A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 sad jade plant, help!

hi. i know very little about plants, but i have a jade plant that i've had for a little over a year and i love it. it has seemed pretty hardy, but since the summer started it hasn't seemed right. the branches keep getting droopy and then basically falling off and it is losing a lot of leaves. the person who plant sat for me last summer said that it didn't do well then either ... is it because it is so much brighter all the sudden, or is it that plant rot thing that i read on this site about? if it is that, how do i cut out the rot? do i go down into the soil, or just remove what is on top. the branches are kind of mushy when they break off. i water it about every three weeks to a month .. maybe that isnt' enough? anyway, any advice would be appreciated. maybe i should repot it?

Oh wow o.O tricky. *thinks* I water my jade when its dry, so i wouldn't think that its root rot with the 3 times a month that you water it. I woulnd't worry about cutting out the root system. When my friend, Ryan's jade was all droopy, and the leaves were all yellow and saggy lookin, i repotted it into a bigger pot, with fresh slow release fertalizer mixed in. As far as i can tell, they love bright light, so i don't think that'd be the problem...

*thinks* I donno >.< i'm stumped on this one. Hopefully Will Creed will help ya out. I haven't seen him around lately though

Well in my experence Jade is pretty easy to grow. Your description sure sounds abiotic to me it sounds like too much water but since you only water every 3 weeks that seems unlikely. I would suggest removing from the pot and looking at the roots if they are black, mushy, and smell bad it is root rot caused by overwatering. If on the other hand the soil is bone dry, the plant is root bound or other indications of not insufficent water I would recomend replanting and watch your watering. It seems that it is something cultural focus on that at the moment and try and see whats changed, I would not suggest anything else until you can discern whats up . Good luck.

my Jade gets watered once a week, and it is doing great.

Hope you figure out the problem, they are such a beautiful addition to a house!