URGENT HELP NEEDED WITH MY JADE PLANT

PLEASE HELP ME SAVE THIS PLANT. it started to develop yellowing leaves, then now black
am I overwatering, underwatering or what?

Are the stems still solid? Do the leaves on the bottom of the plant look like the ones on top or are they solid and green? Have you moved it recently from a shadier spot to a sunnier spot (or is this plant new to you)?

Can you take a photo of the whole plant and post it here?

Hi DaisyPlantLady, thanks so much for your response. To answer your questions, yes, the stems and base do still seem to be solid and green. That said, however, more and more of the top leaves are as pictured - getting yellow and I just noticed the black parts this weekend. I freaked out! I raised this plant from a small keiki that was only a couple of inches high; now it is several feet in diameter so I don't want to lose it. It sits in a pretty sunny spot on my lanai. About two weeks ago, as I noticed the top leaves getting yellow, I thought I had overwatered it and/or that it was getting too big for its pot, so I moved it to a slightly shadier place for about a week, then transplanted it to a slightly larger pot and put it back in the sun with only light watering. It has now been back in its regular place for about a week. At first I was thinking because it's been so godawful hot in Hawaii lately that maybe it was getting burnt? But now I'm not so sure because the yellowing hasn't gotten any better since I stopped watering. Will try to take a picture of the whole plant tonight when I get home and post. Any ideas?

My thought is that it is getting sunburnt. Are the leaves wet when the hot afternoon sun hits it? That would cause it to burn. Also your heat wave. Having healthy green leaves under the top canopy also leads me to think sunburn - the leaves below the top layer are being shaded.

The pot only needs to be big enough to hold up the plant. Now that its in a bigger pot, be careful not to overwater. Only water when the leaves start to feel soft. Underwatering usually results in leaves drying up. Overwatering causes mushy stems as the plant rots from the bottom up (roots are first to go).

Try moving it to a spot that gets afternoon shade. The damaged leaves will not heal themselves - you will lose those leaves. But leave them on the plant for now as they are protecting the leaves below. New growth should come out happy and green.

Daisy

That's what I thought initially as well, Daisy, that it was getting sunburnt because some of the tips were a little red or dark in color, but never to this extent, and never black - just a little dark on the very tips. And none of them were getting yellow then; the leaves were a nice green and looked healthy. When I noticed some of the leaves turning a little yellow, I decided to repot to a slightly bigger pot, but I did not water it very much. No, the leaves are not wet when the afternoon sun hits the plant.
If I'm underwatering so that the leaves are "drying up", do they turn black like that or just shrivel up? What causes the black? Or if I'm overwatering, is that what would cause the leaves to turn yellow? The leaves do not feel soft or mushy.
Yesterday, I did move it to a more sheltered spot that gets a bit more shade. I'm glad you told me not to remove the damaged leaves as I was going to do so. How long do you think it will be before it starts looking better? Should I "unpot" it just to take a look at the roots to make sure of their wetness (or lack thereof) or would that stress it further?

The tips of the leaves do turn red when the plant gets plenty of sun and is happy and healthy. Turning yellow and black is a sign of too much sun. Especially if the lower leaves are green and healthy and the stems are not rotting, turning color...

Under watering: The leaves simply dry up. Over watering: the leaves rot and turn mushy. But, as I stated, they rot from the roots up. That means mushy stems before the top leaves would go bad.

I am very sure this is a case of sunburn.

I'm not sure you can stress a succulent but I wouldn't bother to check the roots as there is a lot of plant that should be effected between the roots and the top.

Leave it in the shady spot and be patient. It will not react in a week to its conditions. See what it looks like in a month or so. If you like the pot its now in, leave it. If you liked its former pot, move it back. I am assuming the root ball did not break up when you moved it to the larger pot.

Daisy

Hi Daisy,
I am so glad to hear that you think it's just sunburn. I was terribly afraid that I had ruined it with too much watering. I am sending two more pictures here. You can notice in the upper right hand corner of the one picture how just a little bit of the tip of the leaves turned darker or red. That's when I initially thought it was too hot up there for it - our weather has been just awful lately. I went out to my car yesterday after work and it was 100 degrees inside!!! I will try to be patient and leave it alone and not water it again for a week or so just to make sure. It is now in a more sheltered spot. Thank you so much for all your advice. I have never had trouble with jades before - but it's never been this damn hot out before!!

I'm pretty sure it's not sunburn, since the entire plant is severely chlorotic and appears to be circling the drain. Sunburn (photo-oxidation) is a more localized issue, affecting only the parts of the plant that have received too much light. Essentially, in leaves that have accumulate light energy faster than they can turn it into chemical energy, as molecules in leaf tissues return to a less excited state, free O- radicles are released that attack (oxidize) leaf tissues and turn them (usually) a silver color initially, then brown or black. The O- radicle is exactly the same as that found in the bleaching agent H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide). PO can affect young periderm (bark) tissue as well.

