Just a question about the small/daughter plant: is it actually weak or is it leaning toward sun/light?

The small one (4" diameter pot) was staked. I started staking it because it was floppy. It sits in a south facing window and I usually rotate it when I water it once a week.

These plants are/have been desperate for light.
If you chop them back hard (until they're just trunks) this Summer, the new growth will come in more compact and sturdy. In the meantime, stake them up and keep rotating them as you are doing.

Do you have anything blocking the light to that window. Like a porch or a big tree?

That is what I do not understand, that it is sitting in a south facing window, and looks like this. There has to be something blocking the window, as suggested above. Most of my Jades sit in south facing windows and as most here have seen, they look nothing like this.

If you chop them back hard, as Josh suggests, you will still have to fix the lighting issue, or you will end up with the same trouble all over again.

Christopher

Yes, they must be in stronger Summer sun for the new growth to come in sturdy and compact.

I had one of these "U" shaped 'Gollum' cuttings once, so I flipped it upside down and rooted it that way. As it grew, it pulled itself upright, and it is now one of my best Jade bonsai.

Josh

The small one is in the south facing window, but this discussion reminded me that it wasn't always so. It started out beside the larger one by a west facing window. The larger one is still in the west window.

For both of them I can cut off the branches to about an inch above the soil and keep them in the southern window to get a fresh start? For the large one that feels like it may be too much and I'll have to do it in stages? If it will take a few years I'm patient enough to do it right.

I would cut the larger one's trunks to about 2 - 4 inches long, and re-pot them so that they're more upright/vertical. The smaller one I would take off the top 1.5 inches, and support the lower trunk while it grows new leaves.

South window for both, outside for the Summer.

Josh