Benign neglect, indeed! Set 'em and forget 'em! ;-)

Give me an hour or two, and I'll take an update pic of my Jade leaf experiment, started last December.

In the mean time, here's the Thread on rooting Jade leaves.

Josh

Here is a link that might be useful: Plucked my Jade's leaves (pics)

Alright! An update!
The Jade leaves closer to the edge of the container did not survive, although they had rooted. I believe a heavy rainstorm in June caused them to rot. I lost all the small purple leaves, the Hummel's Sunset, and one Gollum. Surprisingly, the Portulacaria afra cuttings did quite well (despite losing all their leaves) - even at the edge of the container. The straight Crassula ovata performed the best - fastest rooting, fastest growth. I added two Hobbit tip-cuttings after the initial planting, and both are doing well. The one between the two Port. afras is showing nice color...

Raccoons did their best to demolish this pot, but I straightened the Jades...and they all seem to have recovered.

Lastly, a bonus shot of my Mother Jade, from which most of these leaves were plucked. I've been pruning and modifying the overall shape, too.

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Josh

Josh...I can't see these pic now that I am at work....Your teasing me...lol

I can only imagine them being real nice though..I can't wait to get home and see them. You certainly have a gift with rooting process..Sweet!

Well, they're not the best pics...

But you also get a glimpse of my Christmas Cactus and my Wandering Jew in the last pic ;-)

Josh

Mike,

With all due respect, most of your advice is correct but not all. The leaves should be misted every 3-5 days - this will promote the formation of adventitious roots more quickly.

Cactusmharris,

Lol.. I am always willing to be corrected and accept new ideas..Thanks for that..

I never misted mine before, but maybe I will give my next cuttings a shot.Maybe I will be suprised to see the difference. I am actually excited for this.

I really appreciate it..:-)

And Josh,

What can I say but WOW..I think they are beautiful!
Strong work and you certainly know what you are doing.
Thanks so much for sharing..Amazing! I love this forum..

All Mike claimed about his method was that it was easy. And it is. And it WILL work.

Sure, you can give them water, but given the fact that overwatering is a major cause of death for potted plants (and not just succulents), you might have more success just throwing them on the ground in a shady spot and walking away.

Again, Mike made no claims that this method was the absolute best possible way of rooting jade cuttings.

LT,

I never said otherwise - you need to reread what I wrote.

Please also note that I used misting, which is different from watering, IMO.

And on further review....we're both right.

I have personal experience, Your Honour, with both methods, and if it please The Court, can bore you for a fortnight or longer with tales and truths about rooting Pachyphytum, Crassula, Echeveria, Kalanchoe, Thompsonella, Cotyledon, Grahamia, Tylecodon, Pachyphytum and other Crassulaceae - and that's just the Crassulaceae. I could go on with the Apocynaceae and other genera, but I shouldn't take up that much of your time.

With few exceptions, if you're trying to root succulents, particularly Crassulaceae, you can take it to the bank that, given warm (20C/70F or higher is better) ambient temps and at least a modicum of sunlight (filtered is better than mostly direct), you will get leaves/cuttings/branches/stems to root faster if you give them an occasional spritz of water.

I hope this provides a fuller bloviation on my comments earlier.

Howdy, and good morning, folks!

If I may wade into this conversation regarding misting....

I prefer to *start* a Jade dry, as I believe this encourages the plant to send out roots in search of moisture.

However, as soon as there is evidence of roots, those roots are ready to take up moisture.

There ought to be a balance struck between providing enough moisture to keep the leaf
plump, but not so much moisture that the roots never properly extend into the medium.

Josh

I must add this:
when I do finally dribble some water around my Jade leaves,
I try to water the potting medium about an inch away from the actual leaf.
Again, I want the leaf to send out roots in search of water.

Josh

Euphorbias and stapeliads bedevil me. They either desiccate or decay.

But crassulas and the ice-plant mesembs are a breeze. In fact, I sometimes just toss pieces up on inaccessible parts of my hillside garden. Within a month or two, they'll be rooted. They only get a little bit of overspray from my regular watering, but they do just fine. You can do the same with kalanchoe leaves.

I'm a mister from way back. Many commercial growers have misting beds.

I like to root growing tips instead of leaves.

It rained all but 3 days of September here so I did lose 9 cuttings to rot. But I'll take 91 out of 100 any day.

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randy

I would agree with you Randy on the growing tips..I did several growing tips over the summer of several differant kinds of Jades and had so much better success at it and the growth sees to be faster and hardier.

I also mist mine. I found that ot by accident, i have much better and faster rooting if i mist my cutings. The dry ones will root yes but I found that with misting they root faster and the leaves stay nice as opposed to the leaves shriveling up on the ones I did not mist.

However this does not apply to large cttings, even misting them wont stop the leaves from shriveling up and some dropping off until the cutting is rooted and taking in water.

I am still learning but this is my experience thus far.

Mary