuttings in the same pot together to have a dense looking hedge or bush-like arrangement…
…rather than a single tree-like plant.
You can prune jade as well if you prefer that it stay small and cute.
As a heads up, if you prefer smaller plants and would love your jade to stay small over time without needing any pruning…
…you can shrink the size of the plant pot you place your jade in, or start off a cutting in a teeny tiny terracotta pot with a drainage hole.
Jade will only grow to be as big as the size of a pot will allow, so this is the ideal long-term fix.
Personally, I think having a number of teeny plant pots like these these clustered together would make for an absolutely adorable collection.
Long term, you’re likely going to want to re-pot your jade unless you’re happy to continue to prune it over and over… Check this article out if you want to know when to re-pot your Jade Plant
…as jade will get top heavy again and again over time.
But in the meantime, if you’re happy to prune…
…your plant will do just fine without a new home.
In my experience, when it comes to pruning jade, you can feel free to go wild and do whatever you feel looks best.
If you’d like new, fuller growth to appear somewhere on the plant, usually I find it’s best to cut there…
…leaving at least two or three leaves on the stem beneath the cut.
Where you trim, two new leaves should start to grow just above were you took the cutting…
…but I do find that sometimes if you don’t leave a couple leaves on the stem, new growth appears elsewhere and not on the left-bare branch.
Jade is an incredibly really resilient plant and will pretty much take whatever you throw at it.
It can take quite a lot of pruning back and cuttings have always rooted for me.
To make cuttings, place all the pieces you’ve chopped off into dry soil, leave them be for a couple weeks…
…then resume watering as you had been.
New roots should start rooting within the month.
What To Do If Your Jade Plant Is Leggy
It’s possible to treat your jade when it starts to get leggy..
..resulting in a fuller, bushier plant.
Succulents are slow-growing plants, so this process takes time.
Increase its exposure to sunlight
The first step to fixing this problem is to try this simple solution.
Determine how much light your plant receives throughout the day, and whether the window receives any shade.
Many people underestimate the amount of sunlight that a given location receives.
Move your jade plant to the window that receives the most light once you’ve determined which one it does.
You shouldn’t touch the glass when you move it closer to the windowpane.
Your jade plant’s distance from the window has a dramatic effect on the amount of light it receives.
Moving a plant 2 to 3 feet from a window reduces the amount of light it receives by half, compared to being right on the windowsill.
Make sure your windows are clean, so as much light as possible can enter your home.
A grow light can provide supplemental light
It might be necessary to purchase a grow light if you live in an apartment or house that doesn’t receive much natural light or if the weather is especially dark during the winter.
The sizes and prices of grow lights can be adjusted to fit your space and budget.
You can use LED or fluorescent grow lights to provide extra light for your most demanding houseplants.
Plants’ temperatures should be reduced
Outdoors, a drop in temperature correlates with a shortening of daylength..
..which affects the amount of light a plant receives.
When the sun is less intense during the cool months..
..plants become dormant as a natural preventative measure against etiolation.
The jade plant will be able to create shorter leaves..
..if the temperature is lowered, or moved to a room with cooler temperatures, while keeping high light conditions.
Cut off the growing tip of the stems.
In response to being pinched off the top, the meristem, a cluster of cells responsible for growth..
..releases hormones that cause lateral growth points to appear.
As opposed to trying to reach the light by reaching upwards..
..the clusters of cells on the stems will begin to grow outwards..
..creating more lateral branches to produce a bushier plant.
Cut the top off of leggy stems, removing the stem up to just above what is known as a leaf scar.
A brown ring surrounds the stem in this area.
In addition to promoting bushier, fuller growth, this will also induce hormones that stimulate side branches.
In addition, you can also propagate the top that you removed so that you will have a new plant.
Preventing Jade Plant Stretching
The best way to prevent legginess is to take good care of your jade plant.
Plants that are provided with their basic needs will grow strong and healthy, naturally preventing legginess.
Here are some tips for growing a strong jade plant.
Sunlight
It takes a lot of sun for jade plants to grow properly without becoming leggy.
As a minimum, they prefer 4 to 6 hours of sunlight daily; indirect, yet bright light is best, since too much direct light can result in leaf burns.
Your jade plant will grow full and bushy if you place it in a south-facing window.
In the absence of a south-facing window, a window with western exposure is a second-best choice.
Temperature
During the day, jade plants prefer temperatures ranging from 65 to 75°F, and at night they prefer temperatures of 50 to 55°F.
If the soil is dry, jade plants can survive almost to freezing temperatures if the temperature exceeds 90°F.
Generally speaking..
..cooler temperatures will encourage slower, more compact growth, which in combination with high light levels will produce a really compact, bushy plant.
Watering
It is common for homeowners to notice rotting stems at the base of jade plants that result from overwatering.
