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Cacti & Succulents

Can anyone please help me? My jade plant is sick...

11 years ago

I posted something at the beginning of April about my jade plant with an unknown disease. The edges of the leaves were turning brown, then black, then the leaves would fall off. One person responded saying I was over watering it so I should increase my pearlite and decrease my watering. Well, I did that on the 10th and my plant is still getting MUCH worse! Nobody else responded and I could really use some other advice right now :(

When I repotted my jade, the roots still looked fine and healthy but I increased the perlite to a total of 50% of my potting mix just to be safe. I haven't watered it at all since April 10th (I moistened the potting mix a little when I replanted it) and I'm so confused. The plant is starting to send out aerial roots at several nodes which I think means it's not getting enough water? But also now fully half of the leaves have black edges or spots and several more have completely fallen off...

Does anybody know what is wrong with my jade plant?? I'd really love to save it if I can! Also, I don't know if this is anything important, but the new leaves are growing much wider and thinner than the rest of the leaves. Does this mean anything?

Thanks in advance for any help you have to offer! I can also take pictures of anything I've described if that would help.

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Comments (6)

rosemariero
11 years ago
Your description is great, but pix would help in addition to what you've already told us. Did you get a look at its roots when you repotted?
Colleen E
11 years ago
We'll really need a picture, but is the plant getting enough light?
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Thanks for all everyone's feedback, The only recent change I can think of is possibly less light since my daughter has been shutting the window blind due to monitor glare the past couple months. It is probably small for it's age due in part to me ignoring it. It has been small, but healthy for most of its life. I hardly ever water it, but have watered it a couple times recently, since I read that the curling leaves might be caused by a lack of water. It seemed to perk up a bit for a few days after watering, but ultimately, more and more leaves keep curling up and browning. Very sad. Can I take a "cut" and save part for a later planting??? I have no idea what I am doing here. :-) I saw this link where someone has one living in water alone. Looks just like mine did when it was healthy. http://www.dirtdoctor.com/Schefflera_vq2032.htm
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Hi all, thanks for all the advice; I went out today in an attempt to make a cozy new home for my poor ailing jade. I bought I believe a 3'' circumference unglazed clay pot with a drainage hole and a dish, a bag of perlite, and a bag of orchard bark. They didn't have any kind of mix, except the cactus soil that I've been using. Should I just mix the perlite and the bark, or does it need anything else? I've heard undyed aquarium rocks were good too... Doug, thanks for the info; it's currently outside and gets some direct light right now. It was inside on a ledge next to a window getting very indirect sun all winter; I moved it out when the leaves started drooping for no apparent reason thinking that maybe it needed more sun.
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Thank you to everyone for the responses and recommendations! I haven't repotted it yet (just haven't gotten around to it, but I will try it soon). I did decide to chop off all the affected leaves assuming it's a fungus infection and here's a pic of what the plant looks like now. To answer some questions...there is no chance it was sprayed with anything. The plant is indoors all the time. Also, I do use a small amount of plantfood each time I water it. And I'm very careful not to overwater it. It gets plenty of air flow and direct sunlight (these pics are of the plant in a place that was good to photograph it against a plain background -- normally the plant is by a window that gets opened quite often and gets a lot of sun). What I'm still confused about is how to go about doing the repotting....do I break off some of the old roots? Do I shake off the old soil? How can I tell if there is a problem with the soil or the roots? What do I look for? Do I put it in a bigger pot or a smaller one or the same one it's in now? I'm not really clear on what repotting does unless a plant is rootbound. Thanks, Jen
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Hi Judy, Welcome to the forum! I have a few more bits of advice for you. 1. You may want to use a clay pot instead of plastic. Clay helps the soil dry out faster. 2. Plant it high in the pot, soil almost to the top. That way, your plant won't be shaded by the pot. 3. Being in Hawaii, you should be able to get Volcanic Pumice quite easily. I would recommend that over Perlite but if you can't find it in the land of volcanoes, Perlite is fine. Good luck!
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bunnyrampage
Original Author
11 years ago
Here is a leaf that just fell off this morning
bunnyrampage
Original Author
11 years ago
This is a picture of one set of aerial roots (with more black lesions in the background). Some older roots have turned brown, but there are still new white roots coming out of several nodes on 4 different branches right now.

This post was edited by bunnyrampage on Sun, Apr 21, 13 at 14:53
bunnyrampage
Original Author
11 years ago
Finally, here's one of the new thin leaves that are about 1.5 times wider and much flatter than any of the other leaves on my jade. You can see where the plant didn't get quite enough light last winter so the stem stretched out further down, but the space between leaves has gotten much smaller this spring which I think means it's happier about the light conditions?
norma_2006
11 years ago
Yes you are catching on. The plant still need more sun, and less water, for insurance cut off a stem that is getting roots and plant it. You must realize these are winter growers and not summer growers, mine flower in December and start to grow after the flowers dry up, starting about January, they need air circulation, and cool air, they need soil that drains rapidly, they don't like living in an apartment with a heater going. They are east African plants, and are domant when it is very hot. I have 24 different, so have a little experence. Pirate Girl lives in New York she may have a lot to add to this. I can see that the leaf nodes are still far apart this tells me more sun is needed and less water. Don't treat like it is your pet. Don't water it from the top, water from the bottom, don't mist the plant. No peat moss in the mix, red wood med. size would do much better. I don't normally respond to 'Crassula Ovata' problems any more because it just gets out of hand. Good Luck I hope you will enjoy your plant and stops giving you all of this trouble. The black spots are caused by cultural problems. Gasteria species also haved this problem. Norma

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