Stick them in the ground and let them get huge, just like trees.

I agree with Brad...(it was discussed on another very recent thread).

Leave all the leaves and branches until the trunk is as 'fat' as you like it and as tall as you like it. Trunk will be stronger this way too, and no need for anything to support it. Only time support of some kind is needed is when root ball is too small yet.

After, selectively trim - to whatever look is desired...JMO

We often see photos of really thick trunks on plants growing in the 'wild' - who trims them? (Maybe jade-eating animals...) They get thick/fat/strong since nobody bothers them.

Rina

I am a notorious non-pruner. It is more because I am not sure what to do and I ponder the cuts for too long. But I remember on some thread somewhere in the past that someone said leaving the leaves and branches helps the trunk thicken. (How's that for not naming names? LOL)

The following pictures cover 2 issues. Pruning and rotating the pots.

We start with a little clipping that obviously needs to be rotated more often! This is from October 2013. (4-inch pot)

When I was helping my mother in Ohio, sometimes I would be gone for months at a time, so nothing got rotated.

And a little older, with more branches forming -

So here we are in August 2015. It had straightened up by rotating the pot. The stem is nice and thick. And it is ready for some pruning!

So right or wrong, it seems to me that more leaves help the trunk get thicker. Maybe this isn't as fast as one would like, but this is how it worked for me over 2 years.

Yes - that is the same 4-inch pot and the same lava rocks used as top dressing (props originally).

It is typically recommended that you don't 'limb up' trees if you want them to thicken quickly.

Nil 13 : Yes PIG would be great but with a four foot deep hard frost line for four to five months of the year I don't think PIG is going to help a jade swell here.

Rina : Timing is a positive suggestion and has me removing the lower growth when/ if it occurs I tend to think root energy is / can move more effecently / freely upward Results , over the past two three years of lower growth removal ( seen as a nub in pic) the soil line trunk is actually thinner than the next inch or two.

I do try to keep the base looking as natural as possible I habit justifying the thinner base by assuming wind blown sands could also remove weaker smaller growth from a tree type base

Rebuttals are intended for better understandings. let me ask, as natural growing happens in nature then it's okay to let natural happen in a pot ? Before an answer , did I mention pest happen in nature and no body treats the natural growing jade for pest ? nor does anybody feed a jade in nature .

Crenda : Yours is looking very good if every jade leaf on the one in pic I posted had all it's foliage looking that good I would let it remain on too. It's not always the case though as time can sometimes shows it's sores

I remove lesser/ weaker/ folding/ over hardened foliage starting at the lower foliage in pairs removing them ( over a four to five moth time frame) upward as the weaker still green foliage seems to resist receiving branch/ stem/ root some seem to have a difficult time in producing energy for exchanging as well as they didn't swell over the summer season.

Results A energy exchanging stem that is greener in color promoting branch energy exchanging to and from foliage Although more overall plant vigor could be questionable.

It makes sense, leave the leaves for thicker trunks.

Christopher

..."let me ask, as natural growing happens in nature then it's okay to let
natural happen in a pot ? Before an answer , did I mention pest happen
in nature and no body treats the natural growing jade for pest ? nor
does anybody feed a jade in nature"...

Growing in the pot is totally different than plant growing in nature.

We hold plant 'captive' in the pot - give it much less space (in nature, the 'pot' they are growing in is much bigger...), much different substrate (not sure if one ever can produce exact duplicate of it in pot? - but we can get similar). Some fertilize them - they don't get fertilizers in nature - they get whatever minerals are in the substrate they are in (and again, by fertilizing we may be 'stimulating' plants too much - obviously it is our desire to get plant growing, get bigger fast, but that doesn't mean it was programmed to do so). They grow their own speed, as they were programmed to do.

