Jade Plant Care Indoor [Wow Guide]

Jade Plant helps increase indoor humidity and prevent dry skin, allergies, flu, headache, etc. For this, you need to grow one Jade at home with good care. 

If you are a fan of Bonsai Trees, guess what? Your indoor Jade Plant, if you prune it right, you can make a Bonsai out of it. Learn more care tips for your plant. 

Overview of Jade Plant  

Jade is a plant that bears fleshy and tiny leaves grown from thick and somewhat woody stems. 

Jade Plant Indoor Care Guide

Before going into detail, let’s have a quick summary of jade plant care indoors.

Here are some of the ways how you can care for your Jade Plant indoors. 

1. Sunlight & Temperature 

The best place to place your Jade Plant is near the west or south-facing windows, where it can get the maximum light benefit.

A fully mature Jade needs at least 4-6 hours of direct sunlight with a room temperature of 65-75 degrees F during the summer and spring.

Above this requirement, the Jade can get sunburned. 

However, the plant goes dormant during the winter and can tolerate temperatures up to 55 degrees F.

Cover the plant with Frost Blankets during the nighttime. 

If you live in a place without proper sunlight, it is better to use fluorescent lighting for your Jade Plant.

The suitable option is to select a two-bulb fixture; one bulb labeled tor plant used to provide the full spectrum of light and another one to cool white bulb.

2. Water & Humidity

If you overwater Jade Plant, the roots will rot. Also, if you underwater it, the leaves will turn brown, and the plant may die.

So, water every 2-3 weeks during spring and summer under 30% to 40 % humidity in the room. 

It is very beneficial to use rainwater for your Jade Plant since they have nitrogen content. Apart from this, you can also use distilled water.

Once the plant gets matured enough, it can even tolerate drought conditions. You need to water your indoor Jade Plant less often than outdoors.

But, ensure that the pots have at least 2-3 drainage holes for proper outflow of excess water.

If your Jade Plant’s leaf and stem slowly start to turn brown, then it’s a sign that you are underwatering your Jade Plant.

Pests and insects may also increase in your Jade Plant since it cannot absorb nutrients from the soil due to lack of water. In this case, you need to improve your watering frequency.

Quick Tip: Do not water your plant with saltwater or seawater since the leaves may fall and the plant could die.

However, the Jade Plant kept outdoors tends to dry up more quickly than the indoor Jade Plant due to direct sunlight. 

3. Soil Mix & Fertilizer 

Loose and well-drained soil is best for growing Jade Plants indoors.  

Jade Plant adores slightly acidic soil around a pH value of 6 to 6.5, so always check the pH value and fertilize the plant every 2-6 months. 

Since the Jade Plant prefers slightly acidic soil, Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium(NPK) fertilizers in the ratio of 2-1-1 or 1-2-1 can be used for the Jade Plant.

If you are about to feed your Jade Plant, get the perfect fertilizer requirements for proper growth. 

Besides, you can prepare organic soil mix at home by mixing peat moss, organic matter, and coarse sand at a ratio of 1:1:1.

Get various potting soil mixes from the market; Miracle-gro indoor potting mix soil, Organic succulent potting mix, and Hoffman organic potting mix.

4. Biennial Repotting 

When roots are bound or tangled, you need to repot your Jade Plant. 

If the plant stops growing in hard and dry soil or with pest and disease invasion, repotting is a must. 

The best time to repot your jade plant is once in every 2-3 years. Therefore, the ideal time to repot your Jade Plant is in its growing seasons during the early spring or summer season.

You can follow the following steps to repot your Jade Plant.

• Water your old Jade Plant for at least four days to easily pull the plant out of the pot.
• Remove the plant gently from the pot and clean its roots with water.
• Prepare an organic potting mix soil and fill the mixture in the right-sized pots or containers depending upon the size of the plant.
• Make a small pit, place your plant’s root into the soil, and cover up the roots to make the plant steady.
• Water the soil if the soil mix is too dry to touch.

Choose containers or pots made from Terracotta with a drainage system when repotting.

A medium-sized container ( 9″ top and 6.5″ base) would be the best choice for your Jade Plant to grow for an extended period.

However, if the plant is small, it would be better to use small containers with a top of with 4″ diameter at least and a base not less than 2.5″.

In addition, if you need a pot for a top-heavy Jade Plant, it would be best to buy a larger pot, having its top of 12″ at most.

You can also find varieties of containers to grow your Jade Plant on the market.

5. Pruning Regularly

The Jade Plant is effortless to maintain until some pests and diseases attack the plant. 

There are chances that your Jade will be conquered by various insects and pests such as ants, mealy bugs, spiders, aphids, scales, moths, mites, etc.

These pests and insects suck the sap from the plant’s leaves and branches and cause sap loss. As a result, the plant will suffer from nasty infections on sooty mold.

So, wash out pests and insects with strong water jets or apply neem oil on the stem and branches of your Jade. You can also apply pesticides and insecticides. 

