Looks great, even though it's not what you wanted to happen! Good work.

I would suggest planting at an angle and then turning it toward the sun so that it naturally erects itself.

Josh

I second Josh's opinion. I bet with time and increasing girth you won't even notice the kink that is so obvious now. Beautiful jade!!

Thanks Josh for replying, and for your opinion.

It's ironic really as only the other week I'd whittled my Jade collection down a bit by selecting the best two of each variety I have. Now I stand the chance of adding two more! When I say whittled down, that's in the narrowest sense as all that means is separating them from the ones I'm going to keep by placing them in their own little group at the end of the shelving, he-he.

I wonder if placing some kind of padded splint along the right hand side of the pic above would help to gently persuade the main stem to straighten better/quicker?

Its interesting that the two cuttings that I now have are so different to my more mature HS plants. They can look very green, almost as green as my regular jades for part of the year. They have none of these very yellow and subtlety coloured leaves. So I am hopeful they'll root and continue to show this colouration.

Guess I'll just have to keep a close eye on them....just in case they revert!

Gill

Woodnative, I'm sorry, I missed your post, so thanks for your opinion too!

So far, two votes for option two...interesting.

Jury is still out for a while longer.....

Gill

Gill - I had a similar looking compact jade 2 years ago. The red line is from when I was asking about pruning that part and starting over with that branch. Those little branches at the bottom were near the first cut. (I had never pruned a jade before and was practicing/learning with this one.)

I rotated the plant and it righted itself! Here is is today -

And . . . I still haven't done much pruning on it! LOL

Why angry, Gill?

Margaret, because I'm angry at myself as I didn't realise it was a reversion until it grew almost as large as the other branch! As I said, over a years growth went into the branch I've now cut off when the expended energy could have gone into the HGhost part!

Crenda, well it certainly turned into a lovely plant didn't it? Well done.

Gill

Gill

What I would do, is just do a little amputation: I would trim off little bit of the stub, making it on slant . I would try to keep both leaves, but maybe one will have to go - one on the slanted side. Then I would pot it up semi-erect, so hopefully it will grow as Josh suggested, if you want straight trunk. Over time, the cut will grow over; trunk will get thicker and you'll end up with nice, fat trunk faster.

Trying to get the photo...

Thanks Rina. I had in all honesty wondered myself if that would be possible, so, I think your pic above illustrates what I've decided to do.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions, it's been helpful to know your thoughts on this one.

Gill, (not quite as angry with herself as earlier today)

Gill

Those are very nicely colored. I am sure you'll get a really nice plant, if little 'gnarly' - so much better IMO :) Will have not only great color, but 'character' too.

Gill

I very feel sorry. I understand how sad it is. What do you think why did HS leaves grow? how often do you fertilize? What soil? Can you tell anything about nitrogen content in it? It's very interesting for me because more greener leaves grow on my HG with nutrient soil. So I afraid too.

Oksana

Hello Oksana. All I know is that 'sports' as we call them, in other words the HGhost in this case, are able to swap back to their previous growth style at any time and show the HSunset growth which they originate from.

This 'HS reversion' growth is usually a strong grower and is therefor dominant to the HGsport, so it would have eventually gone on to outgrow the HG part.

As the main pic shows, every leaf on the right hand branch has those lovely stripes so typical of the HG, whilst those on the left, despite having some great colours, show no stripes at all. It will be interesting to see what any new branches will have....and if they don't have stripes, they will be severed!

I try to remember to fertilise them monthly with Miracle grow solution at normal strength. Sometimes I just water them., giving a thorough watering and tipping excess away.

My soil is a general purpose potting mix...which does contain some peat!! It's mixed in roughly equal quantities with alpine grit and perlite. It's quite free draining.

They're grown in the greenhouse all year round, and shaded from the direct sun when the temps get too hot in there. It can get to 90-100f at times. They stay there during the winter when I put bubble wrap against the glass to help insulate it. Last year I didn't have the heaters on, doubt if I will this time either as our winters haven't been that severe of late.

Gill

ps. I'll check tomorrow morning for N content in the Miracle grow fertiliser and let you know what it is Oksana, and the P, and the K also!

Jill

if you fertilize regularly I would recommend to put HG in non-nutrient soil without peat. Very often N excess can stimulate the variegata reversions. If your growing conditions are favorable to the chlorophyll formation so only leaves without chlorophyll-defective cells will grow.

PS: Jill, may I use your pics in my topic? http://forum.sibmama.ru/viewtopic.php?p=79691471#79691471 Because I never seen HG reversion into HS. Only 'Helios' leaves grew on my HG at high temperatures.

Oksana.

Oksana, thank you very much for your information, that is very interesting, and useful to learn.

Since I cut the section away, the HG isn't actually potted properly yet, it's sitting in a pot surrounded by loose mix till I was able to purchase some suitably sized pots yesterday. I have about 200 hundred empty ones, but none of the size I needed, typical eh?

I'll pot up in a peat fee mix and a new pot today following your advise...perlite, bark and horticultural grit, that should be ok, yes?

You certainly may use the picture for your topic :-)

I've never used a non 'soil' mix for any plant I've grown despite reading about its virtues in certain circumstances. This will be a strange thing for me to do, a learning curve.....I hope my HG will be ok!

Just checked the box and 24-8-16 is the NPK formulation of my MG fertiliser, plus 'others'.

Gill

Oksana, just checked the link you showed above, it's a shame I can't read the dialogue as I would be interested to read your info. Is there any way you can show a link that's translated as I've no way to know where or how to change the language over?

Would you also define 'Helios' leaves please? Are they the pure white/cream ones with no or little other colouration? Thanks.

Gill

Gill

I thought so that your fertilizer contains too much nitrogen for succulents. I would recommend more horticultural grit and very-very few compost instead peat. I add 2-3 tablespoon of the leaf compost on 1 pot (250-300 ml). My soil consists of expanded clay (Leca) , horticultural grit and sandy loam in an equal parts. Then I add a compost to all arborescenses and 'Tricolor' cultivars every year a little instead fertilizer. And I don't like bark.

Unfortunately my English is too bad so I can not write articles in it. I can try to write only here.

Look on 'Helios' leaf on pic

It is minor as on 'Crosby's Compact'. It is cream in summer and light green in winter. To save HG I have added a compost to the soil a little and pushed back from direct sun. Earlier it grew without compost in pure sandy loam with Leca and grit. So top leaves have the scars at the leaf edges because of the nitrogen deficiency.

Oksana

Thanks for the explanation above Oksana and for the information on soils and repotting my plant.

With regard to the article, I didn't expect you to translate it for me! I was just wondering if there was a translation button on your forum that I've seen on others that would enable a language swap. No worries, and thanks for your interest.

PS, your use of English is commendable :-)

Gill

"I was just
wondering if there was a translation button on your forum that I've seen on
others"

I don't know about other
forums but I translate all Anglophone posts and everything, that I write even
now, by using Yandex or Google translators. For example I and G-translator
don't know what ICU means. And Ya-translator knows :) So I know now.

Gill

good luck with HG!

Oksana...I've got a translation site that I can use on my main computer upstairs which I rarely switch on due to the quickness/ease of using this IPad. I've been rather busy just lately, but I do intend to switch that one on and have a look at the site. I must be getting lazy I think. Thank you:-)

Gill

PS Oksana....Just done the translation, will now have plenty to read and learn this evening!!