They fight diseases and attacks by various bugs on their own - we can't let that happen since we 'altered' plant somehow already and perhaps it's defense mechanism isn't as strong as it would be under natural conditions. We have eliminated - at least to some extent - some natural predators, even just by growing them in locale where they don't grow naturally, that likely help them in these fights. And in more confined environment (which our growing is, either indoors or in GH or outdoors - it is still confinement comparing to what it is in their natural habitat) the diseases and insects would spread and damage would be probably more serious. And many don't like to see any signs of damage - disfigured leaves or similar, and don't like to see any, even beneficial bugs! - so these creatures, that have most likely important role in nature are eliminated by many growers.

They get 'blasted' by the wind that bends them and makes them stronger. We can't provide that to the same extent either. We water them, and as careful as one may be - how do we know what is just right? - we can only guestimate, perhaps. As long as we provide a well-draining substrate, we may be close.

So, because we like to see plants bigger, fatter, more colorful, having more flowers and so on and on, we are doing many 'un-natural' things to it. (And I am not talking about the spray-painting, flocking, fluorescent sprays and other really crazy stuff that happens....)

Sorry - this is not about how to thicken jades...just reaction to nomen's q...and JMO...

Rina

I have been wondering, how many months of good weather is necessary to make putting your jade in the ground for as long as possible each season worthwhile, given that you'll be digging it out at the end of the season when it becomes too cold. But maybe if it's in the ground, that will be later than you'd bring it in if it was in a container. Jades are "winter growers" even though they're also opportunistic and grow when the weather is nice, anyway, whenever it is that it gets too cold is probably not the worst time of year to do such work as repotting.

Daniel

One small thing - a plant in a pot could have just as much space as it could expect in nature - if not more; in nature its roots and growing parts are restricted by other vegetation, or by rocks or tree trunks instead of by the walls of containers. Plants rarely grow in isolation in nature.

Jades are able to handle some short times of light frost I've been pushing one potted tester in the current outside cooler Autumn temps it requires mandatory attentiveness on a daily basis drag it in drag it out kept under cover pray for 3 more degrees of day long warmth ect At this time I'm unable to say for fact that cooler temps later in the year are of any speeding up contribution for thickening. Yet will continue with the tester next season as well Watering in cooler temps is said to be a no no. As cooler temps already hold and move more moisture I would agree VERY VERY LITTLE to NO WATER during cooler temps

A factor to consider for most any pot grown plant it's natural growing hearty zones and then equalizing that same zone to a pot I assume a general idea and minus two zones during cooler ( less than 50 F) months This equates a zone 8 PIG becomes zone 6 hardy in a pot. Any zone six potted plant equivalent to a zone 8 pig is going to be to cool in a pot. I also add two zones during warmer times of the year ( over 80 F) months the same zone 8 hardy plant is now living in a very close to a zone 10 environment in the same pot. Zone 10 potted for a zone 8 PIG plant then adding sunlight leanght time and UV sometimes 80 F can be to warm

If to pig a jade here a zone 8 is still zone 8 all warmer months I'd have to PIG it in April and dig it back out early October to pot it up again After the winter I have to re-transition to out side sun prior to returning it as PIG Transitioning here can SOMETIMES start as early as April early April As it snowed 3 inches on St Patrick day this year with three foot high snow banking seen every where Mid may would be better for PIG jade growing. If we have a drought all summer long season ( like this year) Id' have to dig a jade out and move it because the fact is a drought tolerant plant can only tolerate a drought it cant tolerate and grow at the same time. IMO Even on the best year I get/ have five months with a jade as pig here doesn't seem to be worth it..

No problem Rina A generic response was suspected and is still useful information

Margaret

You may be very right, I think of it as roots may have at least one direction to spread out if in tight space - but I see many photos of them cramped in very small and narrow crevices, so who knows? And I have seen photos of just a solitary cacti, almost buried in what looked like a clay - but difficult to judge from photos for sure.

Margaret: I favor the tighter smaller pot idea, problem is that someone else comes by chatting up a storm about how pot bound roots don't move energy very well when pot bound.

