It's hard to see anything with your white pebbles used as top dressing. I would remove all the pebbles (permanently, in fact) and make sure your plants are in a fast draining mix, preferably with few or no organic components. Top dressing is pretty but it keeps moisture IN. Cactus and succulent plants don't need that so much. It's hard to tell, but your pots do look like plastic. If you have succulents in plastic pots with top dressing, you are keeping a lot of moisture in that mix, regardless of what it is, and that's not favorable for the kind of plants you have.

Thanks for your input. Perhaps I did overwater it in the past. The soil is not wet. It is totally dry. I have used a coconut substrate not garden soil so perhaps that's why it looks like it is wet. BTW The 'If you don't mind, please post photos direct.' was sufficient. You don't have to be so passive-aggressive and bitchy to someone who just joined the site! You are not forced to click on the links, everything action you take in life is a choice. I have only joined and the text box did not appear to show any formatting options at the time that's why I had to use that method. For some reason, it has appeared below now and I will obviously use that in future. I actually work in computing so I already am aware how forums work and had looked for an image upload button. I assumed that this site did not provide image storage capabilities (as some don't) and I had to link from somewhere else. Great welcome! Thanks! 4th Feb 24th Feb

Peter Personally, I do not like soil looking like that for any succulents - this is not 'attack' on what you have there! :) And as you said, your neighbour grows plants in it successfully. It looks (and photos could be misleading!) as it contains lots of peat. Peat is not very easy to keep 'just right' as moisture goes. It watered more often, it usually stays wet for extended periods of time. Succulents need good drainage and wet peat doesn't provide it. ONTH if left to dry up, it may become hydrophobic = it actually repels water, and becomes hard, compacted around the root ball. You may be watering often, but water will just drain out instantly and plant doesn't get any. To improve drainage, you could just get bag of perlite (very inexpensive and easy to buy). Sift it or at least rinse using kitchen type strainer to get rid of dust and smallest particles. Mix lots of it with your soil. It should be at least 50/50 mix (could be more perlite) to help drainage. To make sure plant needs watering, use a "skewer test". Get a bamboo skewer or chopstick; insert deep inside of pot (at least 3/4 deep). Leave in for few minutes. When pulled out and is dry and clean - time to water. If stick feels damp/cold and has small particles sticking to it (not always), there is still enough moisture and wait couple of days. Re-check and if dry, water. Eventually you'll get good idea how often to water. If it is warm where plant is kept, watering will be little more frequent. Colder it is, less often it should be watered. Give it best light possible, even considering supplemental lights (you didn't indicate your general location...not easy to give better advice :) Good drainage and improved lighting should help. Jade in the photo is indoors for the winter. Photo taken Dec. 8. Leaves do not droop, they are closer together and have little bit of red on margins - plant is in very gritty, inorganic mix and gets pretty good light.

Yes, usually rot. You can just feel it and the color is very much telling too...but if unsure, take a branch and start cutting thinner slices from the bottom to see what the flesh looks like. If very soft, you may not be able to get clean cut. Use a blade, scissors or pruning shears will just squish it. If you find firm flesh, there is a chance that it could be rooted - few of the stems may have some viable parts. The longer, thicker stem on left seems to have yellow tip too -BUT very light color could be caused by plant being shaded too much for a while. I am assuming rot since the main stem was rotted, and being able to see only photos.