I just read that you can trim off rotten parts of a jade tree - but what if the part that is rotten is only a side of the main trunk of the tree??? I have saved that latest limb to fall off and plan to root it, but this beautiful tree was a wedding present and I don't want to see it die a slow death. Its smack in the middle of a southern facing window - if I don't water it and remove as much of the rot as I can, will it stop falling apart???? (can you sense my panic??)
Re: sick jade tree? could you post some pics of it? that would be helpful. in the mean time, a few questions :) please provide some background info: how long have you had the jade? have you always kept it in the same location or have you moved it recently? what kind of soil and pot is it in? how frequent are you watering? have you repotted it since you've had it? do you water from below or from the top? if from the top, are you allowing water to splash on the leaves and/or trunk? is there good air circulation where it's located? how much sunlight does it get? when did the problems with the leaves falling start? was there any change to the circumstances right before the leaves started dropping? (as in, moved it, changed watering, went on vacation and had someone in to care for it, etc). also, is that window drafty?? where on the trunk is the rotten spot? if it's near the base, you could easily just trim off that couple of inches and then re-root the tree. if it's further up on the trunk you could still do the same - cut below the rot and above it and then re-root the top piece right alongside the original trunk. the original piece should put out leaflets after a while and then you'd have two :) please post some pics as that will really help to determine what you should do to deal with this problem.
Re: sick jade tree? Its been one of my observations that it maybe the best time to prune or tinker with a jade plant is when they are in a growth spurt and it is pushing outward. I have lost a few jades to this fugal attack and there seems to be no stopping it on the parent plant.
Re: sick jade tree? I was given the jade tree in July of 2006. It was immdeiately repotted into a glazed container and sand/small gravel was mixed in with the soil that was added. My best friend (the giver) said that this is what the guy who sold it to her told her to do. Because of the danger of it becoming wrecked during the major rennovation we were doing to our house, it spent 4 monts in the basement, where it had plenty of artificial light and almost no water. It grew (to my surprise) and appeared to be healthy. In may of '07 it was moved upstairs into our master bedroom and put in front of the three southern facing windows (which are not drafty) and gets bright sunlight all day (as long as weather permits, we live in MA). I watered it about 3/4 of a cup every 5 weeks or so (in hind sight, I shouldn't really be watering it at all this time of year - but the soil is dry at least 1.5" down - I checked this morning). we did increase the level of humidiity in the house for the winter. I water directly into the soil. Leaves have always fallen off - two of three a week, but now whole branches are just falling off - the biggest one about 2.5" in diameter. I was in bed reading about two weeks ago and it just dropped to the floor! the base of the tree is still solid and firm, as are most of the remaining branches. about six inches up from the soil the tree forks and that is where the mushiness starts. The largest branch that fell off was black and soft on the inside and the left over stump molded over in about 3 days - I removed the molded part and none has regrown. When I removed as much of the stump as I could most of the exposed flesh appeared healthy. the healthy branches left all have new growth. I have resigned myself to the fact that I am probably going to have to cut the tree up and root the healthy parts. Unless I can cut the mushy parts from the fork in the tree and tie the two halves together?? Will it heal together? If reroot into the same pot do I risk contaminating the new growers?? Do I wait for spring and the start of the 'growing season' (and risk more of the tree rotting) or do I do this asap?? I will post the pics in another reply - I have typed quite a bit here!!
