I doubt the jade cares whether you remove the lower branches or not. I can't think of any way it would benefit the plant. If it would improve the plants appearance in your opion you may do so without harming the jade. If thats an unrooted cutting it needs to be well callused before planting due to its thickness. I also can't think of any reason not to plant two jade sports together in the same pot but I doubt that I ever would. I would plant Gollum in one pot and Hobbit in another for aesthetic reasons. If such a look appeals to you go for it.

Thanks a lot Fred, I went and got pots today but believe I need to get a bigger one as my 20" is too heavy to stand upright in the 6" pot I purchased. The ends are calloused but I'm not sure how dry they should be. Now am correct in the assumption that once I pot these, I should wait for new growth to water? Will the new growth let me know there are roots?
Thanks again,
Tricia

Tricia I would be tempted to plant the big one in the 6 inch pot and stick some bamboo stakes or something around it to hold it up until roots form. Too big a pot can encourage rot and jades are OK with snug toes. If the end of the stem is tough and leathery looking its OK to pot it. Your first sign of rooting will be when the leaves plump up and become firm again. I wouldn't wait to see new growth to water but I would be very conservative. Theres no point in watering if the plant has no roots to take it up. If the leaves start to shrivel you could lightly mist the plant. Sometimes people have a fit when I advise this but it will give the plant some moisture without forcing it to sit in wet soil. I also believe the plant senses the water and sends out roots in search of it. A very unscientific theory I can't support with data but it works.

Hey there.

I got my 20 inch jade cutting today and potted it:

Here's the cutting:
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I used a 6" pot for it. Same reason that Fred mentioned above. I was afraid of too much wet soil sitting around it. I took some rubberbands to hold sticks (I guess they're like tongue depressors or popsicle sticks) in place and then put more bands criss cross. My husband's foot is in one of these pictures...
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Then I potted the jade cutting and set it inside of an 8" pot to anchor it. I put some glass marbles and pebbles on top just to help steady it. I will eventually remove most of them. Especially once I start watering. I also put bands around the larger pot so I could put a stick on the outside of that one too. I'm using it to help support the cutting.
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Here's a picture of it now. I took quite a few small cuttings from it. There were about ten gangly and weak stems. It seems as if this cutting was on the tree horizontally, so the small stems were just sort of hanging downward. I'm going to pot them in a few days.
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Hi Amany,
I do believe our cuttings came from the same tree. Don't you just love it? Mine has calloused over although I haven't planted it yet. I will definitely be doing that today and I appreciate the idea for stabilizing it. I will try that when I pot it. It's been raining here the past couple of days and I have all my Jades in my screened in back patio. So far the ones that have been touched by the rain are the ones that have roots. The rest I moved away from the screen and out of touch by the rain. I know I say it a lot but thanks again!

No problem at all. I knew I'd have to be creative with this one. When I received it, I REALLY knew it. ;-)

Mine was also calloused when I got it. I thought I'd have to wait a while before potting it, but it was ready when I got it. Don't forget to post pictures when you're done.

BTW, I didn't water it. I'm pretty sure I won't for a while.

Wow Amanda you're quite crafty :)
That's a great idea...I'm sure it was quite a task trying to hold up a cutting that large. Good job!

Quick question Amanda. That cutting is a Hummel's Sunset isn't it? I purchased a small Hummel's Sunset from Ebay that looks exactly like our cuttings.

By the way, I'm speaking of the 20" cutting I received, not the 14" cutting pictured above, it's the one below.

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Wow, amany! That's pretty complicated yet creative. I just tend to grab a broken stick in the backyard and tape it to the side of a pot to hold something up if it was falling over. My hobbit jade used to be very large until a very heavy rain caused the branches and the main stem to flump over. It was pretty upsetting to cut the branches off and prop the plant back up but it's recovered nicely.

Gabi - Aw, shucks ma'am. Thank you kindly. ;-)

Tricia - I think they're hummel's sunset. They look like the pictures of hummels sunset jades I've seen online.

Dragonstone - Hey, a broken stick and a little tape sounds good to me! :-)

Bump

So, how did it go? I didn't know you were getting both cuttings. I'm so jealous! :-)

Oh yeah, I did get both. I couldn't say no to the first one after he cut it so I told him I wanted both. I paid a pretty penny but they were both worth it. I was actually able to get a pretty tall cutting from both. I literally came back upstairs after rigging the 20" so that it wouldn't lean/fall over. I'll post a few pics tomorrow. I couldn't find sticks anywhere in the house and there weren't any usable branches outside. There are leaves everywhere but no branches that were useful. You might actually laugh when you see how I did it. Again, I'll post the pics tomorrow. Thanks for your idea though. I'm going to have to stock up on those tongue depressors/popsicle sticks though.

I love seeing the creative things people will do to prop their plants and cuttings up.

Hawk used some string or yarn to wrap his jade cuttings to a stick because they were flopping over. On another forum there was a woman who stuck the ends of ribbon strands under a closed window and looped them around her jade plant to prop it up.

Ok, this is what I did. None of the little pots are digging into the trunk of the tree as of right now. Does anyone about how long it will take to root enough to stand up on it's own?

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Fred - Misting the plant seems like an interesting thing to do. I assume that it will take my large cutting longer to root than the small ones I have started in the past. I might try that in a couple of weeks.

Why is it so controversial to lightly mist the leaves on a jade cutting that is otherwise not being watered? As long as the soil is not getting drenched, wouldn't it be fine?

hi-
i mist my plants often and they seem to enjoy it.
grow quickly and haven't noticed any ill effects.
i do tend to overwater but the plants thrive