Very tall jade

by Andrew S.
(Ithaca, NY, U.S.)

When I first bought this jade, it had two tall pieces. As you can see from one of the pictures, I tried to trim (and propagate) the one stem, it was growing sideways (as is the only remaining one now). The piece that I tried to propagate just shriveled up and died. I've tried to use leaves and stem pieces, nothing.

I don't know what type of jade this is, since it's leaves are very different from my other jade.

I was just wondering what is a good way to try and trim this piece and propagate this type of jade?


Drought Smart Plants reply:

Hi Andrew, I think part of the problem is that your plant is not really a 'Jade', or more correctly known as Crassula argentea, but is most likely Portulacaria, or Elephants Food. These are sometimes sold as 'miniature Jade' but they are in fact quite different.

Although succulent, the leaves are very much finer in texture than Crassula argentea, so this could be part of the problem with propagating it. It's possible that the leaves are drying out before making roots. My tried and true method of propagating most succulents is to leave the cutting to callous at least overnight, sometimes longer, which encourages it to root, and not rot.

In many cases, simply cutting back the overgrown part of the plant will encourage it to break more buds from lower down, eventually making a much more uniform and stable plant. This is what I would try, and hopefully some of the pieces you cut off will root to form more plants.

Happy Propagating!
Jacki

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