Jessica,

Yours is a common question with a lot of answers. The link is to one of those threads, but you can look at any with a lot of response and you'll be able to fix your plant.

Here is a link that might be useful: Jade

To me, AND I DO NOT GROW JADES but from all what I hear and my knowledge of succulents , I would say that your soil is to light , fluffy rich and retains water. maybe you have been over watering, I would pop that baby out of that soil and clean the soil off the roots. Check for rot and mealy bugs. then add a bunch maybe 50% perlite to your mix. That is the simile way out. One could read about Gritty mix and learn how to make ones own soil. Jades need fast draining soil and they need to be watered rarely. I would think about whacking it but I would wait just a bit for it to get used to i its new home.

This post was edited by wantonamara on Mon, Apr 8, 13 at 11:17

does that pot have a drainage hole? I only ask because it looks like it is sitting on a tile instead of something that can catch runoff.

I actually did just take it out of the soil to check them again and the roots were so full of wet soil I let them sit to dry. The is a ceramic pot with a large drainage hole under. Thank you both for responding, I've read other posts but tried a lot of them. I wondering the best soil to buy for them. Brand if anyone knows?

And I'm not sure what "whacking it" might mean?

Whacking = chopping off the smaller branches until you're left with a thick trunk and some slightly less thick major branches. Don't whack that plant -- it's not healthy enough.

I don't know any brand names, but forget anything you can describe as 'soil'. There's a mix that's quite popular over on the Container forum, and it comprises equal parts calcined clay chunks, bark chunks, and rock chunks, all screened to be over 1/8" and roughly the same size. The bark is often quite hard to source in a hurry, so you have a couple of options.

1. Forget the bark for now and make the mix half clay and half rock. Will work for getting the plant out of the fluffy black stuff and into something kinder to the roots.
2. Use reptile bark, just as a one-off. Expensive, but easy to transport and requires little screening.

What do you have to hand, anyway? If you can't get hold of anything but coarse perlite or small rocks, mixing either of those with just enough fluffy stuff to coat the rocks or perlite is better than nothing. It won't hold much air, but it can't hold much water either.

If you can't even get hold of perlite or rocks, the main woody trunks look healthy enough that you can just depot the plant entirely and leave it somewhere dark and cool and dry (outside air dry, not AC'd inside air dry) while the sogginess goes away.

Thank you, I have a cacti succulent mix for now till I find that mix. I'm trying to dry out the root ball, it was a soggy rock shape that wouldn't break up, but still looks ok. After depoting it, when should I do the first and second watering?

Thank you, I have a cacti succulent mix for now till I find that mix. I'm trying to dry out the root ball, it was a soggy rock shape that wouldn't break up, but still looks ok. After depoting it, when should I do the first and second watering?

Don't water it while it's depotted; you're trying to dry it out. Leave the ball of soil and roots on a couple of sheets of newspaper on a board raised at as sharp an angle as possible. The newspaper will suck out some of the water immediately, and the slope will wick the water away (don't forget a collection tray for the water). As the ball dries out, it will become less soggy and easier to break up, and you should keep taking off the drier outer parts and breaking up what's left until there's very little mix left on the roots.

Alternatively, if it's really soggy, you can use use more water to wash away the current stuff around the roots and then use a hand sprayer to remove the bits left that are stuck around the forks in the roots.

Do you have a picture of that cactus / succulent mix?

I'd pot it in a clay container, add some kind of rock at the inside-bottom of the container, and then use a gritty mix.

For my Jade's I mix a little bit of cactus soil with a lot of perilite and sand. There are several different ways to make it though. That's how I've made it and my Jade's are doing great. Over the winter, I watered mine once every other week. Now that Spring is here, I am increasing to once a week or when the leaves start feeling soft.