Jade prefers soil that is on the dry side.
The stems of chronically overwatered jade plants will become thin and spindly, and the foliage will yellow.
If you overwater your jade plant, it will develop poor health and look leggy over time.
Jade plants should only be watered when the media is completely dry, especially during the fall and winter..
..when plants are dormant; then, water thoroughly until water freely drains out the bottom of the container.
Choose a growing medium designed for succulents and grow your jade plants in clay pots to prevent their roots from becoming too wet.
Potting mixes for succulents usually contain a higher amount of sand to allow water to drain more quickly.
Clay pots are more porous than plastic pots and provide for better air motion through the root zone.
Fertilizer
If they are actively growing, jade plants will benefit from fertilizer every now and then.
While jade plants do not require much fertilizer, prolonged deficiency will result in weak growth and leggy growth.
Follow the label directions on a succulent-specific fertilizer during their active growing season.
Winter and fall are the best times to skip fertilizer.
Pruning
Periodically remove new growth with a pair of clean, sharp scissors or bonsai pruning shears.
You can encourage your plant to grow thicker and bushier instead of taller by removing the tips of the stems.
It’s great to know that though you may not have the ideal light conditions for jade plants, you can compensate for this by pruning regularly.
Pest Management
Jade plants typically do not have pest problems unless they are in a humid environment or their soil is kept too wet.
Over time, a pest-affected jade plant will lack the vigor to grow robustly and will look spindly.
The jade plant can be infested with scale, whiteflies, and mealybugs when grown indoors and overwatered.
Check your plants regularly for bugs.
Remove pests manually to prevent further damage or treat the plant if you find any.
Neem oil, an organic pesticide, is effective against insects with soft bodies.
Repotting
Repot your jade plant every couple of years into a larger container and refresh the potting soil.
By doing so, they are prevented from becoming too constricted in a small space, or root-bound.
Repot the plant every time you can, carefully removing as much of the growing media from the roots as possible.
Place the jade plant in a larger container by about 2 inches.
It is much easier to prevent your jade plant from becoming leggy than to fix one that has become very leggy.
Remember to provide lots of light, prune regularly, and water thoroughly.
Bonus Option: Weigh Down Your Jade Plant Pot in Other Ways
There are a number of ways you can make your plant pots heavier…
…that have nothing to do with changing the pot to a heavy alternative.
The easiest way?
Add landscaping gravel rocks to the bottom of your plant pot.
There’s a myth that this will lead your soil to have better drainage, and while it’s not true (adding rocks to the bottom of a pot doesn’t increase…
…or decrease drainage – it makes no difference to drainage at all), adding this weight goes a long way in keeping jade plants up.
Which is especially helpful if you have cats at home…
….especially the types who get up to no good by playfully doing things like toppling over things like water bowls.
P.S. keep it away from your pets as Jade plants are classified as highly toxic plants for dogs and cats
Unlike adding rocks to the bottom of your succulent’s container…
…there is a trick that both adds weight to your pot and increases the drainage…
…making it much less likely you’ll over-water because the potting substrate you use will dry out more quickly.
The trick is one I don’t dare use for flower pots that are too big that I also want to be able to easily move around…
…as it adds a lot of weight depending on how much of it you use.
Basically, the trick is to mix concrete sand (i.e. very course sand that’s not like typical beach sand which is fine) into your potting mix or…
…if you’re planning on using a lot of sand to add a ton of weight – with regular topsoil potting mix I do this…
…when I fill the flower beds outside, getting them ready for succulents…
…as I don’t want to add pearlite to the soil outdoors even though I need the drainage they provide me in pots.
Since perlite is so light and can easily fly away when we get even a little wind…
I use concrete sand mixed with topsoil roughly 50/50 proportions.
I’ve heard of some using volcanic rock/lava rock as an alternative…
…but this would be much more expensive for me to do than grabbing as much concrete sand as I need…
…as here, concrete sand is ridiculously affordable.
If you don’t need much extra weight, you can always add rocks and/or pebbles as top dressing in your jade plant’s pot as well.
This looks stunning and can definitely add just enough heft to make sure a pot doesn’t topple over…
….without making it too heavy for you to be happy to pick it up and move it around when you need to.
Conclusions
I hope this post is able in answering: How to keep Jade Plant from getting leggy?
Now I’d like to know what you have to say.
You are already know How to keep Jade Plant from getting leggy? in the most easiest and fastest ways….
…that I’m sure there are not many people aware of it…
So, is preventing your Jade to turn leggy difficult?
Um, not really!
As now you, yourself, are able to do it, right?
If you still have any questions on our topic of How to keep Jade Plant from getting leggy?
…or even you need to know a more detailed steps to do in dealing with it….
…feel free to contact me!
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