Re: sick jade tree? they like very bright light/direct light although they will do okay and even thrive in lower-light conditions. they don't need to be frequently watered as they are a succulent. they do need thorough watering when they get it though - which is generally every 3 weeks or so. during growing season it would be more frequent and during rest period less. atmosphere conditions - humidity levels, temps - as well as size of and type of container will also affect the frequency of watering. i water mine all year long. sometimes more frequently and sometimes less. mine tend to grow in the wintertime, for some reason. i think that's due to the angle of the sun being lower. not sure :) jades don't like changes - whether it's a difference in light, water, soil. they will stress out and will drop leaves. moving the plant (or any plant, really) from one situation to another, regardless of whether it's to change lighting or to go from inside to out or vice versa, needs to be done gradually. so the plant has time to adjust to the differences. with jades, since they are so finicky, they need an even more gradual change. sounds like you've done a few things that would cause stress. although, it also seems that the plant has had enough time to adjust and recover - as evidenced by it's thriving in the basement in less than proper lighting. it sounds like a larger specimen and that is definitely on the plus side when unknowingly doing something a little bit wrong! they don't like high humidity - although, they can manage to adjust to it. if its placement in the window is very close to one of the heater vents, then that would answer for the rot - especially after this long into the heating season and the fact that you've added humidity to the house; as well as the location of the rot. you've been underwatering it, so that can't be the reason for the rotted areas since it's mid-way up from the soil. although, since it's in a glazed pot, the underwatering has probably been okay since the soil is unable to dry out like it would if it was an unglazed pot. another possible reason for the rot would be the soil mix. although, i'd think it would have shown up long before now! the sand you used, was it potting sand?? if not, then that might be part of the problem. okay. please post some pics!!!!! from what you're saying, i really think this tree is salvagable without having to cut it to pieces. i really need to see some pics of it though!!!
Re: sick jade tree? ok - here are the pictures - sick jade 002 is a close up of the fork of the tree - where the dark parts are - its mushy - the fork to the left and the trunk below are all ok (though I would think that rot would go from the bottom up - so maybe its inside the thickest part of the trunk and has not worked its way out yet??). as you can see - a limb fell off there recently. sick jade 003 is where the largest branch fell off - the top half (which is not easy to see - we had sun today - go figure) is firm and the light color of healthy tree- obviously the rest is not. 004 is a 'full body' pic -- you can see where the missing branch was. . . looking at this picture, I can't believe how sickly it looks without all the branches that were filling in the middle!!
Re: sick jade tree? thanks for posting the pics!! oh, boy! that must have looked absolutely lovely before the leaves started dropping! that's an OLD jade!! for it's size, you've definitely been underwatering it! we need to get the rotting under control first though, before doing anything about that! is your heat vent in a spot where the air would blow on the trunk that is showing the rot?? if it is near the jade, you've got to redirect the airflow. i think it's best to keep the jade in the lighting it's accustomed to at this point - moving it somewhere else would just stress it more and we don't want to do that! so, re-direct the airflow. you can pull the jade back a foot or two and put up something to protect it from being hit with the air - it'll still be getting the lighting it's used to; just not that extra moisture. where is the spot in pic 02 located?? is it on the left side that has the two branches or on the other side that now has the three branches? i'm hoping that it's on the side with the three! okay. first, get a good sharp knife and sterilize it - either dip in boiling water and let dry and cool or wash well with rubbing alcohol and let it dry. gently scrape away the dark mushy stuff that is seen in pic 02. just little bit by little bit - hopefully it doesn't go too deep and you'll hit healthy wood quickly. you'll also need to do that scraping around the spot where the branch fell off, too. the branch the fell off, you said it was black. did you try cutting off the blackened area to see if any part of the branch, further up, was still in good shape? if you didn't and it's still around, check it as you may be able to salvage the top portion! after looking at these pics, i don't think the rot goes all the way to the center. you can see the darkened areas in the pics very clearly and i think it's really just surface stuff. i hope so, anyhoo!! please do that bit of scraping on the two areas and then let me know what you find. i'm sure you'll get to good wood quickly!! once the rot is removed, we can deal with getting the jade back on track!
Re: sick jade tree? ok - that was TERRIBLE!! I sterilized the knife and began scraping - but as I was doing it the 'right' fork fell off in my hands!! the rot did go all the way through. . . I am distressed but not surprised. I cut the stump down to only healthy wood, and cut the branch down too and will reroot it. I also moved the tree to the other side of the window - although it was not being blown on directly, it was close enough to maybe make a difference - now it should not be blown on at all. What can I do now to protect the "open sore" on the tree? Will it callus over by itself? The pics here are befores and afters. What should I plant the broken branches in?? can I fertilize to help it along??
