here it is:

That's as much soil I could get off without seemingly harming the plant! Are all those roots throughout the soil?

It's fantastic and healthy. Use a chopstick or a pencil the wriggle the roots loose. Use a hose to spray the old mix off. A few lost roots won't hurt.

Josh

Yes, it looks good! Do as Josh said (btw, he grows great jades!). To avoid same or worse (hardening of soil or too much water-retention) from happening, get some perlite and mix generous amount with soil, and you can add some grit too.

Thanks so much guys! I'll try the chopstick method, and I already bought some perlite to mix in tomorrow :) I could only find Miracle Gro perlite though.... hope that's ok.

MG perlite isn't a problem, MG soil could be. What are you using?

I would advice you to use a kitchen strainer and sift perlite thru it (if possible, do it outside and perhaps use mask) perlite is quite dusty. Get rid of everything that falls thru the sieve/strainer. I rinse perlite too.

I agree, the plant itself looks very healthy, you must have been doing something right.

Christopher

It is hard not to damage roots to some degree when repotting. It is important to let the roots dry for a few days in open air to let those wounds callus over before putting in new soil. Some people even sprinkle cinnamon on the roots as an antifungal.

ez

Rina,

The soil is just what came with the plant from the nursery. I don't know what kind it is, but the plants have been doing well so far and growing a lot, so I guess it's ok soil. But like I said I do plan to mix it with 50% perlite (I was planning to strain and rinse too! Thanks!) so hopefully they'll do even better with that.

Thanks breathnez, I didn't think to let the roots heal, good tip :)

Still having problems :(

I'm trying to loosen all the dirt around the roots but it is SO packed in there it seems impossible. I don't want to damage anymore roots! But I'm having the hardest time getting all of the dirt out from in between the many many twisty connected root systems.

This is the best picture I could get. My phone decided to not let me email photos anymore, so I took this with my computer (spilled just a little dirt into the keyboard, whoops). I'm not sure how well you can see the detail but there is a TON of dirt way up there. How necessary is it to loosen all of it?

You can spray it off with a hose. (Edited: I just noticed Josh already suggested that yesterday!!!)

Roots look good in your photo, while I think it was pot bound.

You can plant it in just a little bigger pot (not much bigger) and if you use more chunky mix, you won't have this problem (compacted soil) again.

Sometimes I turn up the jet on the hose sprayer as high as I dare... some of the plants I've repotted had soil like concrete. I also use a set of metal dental picks to break up the chunks.

Your jade looks so healthy with so many roots, I don't think losing some more would be a problem. The more old soil you remove the better - it will allow fresh new roots to form in their place.

I would remove all that old soil. If it is more water retentive than the new, it will stay moist between waterings- not good.

If you cut away all the roots, it would still be able to regrow them rather easily. I'm not saying do that, but encouraging you to be a little more aggressive and at the same time assured your plant will be okay.

ez

(Root pruning could be done - I would...)

Trim off any dead looking roots, cut clean any that 'rip' and any that may look too soft/black/slimy/mushy (doesn't look like you have any of those).

If you wash off all the soil, you can leave plant sitting on some newspaper or kit. towels to dry off little while preparing mix. Then pot up. If it feels little 'wobbly' in the new mix, just anchor with few rocks until the roots anchor in new mix.

Ok today I'll attempt hosing. All of the roots feel dry, none are mushy at all - would dead roots be dry and crackly? Or a different color? All of the roots are the same light brown color, but some little ones on the end crumble off if I gently rub them in between my fingers - are those dead roots?

Yes. dead roots are lighter color and crackly/papery. If you cut piece off, you'll see that it's dead tissue.

The 'little ones on the end' are very fine hair roots. Try not to rub them, they should be alive. But if they crumble then maybe they are dead? If you 'swish' root ball in container of water, I would think the finest one (if dead) would just wash off? Some roots - as have been mentioned already by 2 other posters - will break off, do not worry (just don't force it).

You may try to wash the soil further by using tepid water in a bowl, and gently swishing the root ball back and forth. If peat hardened, it re-wets little easier using warmer (NOT HOT - you don't want to cook them) water. Otherwise, just hose off.

Whatever you do, do not leave this in the sun. The fine roots dried out and died as a result of the initial treatment. There will be some set-back to recovery as a consequence, compounded by the fact that we are relatively late in the season to be re-potting.

I would hose the old soil out, let the rootmass dry in the shade for an hour or two, and then re-pot.

Josh