Hello all! I've been lurking on the forum since New Years Day when a friend gave me a Jade Plant he had for several years as a gift.

Sorry for the long post. You've been warned.

The plant given to me when during an LA visit home. I live in San Diego. This gentleman happened to be an experienced gardener and gave me this plant that fell out of its bonsai pot in a Santa Ana storm. He told me it would be hard to kill and to enoy it. Truth be told I have wanted a Jade for years since my roommate had one while living in NJ 15yrs ago.

In the short time since New Years I have collected numerous Jade's as they grow everywhere here in San Diego. I was unaware initially because they are primarily red tipped and flowering now--I just moved here--and I was only accustomed to thick green Jade's grown mainly indoors. I have attached my Jade gift below.

The plant had been inside in a large tray with its roots lightly covered as he awaited a new order of pots. He gave it to me without a pot and wrapped it's roots in a bag. Knowing I had a spare one at home I merely stuck it in the pot with some planting soil already in the pot from a previous failed flower experience of my wife's. Thus the fun part of numerous errors began.

Error 1.) I left it in a sunlight room of my house off if the kitchen in the pot and watered it thoroughly once again in the rich moist soil and continued to do so every week. I only water now once every 2 weeks with a light mist spray on the off week.

Error 2.) A short while later its leaves drooped a little too much so I put it in outdoor sunlight a few hours throughout the week. Not a day after its first sitting I noticed it top leaves were changing colors. They had in fact been sunburned. Thankfully all of those leaves have been either clipped or fallen off. I never put it on direct sunlight anymore. However the plant not longer grows down and tree like but rather mainly upright. See recent picture for comparison. I believe at this picture below it was just beginning to flourish with recent watering. It is now trimmed back much more than before due to the burned leaves dying off.

Error 3.) I put it outside in the not direct sunlight shelf off my kitchen where I am growing other Jade's cut from my neighbor's plant. They are wild so to speak and have always been outdoors. They are rooted and very successful from only a month of healing. I used the soil from her garden in these native ones. Below are pictures from before I obtained a pot for the one I completely trimmed to push new growth as well as the one I left alone as well as a picture of a stump I found during a run in my neighborhood. It too has grown. I will update photos tomorrow.

(Pardon the brick pot. I was awaiting the arrival of a new one for its at the time fresh roots. It did work excellent though to push new node roots mainly because I believe the moisture it held, at least thats what I tell myself.)

This evening I discovered three things while repotting my New Year's Jade into proper succulent gritty mix. First the base of the trunk was moist and soft. It's rotting for sure. Second most of the upper leave locations which were burned and were removed have begun sprouting new growths. Third there are tiny red circuly pests in clusters around the few accidental leaves I've broken off and was trying to propogate in the soil. In conclusion all of my Jade's have these tiny red mites bugs no bigger than a pin head in the soil.

So, any and all help appreciated to save my New Years Jade...should I take it out of its new gritty soil since it is rotting from below? Should I cut it at the rot and let it callous and refrow new roots? In the meantime, with all of this trama, should I try and tackle the pests problem too? What do I use to do so? Most of these additional Jade's have homes they'll be going to as gifts. I now have 6 growing in various sizes around my home. All of them have this infestation but seem to not be bothered by them, yet, including my daughter's mini Jade menagerie in her room made from clippings of a plant on a sidewalk near my home that was trimmed. Seeing the tiny remnants on the ground was too much of temptation for me. See below.

Thank you again! This forum is outstanding and my new hobby has been quite a joy. I've gotten the bug for sure (no pun intended)!