Could be too much water Being succulents, variegated jade plants do not need much water and will grow best if the soil is allowed to go completely dry between waterings. If you water your plant too often, the leaves take up the excess water and swell. The swollen leaves then develop brown or rust-colored spots, often on the underside of the leaves. This problem, referred to as edema, will affect most of the leaves on your variegated jade at the same time. It's best to prevent edema by not overwatering your plant. If you have overwatered it, help the plant give off the excess water by making the air drier, warmer and better ventilated around the plant. A jade plant with edema should not be placed in direct sunlight or in a cold, dark room. Or it could be due to too much salts.. If you live in an area that naturally has salts or minerals in the tap water, these salts and minerals can cause your jade plant to develop brown spots on its leaves. The water gets taken up by the root system to the leaves and then the leaves give off the water through transpiration. The leaves can only release water, not the salts. When the salts get left behind, they can burn the leaves. The problem will show on most of the leaves on their upper surface and at the tips. To prevent this problem, give your jade plant filtered water. This type of leaf burn can also happen if you give your jade plant too much fertilizer. Only feed your plant once every three months and follow all package directions so you don't give it too much. This use to happen to mine until I started using rain or bottled water....Try anything but tap) If either of these does not help, then last resort would be the Bayer Disease Control because at one time I was using it and it worked like a charm on all my jades...Leaves clean as a whistle over time.

Old leaves will be absorbed for moisture as required for the plant. When dried out they will look crunchy/crystalline. It's normal. Should take several weeks for the Crassula to recover after repotting, since the fine roots would have been destroyed (and do the bulk of water absorption). If you start losing too many leaves too quickly before the roots re-establish, you should temporarily move the plant into a cooler place or one that receives less sun (to reduce plant water demands).

Thanks everyone! Seems like there is an okay chance the whole plant won't go down the same way as that branch/stem. My hypothesis is that it's sensitive to changes in its watering schedule. The first cutting I had was 3-4 leaves in extremely wet peaty soil, after repotting to granite/perlite/floor dry, that one shriveled up within a week. (After seeing rina's experiences, maybe it was just a living dead). For this one, I watered it a little late... Nicholas- That makes sense, I will probably rot it if I suddenly drown the semi-dead roots with tons of water. I'll try to figure out what moderate water it needs (e.g. pour it near the affected stem or not). I see why you're guessing fungal, this plant did come with some iffy brown spots that I ignored after I didn't see them spread/didn't see any creepy crawlies but who knows...I should make sure they actually are not spreading.. Christopher- That's a smart move, this is my second try at the tricolor...Not sure I can bear this one shriveling up on me as well..or rotting..ugh. Especially after it was making all this nice new growth. Fine line between neglect and too much neglect. I feel like nurseries with the gigantic potted specimens hardly take care of theirs... Oo that reminds me of this one I saw in NJ: rina- That is just really cool, I did not know this jade could continue to do so well after falling off. I do still have 4-5 leaves from my first try and they are technically still alive. Two of them (with a short stem) have rooted, the other (stemless leaves) ones are getting pinker...but not dead yet. It's intriguing to see in your first pic that it grew roots even though you didn't tuck it into the mix, and your mix is gritty too. I think I remember you said you don't really spray your cuttings either. Did you water/avoid watering that semi-shriveled cutting? I can't believe that stem budded in your second pic...that gives me a lot of hope. Sorry, many questions..! What is RH? (Room heat?...I know I'm going to feel silly once I find out the answer,) Do you continue to water with that method (until water comes out) even in winter with central heating on? kevin- But it's cool isn't it to see the new set of lithops leaves emerge from under. Very cycle of life/renewal.. When you say your older leaves drop first, did you mean your older tricolor jades leaves become crystallized/shriveled/absorbed first? Not that they also fell off like mine did? Now that I think about it...I don't think I've seen my tricolor absorb any old leaves yet...o_o hmm. My C ovata minor does it, but not the tricolor. That says something...

Ebony You likely do not need bigger container, I just mentioned that it may be difficult to take plant out (either now or later) since the op opening is narrower than 'body' of the container. Drainage sounds very good with the extra holes. From Crenda's post: ...So I went to using one part Turface, one part perlite and one part granite grit. I was surprised to find this was still a little too wet for our summers. And someone suggested that I use less Turface, the part of the mix that hold moisture. That seems to have worked for me! ... I would make a mix using grit and perlite (or pumice if you can get it) in approx. equal amounts. You could leave out turface if you don't have any or can't find. If you use it, I wouldn't add much more than 10-20% (maybe less?) of total volume. I would prune off all skinny branches in the center of the plat to open it up for better air circulation: I would cut those off completely, closer to the trunk, leaving short stub - approx. 1/4". This will scab over and eventually scab will fall off, leaving pretty smooth surface. It is very difficult to tell you exactly which branches to cut off - the couple I marked with red are easy for me to see. You need to use your judgement...if not sure, do just few and wait few days. Eventually you'll see what 'interferes' and should go. On 'outside', there are many branches that are just as long, skinny and leaf-less. They should be pruned off (same as above) or shortened. You could possibly leave that for later. If you repot into new mix, plant should start growing healthier leaves. You could decide then which branches to get rid off. Let see what Crenda will suggest for pruning. For pruning, use a sharp knife or blade, wiping it with a towel moistened with rubbing alcohol. Give the plant all the sunlight you can, just keep out of too much rain. Any pieces/branches you cut off could be potted to grow new plants if desired. If you want to do that, let us know - will give you few tips.