Re: sick jade tree? oh, no!! i'm so sorry that the rot goes all the way through! i really didn't think you'd find that! no, don't fertilize right now! once it's past the stress and doing better you can give it some - expect a couple of months before it's back on it's feet and able to deal with the fertilizer. okay. the right-side branches - are they still connected by any bit of trunk? or did you have to trim back to the point that you've got three seperate trunks now? if you didn't already, take a really good look at the base and make sure there's not one bit of mushy wood there! if there is, slice off a bit more - even if you take some of the good wood with it, you want to be sure all the bad stuff is completely gone. let the piece(s) sit for about 4 days before putting them in soil. they need to callus over a bit. for the left-side branches - and that stump that's left from the other branches. did you cut back the stump any? i'd definitely investigate that area to be sure that the rotted area doesn't go all the way through the main trunk. see where i circled in the pic? that area needs to be trimmed back to get the mush out. if it does seem to go all the way over and through the main trunk, cut off the other branch where i indicate in the pic - and trim off as much as you need to to get to good wood. if you don't need to trim off the left-side branches, that's good. although it'll take a while it WILL grow out more and you'll still have a nice looking tree. the open area will callous over. it will need to be protected though, with some type of anti-fungal powder. i'll never had to deal with this type of situation, so i'll have to find out what, exactly, you should use. that's a really nice looking container you've got the jade in!! does it have drainage holes in it? if not, you'll need to put the jade into something that does have drainage - you could put it in something that will fit inside that container and then just take it out to do the watering or put it on top of something (a couple of rocks) so that any excess water will drain off. i normally keep my jades in unglazed clay - and then insert that container into a larger pretty glazed one so it looks nice. i take the plant out to do the watering as i do that from below. my cat killed my large jade and it wasn't as big as yours, so it wasn't as unwieldy to deal with as this one would be. still, it's really the best way to keep jades - the glazing holds moisture in the soil and that's part of the problem here. the extra moisture coming out of the air vent didn't help either. it's definitely salvagable though!! even if you have to repot all the individual branches - you could do them all in one pot so that you still have the same basic look that you had when they were all on one main trunk. i'm waiting to hear back about what to do with that open sore on the main trunk. in the mean time, place whatever pieces you are going to root somewhere where they can dry and callous over. in a few days, you can dip the ends in root hormone powder (home depot and lowes carry it) and that will help to get new roots going.
Re: sick jade tree? i was informed that you should let that sore on the main trunk callus over without putting anything on it.
Re: sick jade tree? well, so far everything looks ok - I may need to do some more trimming around the stump, but the branch that fell off looks great and I would like to root it. I am going to go to home depot tomorrow to get the hormone powder - what should I get to plant the branch in?? permilite and what for soil?? (and an unglazed pot!!) Thank you so much for your help. Is there anything else I can do to help nurse the main tree back to health??
Re: sick jade tree? jades just need a well draining soil that will hold a little bit of moisture long enough for the roots to pull it up into the plant. cactus soil will do that. i use shultz's brand and it's worked very well for me over the years. there's another brand that has a regular cactus and a cactus with some kind of citrus something-or-other added. you don't need anything other than the basic stuff for the jade (and most other plants too!) i got the rooting hormone at lowes and it wasn't with the main plant stuff - it was down one of the seasonal aisles along with fertilizer equipment (those large containers with the pump/sprayers). not sure where in home depot the stuff is kept. it should be easy enough to locate though as they're starting to bring in the summer stuff now. dip the ends in the powder and let it sit at least overnight - maybe even two days - and then put the piece in the pot (unglazed :) ) and fill with soil and tamp it down. make sure to have at least 1 inch of the stem covered with soil. don't water! let it sit for a week to 10 days to get situated and then give a decent soaking. then check in two weeks and if completely dry, water again. if still moist, wait a few days and check the soil again and water if needed. as for the main tree, if that rot doesn't go all the way through, then it should recover very nicely. the plus here is that it's such an old and established plant/tree! jades really are quite hardy and can deal with problems pretty well. i'd just let the soil dry out really well before watering it again - let it go a week or so longer to water than you usually would. i would not do anything like adding plant food for at least 6 weeks and more like 8. really give it a chance to get back on it's feet. and the new piece will need to root properly - and that can take a while even with the rooting hormone. and keep the extra-moist air away from it...you can get a plastic thing to add on to the heat vent that will redirect the airflow. they're clear and not too big, so it wouldn't be so noticeable. i bring that up because i'm sure you'd like to keep the plant in that room :) it's doable, you just need to compensate for the humidity issue. if you do find that the rot does go all the way through the main trunk, you can just cut the branch off and root it like you're doing with the other one. i hope it doesn't though!! eventually, you may see new growth coming out of the area where that huge sore is. and the other branches will put out new growth - it may take a bit or it may happen pretty quickly. there's no way to tell, really. it's just a wait-n-see thing!! you're quite welcome and i'm so glad i could lend a hand!! please subscribe to this thread via thread tools (if you haven't already) so that you can update in a couple of months with pics of the new growth!
