Question
Dear Greg,
My office has a jade tree that's about 30 years old and probably 5 feet high.  In it's former life at my boss' house, it spent summers outside soaking in the sun.  the past few years, however, it has been in an office setting with a north facing window.  It gets a fair amount of indirect sun, but it's pretty low intensity.  Last year the tree began to show signs of stress.  It was dropping branches and leaves and the leaves were beginning to shrivel.  We decided that the soil (mostly sand) was very hard, and possibly not allowing water to reach the roots.  We repotted it into a larger ceramic pot and broke up the soil as best we could, although given it's consistency we were not able to break it up as much as we would have liked.  The tree went through a brief period of shock and then seemed to be getting much better.  the branches lifted and the quantity of shed leaves seemed to decrease.  At the time, the receptionist was caring for the plant, and she was watering it about 2 quarts once a week.  About four months after repot, the care of the tree went to a different employee who tends to water more at a time but less often, with the idea that the water will soak further into the soil (the pot is probably over 100 gallons). I believe the average amount of water has been the same.  The past two months or so, the plant has begun to show extreme stress, the branches drooping and eventually shedding.  The tree is beginning to look bare in spots, and we are afraid of permanently damaging the shape of the tree, or of course worse, killing it.  Do you have any suggestions for bringing this tree back from the brink?  Any advice you might have would be much appreciated!
gina

Answer
Gina,

Sorry for the delay, I have had no internet service for almost a week. Unfortunately, while I am not an expert on Jade plants specifically, it sounds like you may have some root rot going on. The link below has some of the most comprehensive Jade plant information I have seen.

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/jade.html

Let the soil dry out at least to 1/2 it's depth. Then resume watering based on the instructions on the website. Hopefully the plant was not too damaged. Good luck.

Sincerely,

Greg