Tony O’Neill, gardener and author of the popular “Composting Masterclass” and “Your First Vegetable Garden,” combines lifelong passion and expert knowledge to simplify the art of gardening. His mission? Helping you cultivate a thriving garden.
This article may contain affiliate links. We get paid a small commission from your purchases. More Affiliate Policy
Not sure how to properly re-pot your jade plant? You don’t need to worry. Jade plants, also called crassula ovata, are succulent houseplants re-potted with some care.
Carefully remove it from the old pot and stand upright until you can place it into its new home. Re-potting Jade Plants is a little time-consuming, making it one of the most challenging succulents to transplant.
Table of Contents
Jade plants are known to be low-maintenance houseplants. They require moist, well-draining soil and partial shade, with temperatures between 65 and 75 degrees F. If you have a jade plant that is starting to outgrow its pot, re-potting it will give it plenty of time to become established before winter rolls around.
When Should A Jade Plant Be Repotted?
If a jade plant (also called an “immortal” plant) is too small to transplant, you can root it in water. But if you can transplant it, you’re better off doing that because the roots will grow much faster.
The reason is that the roots are growing in a tiny little bowl in water, and even though they’re putting out a lot of new growth, the roots are still very short. When you transplant them into a pot with good soil, nothing stops them from spreading out and getting much bigger.
You’ll want to re-pot your jade plant just after they bloom. The jade plant will still be putting out new leaves for weeks afterward, so they’ll have plenty of strength to get through the re-potting process.
And if you do it, then there’s a good chance that new flower buds will be ready when the old ones finish blooming, so the plant won’t go without flowers for an extended period.
Jade plants need re-potting every two years or so. The best time to do it is in the spring, although you can do it as early as February or as late as September. Don’t be a hero and try to rush things; if you try to re-pot in the fall, you’ll end up with a dead plant.
Please make sure the plant is potted in a container with drainage holes and put it in a saucer of water for an hour or two before you do anything else to give the roots a chance to absorb water so that they won’t dry out during re-potting.
Jade plants are tough, but they still don’t like being dropped on the floor — especially when their root balls are brittle from being dried out. So, make sure to take your time and pay careful attention to what you’re doing.
What If My Jade Plant Outgrows The Pot?
The best time to re-pot your jade plant is when it has outgrown its pot. Jade plants grow slowly, so if you re-pot yours every year, you’ll find the plant doesn’t get much bigger each year. Re-potting your jade plant every two or three years will allow it to grow more quickly and fill out its container.
Growing outdoors in containers allows you to move your jade around when night temperatures drop below 50 degrees. You can also protect your jade from harsh winds by placing it in partial shade or moving it under an overhang or patio roof during cold or windy weather.
Jade plants like well-draining soil. They don’t like soggy soil conditions but don’t thrive in very sandy soil because they don’t have enough nutrients in such lightweight soil to support their robust root system.
Re-potting in winter can trigger a dormant period, and re-potting in summer gives the plant more time to adjust to its new pot before fall temperatures arrive.
You should re-pot your jade plant before the roots have filled the pot with long, thin roots. Look inside the pot for a layer of fine white roots that start to grow over the soil’s surface and turn brown. If you see this layer of roots, it’s time to re-pot your jade plant.
Jade plants like their roots in small pots, so when you finally re-pot it, choose a pot only 1 or 2 inches larger in diameter than the current one.
Jade plants can grow either as trees or as shrubs. A tree jade has a trunk with several large limbs spreading out from the base, and a shrub jade has several stems growing up from the base that is roughly the same height. Both kinds have equally beautiful leaves and will grow happily in the same pot for years.
Some people prefer to treat their jades as shrubs because they can keep their soil uniformly moist in a small pot.
Another reason some like to treat jades as shrubs are because they enjoy a bush’s shape better than a tree’s. But then many growers would disagree with that and say trees look nicer and are worth the extra effort.
The secret to re-potting jades is not to bury the stems too deeply. Use only about an inch of soil; mix in some sphagnum moss or perlite if you need more.
You should use a shallow layer of soil because it lets the plant grow more new roots along its stems before they get buried too deep to reach the surface again. That’s why a jade in poor soil never grows very big: new roots can’t get enough oxygen to support much growth at first, so they add more surface area.
How To Successfully Repot A Jade Plant
Jade plants have thick, juicy leaves and stems that have a texture that feels like rubber and an appearance like polished green stone. Jade plants typically grow in bonsai pots and look good on tabletops or windowsills.
Unfortunately, they are also surprisingly easy to kill. The best way to kill one is to give it the wrong kind of soil, which will cause its roots to rot. Some people kill jade plants by overwatering them, but overwatering isn’t as common as underpotting.
The easiest way to re-pot a jade plant is to hack at the roots with a knife until separated from the container, then jam them back in again as soon as possible. However, it is usually better if you make an effort to give the plant the right soil while cutting away its old potting mixture.
- Ensure that the soil in your pot is completely dry before the potting process
- Get your knife or pair of scissors and run it around your pot’s edge.
- After the soil is loosened up around the inner edge in the previous step, you can start to take the jade plant out of the pot.
- You’ll now want to get rid of older soil from the roots of your jade plant
- If you see any roots hanging around, remove those, as well
- Take the plant and place it inside the new pot
- Fill the new pot with potting soil while making sure you spread the roots around simultaneously.
- Give the plant about a week to dry out before you start to water it again
How To Keep Your Repotted Jade Plant Healthy
There are several things to keep in mind to ensure that your jade plants live a long and healthy life. If you take good care of your jade plants, they should experience quite a long and fruitful life.
Jade plants need a lighter potting medium than other houseplants. The ideal soil for a jade plant is two parts peat to 1 part coarse sand.
This type of soil holds moisture well and drains quickly. Jade plants also need more light than most houseplants. Keep the plant in bright shade or indirect sunlight, and water when the top 1 in of soil feels dry to your touch.
A jade plant may thrive for a year or two and then suddenly stop growing because the plant begins to get rootbound, meaning that its roots have filled the container and have nowhere else to grow.
Re-pot the jade every spring by removing a few inches of soil around the edges of the container. If you are unsure whether your jade has become rootbound, give it a good tug on its leaves and see if it comes out quickly; if it doesn’t come out easily, it needs re-potting.
Give your jade plenty of fresh air by keeping the pot on a tray filled with an inch or two of water to keep the humidity high, which helps keep fungus from attacking your plant and reduces the number of insects attracted to it.”
What About Caring For Different Varieties Of Jade Plants?
There are several different types of jade plants out there, and the care instructions for each are slightly different. Some are more tolerant of low light conditions than others, and others will tolerate more neglect.
Some jade plants grow best in soil that is kept slightly moist, while others do better with slightly drier soil. An excellent way to tell if you have a soil-based jade plant is to dig down the soil for about an inch or so.
If it feels wet, you probably have a moisture-loving jade plant. If the soil feels dry, you probably have a drought-tolerant jade plant.
If you have a jade plant in your aquarium, the water level of your aquarium can also make a difference in how your jade plant grows.
Generally, they do not like to be completely submerged in water but rather prefer to find their feet planted on the bottom of the aquarium while the leaves float on top of the water.
Be sure not to trim the leaves too much when re-potting, as this may cause new leaves to sprout from below the node where it was cut off rather than at or above it where you want them to grow.
FAQs about Jade Plants
Conclusion
Re-potting a jade plant the right way will ensure that its new life in the new pot will be healthy and happy. Like everything else in life, the appearance of your plants will reflect how you care for them.
Please consider subscribing to our website and fill out the form below for more informational content about gardening if you enjoyed this article.
[mailerlite_form form_id=5]