More photos

Again

Last one for now. Let me know if you want any specific shots!?

Timing is the worst too. I have three Christmas parties to attend.. plus appointments, shopping.. WAHHHH :'-(

Meanwhile, ANY help would be appreciated. I also just noticed that there are NO drainage holes... LOL oh dear.

Take it out of the soil and set it somewhere where there's some light and warmth. Leave it be for a month (or less) while you read up here on soils. One decent one (there are 11,237 different ones) is 1/2 cactus soil that's been sieved and 1/2 perlite. You also need to do some trimming, but for now take it out of the pot, dislodge some of the soil around the root ball, and set aside for a bit while it dries out. It looks like it was inappropriate soil combined with too little light and too much water - there are lots of threads here which have successfully explored these problems. I should find one for you.

Ah, here we are. Don't be shocked - cutting it down to the almost-nubbins might be just the thing to resurrect your Crassula ovata, but I'll let the Jade Wizards handle it from here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Helpful Covata Thread

I have ingredients for Al's gritty mix - which all my jade plants and succulents are in - turface, granite grit, and fine bark. My plants are doing wonderful in it.

I will take it out of its pot tonight and let it air out.. Gotta see what I'm working with here.. I just really, truly hope that some of these trunks are salvageable. With her north facing window, there definitely was not enough light. She admitted that it may have been watered too often as well.

I would definitely appreciate you finding a similar topic&solution - I see you around these forums a lot ;)

Is it too cold to trim now? Thanks for your help.

This post was edited by Alliep on Tue, Nov 25, 14 at 17:47

Thanks! If I'm able to revive this jade, I don't think I want to give it back to her.... *rollseyes* you can't blame me for that...

I will keep posting progress updates over the months :)

Since you have to cut it into it, slice into a limb you were going to trim anyway and make sure it's all healthy tissue (it should be completely off-white, not unlike an apple, in colour).

No, it's in growth mode now, so if you're able to doctor it soon and get it into a mix, it will be in visible growth mode by the time of those last Christmas parties.

Get all of the soil off of it.

While almost even the smallest leaf can be propagated, I'd get all unhealthy growth off of it now and compost it. Make sure you do the cutting with a sterile knife.

You can treat any major cuts with cinnamon or sulfur powder, but unless it's a large incision, most cuts can be air-dried for a few days.

Then plant it, giving it a day or two then misting the plant every day or so. Assuming that the light and warmth are there, with the misting you're going to see leaf buds within a fortnight or so.

Do NOT give it back to the neglectful original owner. Email Al if you can find his page. I think his user name is talpa. He should be able to help.

I think it's a good idea to take it out and see how it does. Hopefully you can save it!

And that's what I call a vote of confidence there.

I agree with Cactus. Lot of salvageable material there.
Remove all of the old soil, remove any rotted roots or trunks, and let it dry for a day or so (if the roots were really soaked). If the roots are dry, just crumble away the soil, rinse the root mass (which I recommend because you'll be potting into a gritty mix), and re-pot in gritty mix. Water in 3 - 5 days, thoroughly...then wait to water for at least a week. It certainly needs more light.

Any of those branches with roots forming at the nodes can be pruned and re-potted immediately, if you so desire.

If you want to return a rooted branch to the original owner...say, "Here, it's all I could save." ;-)

Josh

Confidence in who/what? I didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings and I hope I didn't! :(

We gotta be real. We can only hope that nature will respond to our treatment and the plant will come back. I may also be a little jaded over the loss of a large jade to rot (pun intended lol). That was how I found this forum. From that experience, I would be very...ummm...aggressive when I went to chop. In my situation I kept trying to save as much as possible and in the end just ended up with some small pieces from a jade that was over 2' tall and 1' wide. I really do hope you can save this guy! And I will be very impressed when you do! Please keep us updated.

Guys, I ran into trouble. I don't know what to do with this. I've never had such root bound plant before. HOW do I get all the soil off of this???

Also, I don't know if I mentioned this before but this jade has been in hole-less pot for 2-3 years at least. NO DRAINAGE HOLES D: I'm horrified.

I.... accidentally broke a limb.. :S On the good side, it's WHITE! outer part is green though.

@Cactus: even the baby leaves are WRINKLED. I can't take all of the leaves off.

So here's the plan, let me know if I'm making a mistake:

1. I'm going to let it sit out for a day or two (meanwhile, go buy a better pot, and make more gritty mix)

2. Find a way to get all of the soil off (I'm thinking wet it completely? soil feels very dry right now)

3. Plant into new pot with the best mix ever~~~~

4. Water in a week or two.

5. Major cut back with sterile knife (I'm scared there will be no good leaves left - though the example post provided by cactus had no leaves either after the cutting)

Again, any and all suggestion will be taken into account and are very, very welcome. Thank you. :)

Edit: just found another mountain of good information:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cacti/msg1118135217718.html?20

This post was edited by Alliep on Wed, Nov 26, 14 at 1:06

I had one given to me with roots like that. I just soaked it in some water. It only took half an hour or so for it to loosen off. I also recommend instead of giving it back to "plant killer" maybe buy her a plastic one for christmas? She won't be able to kill that (hopefully! Lol)

I don't think she's awful - she's actually a good person if you will believe it. :S I mean some people just don't know how to take care of plants and/or don't care and are given one as a present. She a succulent basket* as well so I advised her to get a lamp with full spectrum bulb and she is going to get one :) Saving one plant at a time~

I will take your advice on the soaking. Hopefully tonight.