Re: sick jade tree? I'd use a small clay pot that's not a whole lot bigger than the stem. Get a good cactus soil and add perlite to it, set the pot in a bright window and only water it once and not again until dry for a day or two (it won't hurt it) I never used any hormone for rooting jades since they root pretty quickly. After it roots you move it to brighter light and then some direct sun. You can give it more direct sun once you start to see some new growth. If your not sure if the soil is wet way down, you might be able to feel through the drain hole or stick something in there and feel if it's still moist. Let the soil dry. It's easier to water a plant when it's parched, than to un water a plant when it's rotting.
Re: sick jade tree? to recap the more recent post/problem that albert added here: rot developed on the mid-way portion of the trunk and numerous branches were falling off. turns out they've added humidity treatment to their forced hot air heating system and the part of the plant that developed the rot was in proximity to the vent and the rot after the heating system had been actively going for a few months. adding to the issue is the fact that the plant is in a glazed container - so moisture was being held in the soil and that certainly wasn't helping. albert made no mention of any fungus being on the jade or on/in the soil. the plant has been repotted in appropriate soil. whatever rot was evident affected only a portion of the plant and the main trunk is still healthy. this situation was not a case of fungus causing a problem. i'm sure fungus would have eventually developed. they were observant and found the problem before it was that bad. you DO have a good point about fungus being a problem for jades! if there continues to be a problem with any portion of the tree (either the main part or any of the new cuttings that are being rooted) then maybe there is a fungus there that's causing the problem. i doubt that will turn out to be the case as the plants have been repotted in fresh soil and are now in unglazed pots. the plants are also located away from the heat vent that was blasting the tree with excessive moisture, so i doubt the same problem will recur.
Re: sick jade tree? Just to throw an update in here -- I cut the branch that fell off up into 3 sections and planted them all (with a root hormone treatment) in an unglazed pot. The part of the original tree that is left seems to be calusing nicely. There is a brown tinge that makes me nervous, but I have found a local garden center owner who is a wealth of jade knowledge who can actually LOOK at the tree if I need him to. The remaining branch on the original tree is sprouting new growth, which is amazing to me. I have also taken smaller pieces and potted them in smaller terra cotta pots just to be sure that I have some pieces of this tree left, should the disasterous happen. The tree seems to be enjoying its new spot out of the wind. I am not a botonaist, nor am I a very experienced gardener (yet!) but the plague that hit my tree looked and smelled like rot. The explination that makes most sense to me is a combination of things - that the tree was being blown on continually from the heat vent and that my husband and I watered it once each within a week (I have now taken over sole tree watering duties!). If the plague continues, I will have to take more drastic measures (like chopping large portions of the tree off wasn't drastic!). But, I will certainly keep you all up to date.
Re: sick jade tree? if you're seeing new growth on the branches that are still on the main trunk, then i'm sure that that part will be just fine. the other pieces that you've put into new pots should also be okay - as long as you got all the rotted area off, they'll root up in no time. jades are actually quite hardy and can handle a lot of abuse. the fact that the branches on the original trunk are showing new growth tells me that you caught the rot in time! i'm glad you found someone local who can assist you - that's always a plus!
