Whacking = chopping off the smaller branches until you're left with a thick trunk and some slightly less thick major branches. Don't whack that plant -- it's not healthy enough. I don't know any brand names, but forget anything you can describe as 'soil'. There's a mix that's quite popular over on the Container forum, and it comprises equal parts calcined clay chunks, bark chunks, and rock chunks, all screened to be over 1/8" and roughly the same size. The bark is often quite hard to source in a hurry, so you have a couple of options. 1. Forget the bark for now and make the mix half clay and half rock. Will work for getting the plant out of the fluffy black stuff and into something kinder to the roots. 2. Use reptile bark, just as a one-off. Expensive, but easy to transport and requires little screening. What do you have to hand, anyway? If you can't get hold of anything but coarse perlite or small rocks, mixing either of those with just enough fluffy stuff to coat the rocks or perlite is better than nothing. It won't hold much air, but it can't hold much water either. If you can't even get hold of perlite or rocks, the main woody trunks look healthy enough that you can just depot the plant entirely and leave it somewhere dark and cool and dry (outside air dry, not AC'd inside air dry) while the sogginess goes away.

Outdoors I had several plants quarantined with a mealy bug infestation so couldn't the plant out to that space. Or rather didn't want to. That leaf looks pretty cooked to me. And it is a 20 foot or so straight shot away from my AC unit, and there is a big oscillating fan in between them as well, and a ceiling fan in this room. I also open up the house every evening when the sun starts to set until morning. Strangely, I have a spider plant baby in this window, and a rooted ZZ plant cutting in the same window with no problems. This appeared too before I treated everything for bugs with Safer, and what I suspected as possible insect damage on this was minor and probably the result of me over thinking. Not sure if it makes a difference, this is about 4.5 feet up off the floor on a wire shelf. I do not currently have the ability to take all of my houseplants outside each year, if I did I would. I have to be able to put it in an area that is protected from dogs, deer, and the occasional drunken crack head. If I take it outside, and I might now that the mealies have been dealt with, I am again going to have to go through the transition. Seems to be a lot of conflicting advice there, and I get the reasons. I will just go slow, and pay attention to my plant.

I believe that just soil should be drying up further down, not just on top. You can help yourself using a wooden stick (bamboo skewer, chopstick, sharpened dowel or even pencil). Stick it deep inside of pot (at least 3/4 deep, not just top inch or two). Leave for few min, take out. If totally dry & clean - time to water. If it feels damp/cold and may have small particles sticking to it, the soil is still wet below surface. It looks like you have been overwatering - soil particles sticking to inside of the pot indicate that. I also see too many fallen leaves. You didn't ask, but if the cuttings are in pots without drainage holes, they could be overwatered too and could suffer damage. Are they rootles?

Hello everyone, my Jade Plant hasn’t been doing well! Over the summer it started to shrivel up. Here is the info: The green leafed picture is from August when someone told me I should water it less. I started watering it less, but still once a week because it was so hot and dry. Now I haven’t watered it since mid to late November. My mom told me it likes the shade and I just put it in a shady corner about two weeks ago. Now it looks like the reddish picture. -What can I do? Water it more? Stop watering it? Repot it? Take it inside? Does it like shade? also I just repotted it maybe a year ago now