If you are watering your plant while you can still detect any moisture in the soil with your finger, the odds significantly favor over-watering/poor drainage as the likely cause of the plant's poor vitality.

Al

I'm not surprised at the potential for drainage problem. It's several feet around, so it's possibly been in the current pot and soil for a while. I know I would have a hard time getting something that big repotted!

Tapla, The entire plant is not affected, just the top canopy. And if it were overwatering, it would have rotten stems, not yellow tops.

It may need some plant food but still suffering from sunburn.

Daisy

Sunburn is a localized issue in plants, just like it is in humans. If we go hiking and wear a short sleeved t-shirt on an extra warm spring day, we're likely to suffer sunburn on our arms, neck - those parts newly exposed to the sun. This plant doesn't exhibit that localized pattern that sunburn manifests. Also, even if the plant actually was suffering from the effects of sunburn, sunburn doesn't account for the severe chlorosis conspicuous in the entire plant, which would be by far the more worrisome of the two.

Tissues affected by photo-oxidation typically turn silverish or tan, then go to black or brown as the tissues either dry up or rot. RED is never expressed in coloration of tissues because the O- radicles that cause photo-oxidation destroy anthocyanin (and chlorophyll), pigments that express red and green coloration respectively.

The most important consideration isn't whether or not there might be SOME damage to some leaf tissues by photo-oxidation. What's most important is agreeing that photo-oxidation isn't responsible for the o/a severe chlorosis conspicuous over the entire plant.

Also, sunburn isn't something that develops over time like severe chlorosis. The OP offers, ".......it started to develop yellowing leaves, then now black"; "more and more of the top leaves are as pictured - getting yellow and I just noticed the black parts this weekend"; "About two weeks ago, as I noticed the top leaves getting yellow" So from what the OP said, the photo load the plant was receiving didn't increase, and the symptoms came on gradually. Sunburn is "POW" immediately silver or tan foliage with obvious necrosis within a day or two.

This one is a root issue, most likely related to over-watering, but a high level of solubles in the soil solution could also be playing a part in the o/a poor condition of the plant.

If I lived in Hawaii, I'd do a full repot now, bare-rooting the plant and pruning all damaged roots back to sound tissue, even if the plant had to be cut back so far it would essentially be being treated as a cutting. I'd repot into a soil that allows me to water at will, with no concern that a soggy soil will exact the same toll the plant is paying now. Soil choice is the foundation of every conventional container planting, and often determines how close the plant does or doesn't come to realizing its genetic potential.

Al

The jade suffering from a lack of fertilizer and sunburn. When is the last time you fertilized? If it has been awhile, fertilize with half-strength plant food and give it a week to start showing signs of greening up.

Please don't butcher your plant quite yet.

Daisy

I would take tapla's advice.

I agree. .

Resolving the issue is rather easy. Lift the plant from the pot and see if the entire root mass is healthy and full of roots with plump white or tan tips. If not, if the root mass is sparse and there is evidence of dark slimy roots and the soil doesn't smell like fresh earth, you have a root issue, the best resolution to which is to prune roots back to healthy tissue, rid the plant of the soil it's in by bare rooting, and repotting into an appropriate soil. As a bonsai practitioner, I'm pretty sure Daisy has a very good feel for the rejuvenating effects of root pruning in general, and would probably agree that if you DO find root rot is an issue, that being pro-active in its resolution would be much preferred to letting nature take its course. The calculated act of root pruning cannot in any way be compared to butchering.

If the OP doesn't find a compromised root system, disregard all I said and follow Daisy's advice. There is a big difference in the appearance of a plant suffering from a nutritional deficiency and one circling the drain because its roots are rotting and cannot support the top of the plant .... and this one screams "root rot".

A healthy plant is like a perfectly balanced top that's spinning with all its systems in perfect balance. When something like root rot or nutritional deficiencies or too little/too much light affects the plant, the entire organism starts to wobble. If a nutritional deficiency isn't the reason for the wobble, adding more nutrients will make the wobble worse, not better, so the OP really should check to see if it's a root issue causing the wobble before fertilizing.

Al


This message was edited Nov 1, 2015 5:10 PM

I sure hope tlhawaii lets us know how this went, I am now feeling sort of a connection with this plant! My thanks to the DGers who are teaching me a lot here.

It certainly won't hurt the plant to pick it up out of the pot and examine the roots.

TL, you already repotted it. What did the roots look like?

Update: thanks all of you for your timely advice. I did finally pull it out of its pot (again) and the roots looked good, i.e., not slimy or black or anything. They appeared to be in good shape. I did hold back some watering, however, just to be on the safe side and then I transplanted to a slightly larger pot. Then I started watering again - about every 8 or 9 days instead of once a week. Now that its a bit cooler, it seems to be recovering nicely. Most of the brown/black leaves are gone, but I keep it in a slightly shadier place just to be on the safe side from the hot sun. I now have mostly nice, healthy looking green leaves and I think it is looking much better. Many thanks to all of you!

Yay!

That's what I said Pistil!! Yipee!