The fortune or money plant, as many people call the beautiful jade plant, is an attractive and popular succulent that many people grow at home.
Many people use this plant in their outdoor landscape designs as a hedging plant or to create a focal point in their succulent gardens. Yet, it’s a popular indoor planting choice because it thrives in average household climate conditions and doesn’t need much maintenance.
In this jade plant repotting guide, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about repotting your jade plant, when you should move it to another pot, how big it should be, and how to take care of multiple plants in a pot.
So, if you want to keep your jade plant healthy, keep reading.
Jade Plant Repotting Guide
Plant repotting refers to moving your plant from the small nursery pot it came in into a larger one. The new pot should have drainage holes, as, without them, your plant can easily be overwatered and will drown.
People usually repot their plants when they outgrow their original pots. However, some people immediately look for a bigger pot after getting a plant from a nursery.
This isn’t always a good idea, as you should only move your plant to a bigger pot when it starts growing. In the case of a slow-growing plant like the jade plant, this will take some time.
You don’t repot your plant to move it into a decorative pot. People use many cool ceramic, metal, stone, and marble pots in their households to match their decorative style, but these aren’t the pots you should use to repot your jade plant.
Inside the decorative pot, you should have a plastic or terracotta pot with enough drainage holes to allow the excess water to flow away from the plant’s roots.
Why Should You Repot Your Plant?
Repotting plants should be part of your routine care as it helps your jade plant in several ways. Here are some reasons why your plant should be repotted.
Plant Is Growing
As the plant grows, the roots expand to absorb more water and nutrients. Your plant will suffer when there’s no room for them to do so.
The plant’s roots will be stuck in a small pot, and your plant won’t be able to feed itself. In addition, you’ll notice that the leaves are wilting, and they will eventually fall off your jade plant.
If you don’t repot your plant, it becomes rootbound. This means the roots will try to escape through the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot.
Some plants will sometimes grow their roots to appear above the soil level.
Luckily, some plants like to be rootbound, and the jade plant is one of them.
When this plant is under this type of stress, it will start producing baby plants that you can easily take to start new plants in new pots. Yet, if you keep the plant rootbound for too long, it will eventually suffer.
Soil Is Poor
When grown outside, the plants always have access to fresh nutrients because the soil replenishes itself.
Animal waste from pets, songbirds, and wildlife forms in your garden, dead invertebrates in the soil, and dead plant matter continue to provide your outdoor plants with nutrients.
However, this isn’t possible for indoor plants.
When grown in a potting mix or soil, indoor plants can access a certain amount of nutrients. However, after they’ve depleted, the soil will become too poor to satisfy the plant’s needs.
People might think about using compost for indoor plants, but many homeowners don’t prefer to do this because it doesn’t smell very nice until the manure has broken down.
In this case, refreshing your plant by adding new soil will be the right answer. Providing your jade plant with fresh, healthy soil will cover its nutritional needs.
Plant Is Recovering
Some diseases like root rot can affect your plant and even kill it if you don’t do something about it. Root rot can be caused by overwatering or a fungal disease in the soil.
You should uproot your plant and move it into a new pot with fresh soil to treat it.
Keeping your plant in the old pot will only worsen its condition, and it will eventually die.
Do You Have to a Repot a Jade Plant?
This depends on several factors.
If your jade plant is too young and has arrived in a small pot, you’ll probably have to repot it after a few years.
Jade plants grow slowly, and the growth will be even slower and might stop altogether if the pot is too small.
Most nursery pots are too small, but you can move your jade plant into a bigger one to encourage its growth.
If you already have a mature plant, then you might not need to repot it. Even if you do, you’ll have to wait for years before moving it into a bigger pot.
When to Repot a Jade Plant?
Jade plants are slow growers, and this is good news for lazy and novice gardeners because this means that you shouldn’t worry much about repotting your jade plant that often.
In general, young jade plants should be repotted every two to three years.
This will give them room to grow and will encourage your plant to absorb more nutrients and waste from the soil.
However, as the plant matures, its growth rate slows. So, you can repot older plants every four to five years.
Some homeowners prefer to keep their jade plants in their pots for longer.
This will help you if you’re trying to control the size of the plant and don’t want it to grow too big.
However, if your plant is suffering, you should move it to a bigger pot, where it can experience healthier growth.
In this case, you should repot your plant in the spring, before the growing season.
This is when your jade plant is most active and will quickly overcome the transplant shock to be able to grow healthier.
How Many Jade Plants Can Be In One Pot?
You can actually put several jade plants in one pot as long as they don’t compete too much for nutrients.
This means that the pot should be big enough to support the growth of all root systems, and the leaves of the plant shouldn’t touch.
Most people put jade plant cuttings in the same pot until the plants start to grow. After that, you can move every individual plant into a new pot to allow its root system to expand.
Keeping one plant in a big pot will allow it to grow to a taller height, almost the size of a shrub. Yet, if you want to keep multiple jade plants in the same pot, you should consider the following factors.
- Check the root system of every plant, as introducing one sick plant to the pot will affect the others. If you see any sick or infected roots, trim them off.
- Ensure you’ve picked a big pot to support all your plants. Jade plants like to be rootbound, but they don’t like to compete for nutrients.
- Select two or three jade plants to grow in the same pots. If you have a bigger pot, you can add more jade plants, but adding too many plants isn’t the best idea.
- Don’t plant old and young plants together. It’s best to grow young plants together as the old ones will take more food, leaving the young ones unhealthy.
- Keep the plants protected from the sun to control their growth. Ideally, jade plants will thrive in bright indirect sunlight, but keeping multiple plants in a shaded spot will prevent vigorous growth that can harm them in the long run.
- Regular pruning will keep your little jade garden in shape. You don’t want the branches and leaves to touch each other as they will affect the way your plants look and will also reduce the airflow around your jade plants.
- Grouping too many plants can increase the humidity levels, especially in spring and summer. In this case, using a dehumidifier will keep your jade plants healthy.
- Multiple plants will need more resources, so you should fertilize your jade plants more often. However, ensure not to overfertilize the plants because this can do more harm than good.
How Big of a Pot Does a Jade Plant Need?
Jade plants will grow well in a four or six-inch pot. You might not have to move the plant in a large pot as it matures.
As a matter of fact, jade plants can easily get overwatered in a big pot.
Even if you move your jade plant to a 16 or 20-inch pot, it shouldn’t be too deep. Jade plants have shallow root systems and will do fine in a shallow pot.
Final Thoughts
Repotting allows the plant to grow bigger. But if you don’t want your jade plant to grow to a shrub-like size, you can keep it in a small pot.
Ideally, younger plants should be repotted more often. Nevertheless, you’d still do this once every few years because these plants grow slowly.
When repotting your plant, you can group two or three plants in the same pot. Make sure that they all have access to the necessary nutrients, and they will be fine.
Growing up with a mom who filled her home (inside and out) with all sorts of plants, Lisa got her start in gardening at a young age. Living now on her own with a home and yard full of plants (including an indoor greenhouse), she shares all the gardening tips she’s gained over the years.