Question
hi, my dwarf jade plant was given to me via floral delivery.  it came in a small container.  I've had the plant for a little over a month and it's losing alot of leaves, it was in a good sunny spot and watered once a week.  I repotted it into a large pot (give it room to grow?) but it's still losing leaves (that was about a wk ago)...any ideas?

Answer
Christy,

Yes, put it back in the small pot it came in. A jade is a succulent African plant that grows naturally on the plains of Africa. It stores water in that thick stem and leaves. It goes weeks without water then it rains and it swells up and stores more water.

When you water a plant and get all the water in the pot moist the plant needs to use up all that water before you water it again. By putting it in a large pot you are giving it way too much soil to dry out. In the ground water can drain away because there is not a pot around the plant to hod the water there. Plants need cycles of moist roots then a dry period when the roots will breath in carbon dioxide through the roots and breath out oxygen through the leaves. In a pot the water is held to the roots and in a large pot it cannot dry out before you are bringing that water pot again.

Put it back in a small pot, it will not need repotted into a larger pot until you can remove it from the small pot and all you see is roots. Right now some roots have rotted and are not taking up water so the plant is shriveling. So it will take some time to grow more roots. It will probably not need a new pot for a year. In fact the best time of year to repot any plant is between April 1st and June 30th. When you do repot make sure that the new pot has a diameter no more than 2 inches larger than the diameter of the pot you are taking it out of. Always make sure the pot has a drain hole and a drain tray under it.

When you water the plant from now on empty that drain tray 30 minutes after watering. Then do not water the plant again until it feels very dry and light weight. Even if it takes 2-3 weeks between watering. As the plant gets healthier it will grow more roots and use up the water faster. Eventually you will water the plant more often but always empty the drain tray under it after each watering.  These rules follow for any plant you get in the future. Too much water kills more plants than any other cause. Some plants will need a little more water than your jade, those that are not succulents you need to allow the top inch of soil to dry out but not all the soil, there will still be moisture lower in the pot. Follow these rules and you will be very successful at growing lots of plants. If you have more questions feel free to write again. Good luck.

Darlene