Soak and then crumble away the old potting mix. Remove any trunks with rot at the base.

I would not prune at this time....unless you're merely taking cuttings to be rooted.

The leaves *will* plump back up, and they'll help the trunks recover much faster than if you remove all of the foliage now. I advise you to wait.

Josh

I agree with greenman. I would only cut if you suspect rot. Other than that I think your plan sounds good. I look forward to seeing before & after pics come spring!

That is a surprisingly nice set of roots for no drainage. It should bounce back quickly. Send an update in a few months, would love to see the progress.

I spent just over an hour in attempt to de-tangle the roots.. unfortunately I wasn't left with as much as I started with.

To top that, I think most trunks are actually rotten. some are just straight up smooshy (which I got rid of) and a couple that had broken away, they were brown in the center of their trunks - pretty sure 90% of them are rotting away.

I have place them in their new pot & mix, no pictures yet unfortunately. I won't know whether the biggest trunk is salvageable until I do some pruning later on... I'm so sad :( I also noticed that quite a few of them are from the same trunk/root system though it was buried under soil.

Just a note that jade plants commonly sprout a few roots near the tips of branches even when grown in good cultural conditions. Apparently it's a propagation mechanism (if there's mechanical trauma, the branch tip drops off and has a chance to root in the surrounding soil) similar to what's utilized by at least one other succulent that forms myriad plantlets with roots. These frequently drop or are knocked off, sometimes falling into and growing in the pots of my cacti (from which they are difficult to remove).

Just an update - I'm not experienced with trimming but I've done it. I could not stand to look at floppy branches anymore. It's in a sunny spot, it gets warm but is cold at night. It doesn't go below 10 degrees Celsius.

As you can see, that's all there's left. other trunks that broke off during the repotting process were all brown and rotten inside. There's only one tiny set of leaves left on it - hopefully that's okay.

I was thinking about tying up the trunks together to keep it upright? Thoughts?

This post was edited by Alliep on Sun, Nov 30, 14 at 18:27

Different angle

Close up

This trunk that broke off is rotten. I should probably cut it down more to get rid of all of the rotten parts?

Yes, all rot should be removed from the part you want to grow.

Would you like some pruning suggestions that will get your plant moving in the direction of an eye appealing composition?

Al

nice job on the chop! I hope you managed to get ALL the rot and it starts to bounce back rather quickly.

@tapla: Yes, I will take any advice available. I consider myself very new to pruning.

@Deva33: I hope so. I will remove that rotten trunk if I find time this evening. I think I might go down ill - not feeling too good here :( Is it okay to let the pruned ends dry out naturally or do I need to apply something? I read somewhere that jades don't need that but just wondering..

This post was edited by Alliep on Mon, Dec 1, 14 at 17:02

Your plant would look nice with 3 trunks. I would keep the 3 largest trunks closest to the center and remove the trunks that remain. If you look at the picture you posted on Sun, Nov 30, 14 at 18:29, and envision it with only the 3 trunks I mentioned, you can see the trunks favor movement to the left. You have 2 trunks that move left from the base, and one that starts right but is returning to the left as you move upward. If you capitalize on that movement the arrangement will be very eye-appealing. You would have a foliage mass low on the left side, with foliage on the center trunk providing background foliage, and the larger trunk supporting a larger foliage mass with a center at or just right of the center of where the three trunks you keep enter the soil.

If you eliminated the center trunk (so there are only 2 trunks remaining), you could have the larger half of the plant hanging protectively over the left-leaning smaller plant in a classic mother/daughter arrangement.

The large branches coming off the large trunk seem to be nicely located so they would complimentt either design.

Al

Sorry, I've been very ill this week - still recovering.

I think I can see what you mean... The smallest trunk (in the back) has that broken off rotten trunk attached to it so I might have to remove it anyway if it's been affected. I might go with the 3 trunk idea, assuming that they all survive.

I have yet to water them since I've repotted them. I think I will give a good water next week.. Any idea as to when I can expect to see hints of new growth? It looks pretty ugly right now with the ends of the branches drying/shriveling up.

Sorry if this post doesn't flow very well or make sense at all. I'm still feeling the fever and can't think this out very well.

I'm sure we all hold the same hope that you're feeling much better, soon.

Al

Gritty is my hope.

It looks like your mix should be fine. I'd water them tomorrow, and expect to see positive growth in two weeks. If it looks like the rot hasn't been completely excised, depot the plants and start over. A good thing to get, at a compounding pharmacy / chemist, is a little tub of sulfur powder (flowers of sulfur). Assuming the rot is completely gone, a packing of the FOS into the wound, and keeping it dry, usually heals the wound. If you want to be extra sure, again ensure it's only healthy tissue, spray with isopropyl alcohol, and pack the powder onto/into the wound while it's still damp.