Besides, the Black ring, Powdery Mildew, and Brown rot are other plant problems hindering Jade’s growth. 

So, it’s better to use a clean and disinfected scissor and cut the unwanted stem tips of your Jade Plant.

If your Jade Plant becomes leggy, remove most of the lower leaves and pinch off the growing tips.

The ideal time to prune your Jade Plant is once a year before its growing season during the spring or early summer seasons.

During winter, the plant will be dormant and rest. So, you should not prune your Jade Plant during the winter season. To prune your Jade Plant, follow the steps given below.

• Take a scissor and sanitize and disinfect it with antibacterial gel to prevent infections while trimming.
• With the help of scissors, trim the weaker and thin branches that have grown heavy leaves.
• Look for branches with abnormal growth or branches that tangle and intersect each other. Then cut those branches.
• Cut the unwanted stem tips or excess branches of your Jade Plant.

Quick Tip: Don’t prune your Jade Plant if it is young (under 1 yr) since pruning it too soon might stunt its growth permanently.

• If your Jade Plant becomes leggy, remove most of the lower leaves and pinch off the growing tips.
• It’s better to cut off branches or leaves with dark spots to avoid further infections.

If you want to grow trailing Jade Plant, learn how to care for them. 

Jade Plant: All About Growth Rate

Jade is a slow-growing plant that represents an evergreen shrub.

It only grows 2-4 inches annually and can reach the highest of around 6 feet and spread into 2–3 feet.

Jade Plants are small trees with fleshy round or oval leaves that grow in the shade of dark green, blue-gray or edged red.

They also develop thick and brown trunklike stems and branches. 

Usually, Jade Plants can take up to 5 years to mature and bloom. 

They produce star-shaped white or pink flowers in clusters in the late winter and early spring. 

Vegetative Propagation of Jade Plant

Vegetative propagation is an integral part of the life cycle of the Jade Plant. Usually, plants are propagated by cutting their stem or leaves and growing a new young plant. 

Mainly, there are two ways through which you can propagate your Jade Plant indoors. 

Stem Cutting

Stem cutting is one of the most common methods of vegetative propagation of Jade Plants. This method is straightforward to carry out even by an inexperienced person.

Using this method, you can propagate and grow a young baby jade plant within a few months. Here’s how to multiply your Jade Plant from the stem.

• Take a sharp, clean, disinfected knife with rubbing alcohol.
• Select a healthy branch free from infections and diseases from your old Jade Plant.
• Choose a 3-4 inches long branch and cut the stem below a leaf node at a 45-degree angle with the help of the knife.
• Cut the bottom leaves of the stem up to 1.5 inches and snip off any flowers or buds.
• Place the cut stem in a dry and warm place for at least a week or two until the cut wound is dry, and dust the open wound with rooting hormone to avoid any further disease and infections.
• Plant the dry stem in a pot of organic potting mix and water the soil sparingly so that the potting mix is only damp.
• It will take about a month for the roots to grow in the soil entirely.

Leaf Cutting

Growing a young Jade Plant from the leaf-cutting is as fun as growing from its stem. It is effortless and similar to stem cutting to some extent.

However, you can use this method of vegetative propagation if your Jade Plant is tiny and you can only harvest a few leaves. You can follow the steps mentioned below to propagate your Jade Plant from leaves.

• Select a healthy leaf from an old, matured Jade Plant.
• Take a disinfected knife just as above and cut at the bottom of the leaf.
• Prepare an organic potting mix on a pot.
• Lay down the leaf on the potting mix soil or push the bottom of the leaf to the potting mix soil until half of the leaf is under the soil.
• Water the leaves sparingly until the leaf puts out roots. It will take about a week for the roots to grow.
• Once the leaf is laid out on top of the soil, it will grow plantlets from the leaf’s edges that touch the soil once its roots appear.
• Plantlets will appear in both cases in about two weeks to two months.
• Once the newly grown plantlets are about 8 cm tall, you will have a small baby Jade Plant.

To know more about the vegetative propagation of Jade from stem and leaf-cutting, watch

Toxicity of Jade Plant

According to ASPCA, Jade Plants can be toxic to pets, including cats, dogs and horses.

 Symptoms, including vomiting, depression and incoordination, can be visible if the pests consume the plant.

Also, Jade Plants can be poisonous to humans. 

Therefore, you need to be extra cautious to care for Jade Plant indoor and make sure to keep your children and pets away from it.

Apart from this, you should be very careful and wear gloves while pruning the plant because it might be slightly poisonous in case of wounds and may lead to allergies to the skin.

If anything occurs problematic, get help from any helplines below.

• Animal Poison Control Center (ASPCA): (888) 426-4435
• National Capital Poison Center: (800) 222-1222

Where to Buy Jade Plant?

The following shops are available if you are eager to grow the Jade Plant indoor to get plant benefits.