Sounds like a great buy, quite honestly!

How many stems does it have?
Multiples, or one main trunk?

Anyhow, you asked the right question.
First, here are some helpful discussions:

I whacked my jade plant

MY Jade 'Whacking' Update
(a few broken image links in this one,
but the information is still there!)

and

One of My Chopped on Jades

This last thread really shows what you can do if
you have patience and nerve! Many thanks to Randy.
______________________________________________

You can prune the jade aggressively.
Really aggressively if you want. In fact, you
can butcher them down to just a few inches and
they'll come back. The only downside is that
you must then wait for the leaves to grow back.
The pruning will encourage the trunk to thicken,
which will help support the upper foliage.

When the growth season begins, you can foster a
good root-structure by watering the plant thoroughly
(in a well-draining soil) and allowing the soil to dry
out between waterings. This sends the roots in search
of water. Make sure not to over-water, of course.

I'd love to see a picture of the plant.
If you can, post a picture and you'll get some very
good advice on how and where to prune your particular
plant.

Josh

I forgot to add the most important thing: keep the plant supported! Use stakes, bricks, bookcases, whatever you have, whatever works. Then, when it comes time to re-pot, choose an appropriately massive container.

If you're going to re-pot the plant right now, you should probably wait to prune it (advice that I've gathered while reading around here). Then, once the roots have healed from any trauma during re-potting, you can prune/trim away branches or foliage a bit at a time.

I'd venture this: prune away any spindly, weak, leggy, or down-ward growing branches on the plant. Then, re-evaluate.

The roots are probably not that big a deal. I have pretty large plants in hardly any soil at all.

Here's a photo from last summer of my biggest plant. It's the plant from "One of My Chopped on Jades" link greenman posted.

I was going to post a photo of it in about a month. It has about 100 bloom spikes on it right now with the first blooms about to open any day.
clickable thumb
{{gwi:564997}}

It's looking superb! Great color!
I wish mine were half as nice.
Thanks, Randy. Looking forward to more.

Josh

Hi Josh,

Thanks. The color on the plant now is spectacular. Very little green left on it. Once it's in full bloom I'll try to take some decent pics of it.

randy

Randy, that is an absolutely Gorgeous Jade, can't wait to see that in full bloom...

thanks for all the advice. I think I will trim gently this winter and then maybe more aggressively during the growing months. She has one main stem about 5 inches in radius which splits into multiple branches each about 2 inches in radius. I'll try to post a picture, I'm still new here so I have to figure that out....maybe I'll put it on my page. We did put the jade back into the original pot & added more bricks, moved her out of the line of dog traffic & am rotating it each week so maybe the growth will balance out.

That sounds like the proper approach.
A judicious trimming while it's adapting to its new home;
rotating the plant for balance; and keeping it supported while the roots
re-establish themselves; and, finally, limiting water until the roots
are healed and the plant actually needs water.

However, I must ask, is your trunk really 5 inches in radius???
That's huge! Post pictures when you can!

Josh

IG34 - Don't be afraid to go ahead and whack it back now if you want. I usually do a few of mine in the early/late fall and new leaves start to emerge almost immediately. By spring, they're usually starting to look pretty decent. After a few annual whackings, the trunk usually looks fabulously thick and the foliage "head" is thick and compact. Yours sounds HUGE - you must live where you can grow it outside or have a lot of room... I keep mine smallish because they have to come in every winter and I don't have a lot of space and DO have a LOT of other plants.

The key with Jades is keeping them compact, giving them ALL the sun you can, and keeping them outside until a hard freeze. Here's one of mine less than a year after I whacked it right back to the trunk, not a leaf left on it...
{{gwi:574221}}

...and about 2 years after the "whacking"...
{{gwi:485751}}

Jades don't need big root systems - it's just a matter of balancing the foliage above the rootball, so a pruning should help you with that. This one is in an 8x12" bonsai pot...
{{gwi:574224}}

This little 'Hobbit' got whacked back radically and looked like this 6 months later...
{{gwi:572508}}

It has a nice canopy of foliage on it now (though I haven't a recent photo of it...) and the trunk has thickened nicely. The thick trunk is attractive and very functional in balancing the weight of the foliage.

And I agree - show us a photo of your huge Jade when you get a chance!

Denise in Omaha

Great images, Denise!
Very helpful and encouraging!

In your last photo, I (think I) see
fine strands of spider web...is/was that so?

I have some thin webs on my jade, but I
can't find evidence of "mites." I did find
a pale green spider - about 1/16 of an inch -
on one of my plants, and so I assumed that
the webs were from *real* spiders....

Thanks!

Josh

Hi Josh,

Yes, it was when it was sitting on my back porch early last spring and I get spiders galore out there. They give me the creeps, but I try to leave them alone 'cuz I know they eat the bad bugs...

Denise in Omaha

Hi Denise,

Your Jades are beautiful...(sigh) maybe one day mine will look half as good as yours, if I'm lucky.

I recently "whacked" one of my jades, and I am amazed how quickly it is re-growing! Like you, I rooted a bunch of the cuttings. I put them in old bonsai pots and little decorative pots that I had picked up at garage sales for a quarter or 50 cents each. They now cover the table in my front entry-way, and they are being handed out as Christmas gifts. When someone shows up with a plate of cookies, I give them a little jade plant with a bow tied around it. It might be too late in the season for you to repot your cuttings, but it a suggestion for another year. Happy Holidays!

Good idea, Birdlady! Because every time you whack a Jade, you can end up with a dozen new plants. Pretty soon, your house is overrun by them! Of course, you run into the same problem once everyone you know has gotten them from you!

Denise in Omaha