The reason why planting in the ground is the best way to thicken a trunk is because the roots grow without restriction. A smaller pot has the opposite effect.

It might be more "natural" or mimic native habitat (can't say), but a smaller pot won't help thicken the trunk faster than a bigger pot.

I believe in the first statement you made...to me, the pot is somehow restricting. Not that we can do much about it (especially in colder zones; and one can use big pots but there is a limit), but the fact remains. PIG - there is a place/space to go, even if in one direction left. In pots, we see the roots coming out of drainage holes sometimes - isn't that a proof/sign that plants roots are seeking more room?...

These plants would have not been able to survive for as long as they are if that wasn't possible (I am referring to plants growing in wild, in tight spaces)...

is it conclusive that time and only time ( useing individule cultivating skills) is the ideal manner we should use to thiken jades

Do roots find a way to find what they need to grow ? Or does what a root need to grow find roots?

Not a jade but I think most will agree it is somewhat pot restricted

The leaves and the roots provide for each other. The trunk is the highway. More roots create conditions for more leaves and more leaves create conditions for more roots. The increasing demand between these two calls for a wider highway(thicker trunk). This is my simplistic view from the studying I have done in bonsai. There is great focus in the bonsai world on trunk thickening, so there is much to be studied and many examples. Thus, it is seen in developing a bonsai that growing trees in the ground develops thick trunks MUCH more rapidly. Trunk thickening slows to a crawl in training pots, and nearly ceases in bonsai pots.

That said, there are always exceptions, and cacti and succulents have adapted to poor soil and limited amount of soil. For instance, I have been reading that caudex forming succulents will gain a fatter caudex when soil amount is limited, and I am experimenting with that right now.

All that said I suspect that jades will thicken more quickly when planted in the ground, but that is not a feasible experiment in my climate and I have found no literature specific to jades that addresses this. Since they store water for long periods, however, perhaps they have adapted to nature in a way that their trunks thicken even in limited soil. I would especially like to hear from folks who grow jades both in the ground and in pots to know what they experience in this regard. Nil13, would you be one of those?

nomen_nudum

Before an answer , did I mention pest happen in nature and no body treats the natural growing jade for pest ? nor does anybody feed a jade in nature .

Both statements are somewhat erroneous, Nomen.

Yes, pests DO happen in nature and there is no human there to spray them with pesticides. HOWEVER, typically there are predators, parasites, and/or naturally occurring pathogens/environmental conditions to keep the pests in check. (And if the plant is weakened enough by the pests/pathogens even in its natural habitat, the plant still dies.) In the artificial environment we provide, these pest limiting factors often do not exist or are greatly diminished.

While there is no human present in their natural habitat to fertilize them, plants DO still obtain nutrients from dead/decaying plant & animal matter both within and on the soil. ("Feeding", btw, is really an unfortunately inaccurate term to apply to fertilizer that, I think, we are all guilty of using. With the exception of parasitic plants, plants all make their own food via photosynthesis. ;) )

marguerite_gw

One small thing - a plant in a pot could have just as much space as it could expect in nature - if not more; in nature its roots and growing parts are restricted by other vegetation, or by rocks or tree trunks instead of by the walls of containers.

Sometimes this may be the case, Margaret, but by and large I would disagree. The roots of plants growing amongst those other plants often become quite intertwined. The ability to do so enables them to have a much more extensive root system than a pot allows for.

For instance, I have been reading that caudex forming succulents will gain a fatter caudex when soil amount is limited, and I am experimenting with that right now.

Note; erroneous only means somewhat wrong and also means not always right.

A peek at a jade cousin. A family member of Crassulacea that builds a natural caudex over time that has been potted in a very limited space the pot was/is some what to shallow or potted in a limited confined space pot for three years. If you limit pot size/ shape you are also limiting soil.

Theory works and only works because the exact opposite is also true IE erroneous.