Watering A Jade Plant? No matter the type of jade plant you have, this succulent is well known for its longevity. The plant’s leaves are usually rich green. However, improper watering of a Jade plant turns the leaves yellow. Therefore, it is important to follow some rules when Watering A Jade Plant.
These 8 simple rules for Watering A Jade Plant will guide you to do a perfect job. It’s an easy plant to sustain, and once these guides are followed to the latter, the plant will thrive even in harsh conditions. Following the rules when watering this active plant is essential.
1. Know When the Plants Need Water
The jade plant can go for long periods without water. Jade always shows signs when it is thirsty. One of the primary signs includes leaf fall, leaves fade, and brown spots appearing on the leaves. Witnessing the above signs? It is time for Watering A Jade Plant. Use the finger/skewer method to test the moisture of the water. Dip your finger in the soil a few inches and take it out after a few seconds. If the soil sticks to your finger, the soil is moist. But if the finger is dry, the plant needs water.
Drying and browning of the leaf tips is another indicator that your plant needs water. These signs can also appear when the plant has been under-watered for a long time. When the leaves wilt, it means that the plant has been dehydrated for a while.
2. Use The Right Amount of Water when Watering a Jade Plant
The blooming of your succulent plant depends on how much you water it. Variables like climate, temperature, and humidity can influence the rate at which you water the plant, but the amount of water should remain the same. When watering a jade plant, soak your plant until the water trickles out the base of the pot.
This ensures that the water thoroughly infiltrates the soil to enable the root to uptake the moisture required. Proper soaking of the plant also ensures that the roots can grow down into the soil and mature. It is good for the plant’s well-being and increases the plant’s resistance to drought.
When Watering a Jade Plant, using less water, it moistens the upper part of the soil, therefore, not reaching the roots. If this process is repeated continuously, it causes the plant leaves to wilt with brown spots. These are signs of drought stress.
3. How Often to Water Jade Plant
Jade plant has particular adaptations to growing in dry climates with infrequent rainfalls. Therefore, they prefer dry conditions and tend to be very susceptible to problems associated with overwatering. Before watering your jade plant, you need to ensure that the top two inches of the soil are dry.
Soaking the plant well and leaving the soil to dry out, replicates the plant watering conditions of its natural habitat. The conditions include sudden rain followed by a period of drought and high temperature.
To grow a jade plant successfully in your home, you must emulate the conditions of their native environment. Jade plant watering frequency is dependent on several factors like climatic conditions of the place, humidity, size of the pot, and the type of soil.
Watering A Jade Plant during the winter
Whether the plant is indoors or outdoors, the demand for moisture can fluctuate according to the season. During the winter season, the jade plant requires less watering as the rate of water evaporation is low due to cooler temperatures.
When this season comes, you must check on the soil’s moisture through the drainage holes and adjust the watering frequency. This will ensure that the soil can dry out entirely between the bouts of watering.
If the plant is indoors, you can check if the plant is near a heat source, such as a radiator which can cause the temperatures to increase, making the soil dry out quickly.
Watering A Jade Plant during summer
During the summer season, growth in the jade plant can slow down significantly due to the high temperatures. The summer dormancy reduces the jade plants’ demand for moisture. This is a survival strategy for the plant to conserve water in their harsh native environments.
During this period of dormancy, the plant should be less watered as they are sensitive to excess moisture, which causes root rot.
At this period, the temperatures can sometimes be very high increasing the evaporation of water from the plant. This may make the leaves fade. At this point, you need to increase the frequency of watering the plant to prevent it from dying.
4. Choose Well-Drained Soils to Avoid Overwatering.
Good watering practices should be in conjunction with a well-drained soil mix to avoid root rot. Ordinary potting soil retains a lot of moisture for the drought-tolerant plant and may lead the plant to show some signs of stress.
Potting mixes containing peats also tend to repel water when they dry out, causing water to run off the soil’s surface and preventing moisture from reaching the roots, causing drought stress.
For the health of a jade plant, grow jades in cactus potting mix or particular succulent soils. These soils tend to mimic the specific well-draining soil, which is a characteristic of a succulent native environment.
Suitable soils will help you maintain the perfect moisture balance for jade plants and prevent the effects of overwatering to keep your jade plant healthy.
5. Water your Jade Plant in Pots with Drainage Holes
Watering your jade plant in pots with drainage holes is essential because it will not tolerate damp soil. Drainage holes allow excess water to escape from the pot. A pot with drainage holes at the base is a good way of detecting if your plant has been sufficiently watered.
Pots with drainage holes are a good way of detecting whether the soil is moist or dry so as to know whether the jade plant should be watered or not.
A jade plant is watered in a pot without a drainage hole; it causes water to pool around the roots and causes the leaves to become yellow and translucent. These can also lead to root rot or darkening of the leaves.
6. Avoid Salty Water When Watering the Jade Plant.
If the water running out of your taps is salty, avoid it on your jade plant. When salty water is used regularly, the water evaporates from the potting soil leaving behind the salt. The root may absorb an excessive amount of salt, which moves up through the stem to the leaves, causing tip burn.
As the soil becomes more concentrated with salt, it blocks the passage of the water up the plant. The plant finds it harder and harder to take up water. Water-absorbing root tips are killed with these increasing menaces, and the plant begins to wilt and drop leaves.
Salt can also result from the fertilizers, which dissolve in water and turn into soluble salt. After fertilizing, it is essential to water the plant correctly to wash away its salt. It is also good to leach the plant after some time to remove the excess salt.
7. Water the Roots and not the Leaves.
The Jade plant is challenging but is susceptible to brown spots on the leaves due to fungal infections. The brown spots are curable and preventable with proper treatments. Prevent the brown spots to avoid water spills on the leaves of the jade plant. A fungal agent causes the leaves of the jade plant to develop rust-like infections that will affect the appearance of the plant and may persist if not treated early.
When watering a jade plant, ensure that the water gets into the roots of the plant only. Water should be poured out slowly to prevent spillage into the leaves. During the winter season, spilled water does not quickly evaporate from the plant. This water tries to get into the plant, making way for fungi.
8. Consider the Size of the Plant and That of the Pot
The size of the jade plants determines the amount of water required by the plant. If the plant is large, give it more water as water uptake is high, and the evaporation rate is also high due to surface area. When the plant is small, give less water because the root system is yet to mature, hence the slow water intake rate. The evaporation rate of the plant is also low due to the small surface area.
The size of the pot will determine the frequency of watering the jade plant. A big pot has more soil soaked in; hence it may stay for long with water. In such a pot, watering frequently denies the plant space to dry out. Apply water less frequently, in a more extensive pot.
In a small pot, the evaporation rate is high, and the pot can hold little water. Watering should be done more frequently to ensure that the plant has enough of it.
Bottom Line
Setting out a schedule on how to water jade plants is not a bad idea. But note that the jade plant may require more or less watering at different times of the year. The Jade plant is a great plant with clear signs of overwatering or underwatering. Prioritize these signs, and start rectification immediately.
Jade plant is not that plant that will demand much from you; it expects you to follow the above rules.
Last update on 2023-10-05 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
