Need some help - first Bonsai - Jade tree green leaves falling off

Hello everyone -

I have purchased a jade plant about 5 years old about 2.5 months ago.  I have kept it outdoors during summer months (live in Chicago area) and watered it almost every day (the soil seemed to dry out completely in 1 day).  It did well, and I got many new leaves and branches during that period.  See photo ....
NOW ...in the last 3 weeks, it's been inside more near a window with normal humidity and temps around 68-72 F.  I water it 4-6 times per week.  Soil drains very quickly and feels dry in a day or two, at most.   ISSUE:  leaves are beginning to fall off. Sometimes 8 per day.  Some are shriveled up, but lately  nice, fresh green leaves are also falling off.  At this rate, in about 1 month, there will be no leaves.  What am I doing wrong?  Should I check the roots?  Am I over-watering?

Thank you very much for any help you can give me.

ST

MUCH TOO MUCH WATER. Once every 2 weeks is probably right for a jade plant.

Stop watering immediately. Bring it inside before it gets too cold. Water VERY sparingly over the winter with the plant under BRIGHT lights AND a window.

Good luck. Hope it's not too late.

Thanks. i will give it a try ...hope it's not too late also ...

Don't water it again for a *long* time. Don't even think about water for a couple of weeks. As it stands, you've probably got rotten roots. Just let it dry out and leave it for a while.
Wait until the leaves start to look a bit shrivelled (the healthy ones, not the dying ones it's currently shedding). Then you can water. The sign that you've left it too long to water is that you'll see tiny white roots developing at the leaf bases - the plant will still come back fine from that.

This is not a Jade!

You too JIM really, after this many years in the Forum, and you still call a Porkbush a Jade.

Love Light and Awakening
Andre

You are right Andre, it was my fault really for not calling it by it's correct name. This is Porticularia Afra, and one of its common names is Dwarf Jade (but also Porkbush and Elephant Bush and some others) ....

Does this change anything in terms of over-watering and care?

Thanks!

NO. Stop watering!

And, goodness, I'm sorry I misidentified a tree I've never/won't owned.

You are both equally forgiven....


hih hi hii hi hi hi

We need a Emoticon of something with wings something angelic, an emoticon with a halo. hi hi

ST, truly the hardest thing about raising both crassula and portulacaria for us non-desert people is getting used to how long they prefer to go without water. I mean, c'mon, let cuttings lay about for 2 or 3 days before you plant them?!? What can survive that? I think they were a gift from alien visitors.

Precarious wrote: I think they were a gift from alien visitors.

I will never look at it the same way from now on ...LOL

Portulacaria and Crassula are still ever greens.

Deciduous trees like the Baobab and Adenium and can be left in the shade, lying on its side, for almost the whole winter without it being in the soil, and it will still be OK.

The problem with the caudex forming succulents Trees, is that if they get water when out of leaf, they will still keep on sucking up moisture.... and then it has nowhere to go, and the plant rots. If you take it out of the soil, the roots seals and the plant stays dormant.

Love Light and Awakening
Andre

Very helpful information, Andre. That would apply to pachypodium as well then, yes?

 AS KING OF THE SPEKBOOM I MUST INTERJECT !!!  
(sorry for the drama, just referring to an older late night post)

anyways, why does it take the new guy to ask what type of soil it is in ???

i mention it because i have a number of spekboom (not spekboomS - thanks andre)
and they are watered the same as anything else i have,
that is - daily when outdoors and slightly less in the winter as they are in full sun when indoors too...

i am hoping that the material covering the soil is not glued on, as is the case with many "banzai" bought at midwest retailers

i have mine in a mix of roughly equal parts diatamaceaous earth, aged pine bark and chicken grit.

so depending on what it is in, it may need to be amended...
they are difficult to over water when in the correct substrate
(walter pall has a great video on youtube where he discusses this)

oh, and spekboom is what this plant is called in its native afrikaans  

here is one of mine, 8.5" tall from lower part of soil, in a DASU pot:
(i received it as a tiny 2" tall cutting january 2012, so less than 3 years old !!!)
"front" best view:



back side:



from above and behind the crescent of the pot:



and from end opposite of crescent:

Thought I posted this response, but it must be lost in the ether.

Good point Kevin. You have grown that portulacaria fast and healthy, so I dub thee the spekboom meister, Meister Spekboom!

Glad to see the DaSu pot (and a little jealous). Bought one just like it from there, and had a nice fukien tea literati in it. Left it on a ledge for an afternoon...wind came...now I have three of that pot. Oh well, I have a gray fossil literati pot to put the tree in, and just ordered(today in fact) a fossil oval from DaSu for another tree.

Andre Beaurain wrote: We need a Emoticon of something with wings something angelic, an emoticon with a halo. hi hi

There ya go.

fiona wrote:

Andre Beaurain wrote: We need a Emoticon of something with wings something angelic, an emoticon with a halo. hi hi

There ya go.

can we just name that one andrengel ???

(pronounced on-drain-jell)

Precarious wrote:Very helpful information, Andre.  That would apply to pachypodium as well then, yes?

David
NO NO NO.... Pachypodiums doesnt work like that. Ive tried.

Even though they also get NO water in winter, they must stay in the soil.

They loose moisture and become soft, not form rotting but form loosing "pressure" and then when they reach a certain "softness" they dont want to hydrate anymore. The only one that can last without soil for about three months is Pachypodium saundersii, (the Kudu lilly) The only Pachypodiums that can handle water all year is the two ever greens: Pachypodium fiherensis and Pachypodium baronii (red flowers).

Some neeedless information...

Love Light and Awakening
Andre

Kevin

Yes Walter is right if the tree is healthy and in a good draining soil mix it can get water the whole year. They do like a well composted soil though. Then they grow the whole year. They are actually super easy trees!
I cant find the post of Walter that you talk about, can you post a link?

Yours is looking very healthy and shiny, do you polish the leaves, I would like to know what yours taste like, very sweet or very sour?

Love Light and Awakening
Andre

fiona wrote:

Andre Beaurain wrote: We need a Emoticon of something with wings something angelic, an emoticon with a halo. hi hi

There ya go.

Wow that was quick.  Are you the Creator of the minions... Mother Minion  or MM for short.  hih hihh hii

It looks great Fiona.

  I can fly...

Ok thanks Andre, not useless at all. I have a p. lealii that I suspect is saundersii, but not totally sure. It has not flowered in the several years I've had it. In the winter I don't water until it starts to get a little soft. It slowly loses leaves until all fallen by late December/early January. There is a picture of it in a post here in the Questions forum, 'Pachypodium Questions'. It is probably about 7 years old and 15" tall.

beer city snake wrote:

fiona wrote:

Andre Beaurain wrote: We need a Emoticon of something with wings something angelic, an emoticon with a halo. hi hi

There ya go.

can we just name that one andrengel ??? (pronounced on-drain-jell)

Or how about a Beaurangel?


Guys, next time you go to use it, hover your cursor over the smilie and see what text comes up.

Andre Beaurain wrote:Kevin

Yes Walter is right if the tree is healthy and in a good draining soil mix it can get water the whole year. They do like a well composted soil though.  Then they grow the whole year.  They are actually super easy trees!
I cant find the post of Walter that you talk about, can you post a link?

Yours is looking very healthy and shiny, do you polish the leaves,  I would like to know what yours taste like, very sweet or very sour?

Love Light and Awakening
Andre

i have not tasted mine... yet... i recall you mentioning they are edible once though...
if you are serious, i will try it... any special prep needed, or just pluck and munch ?

and no, i dont polish the leaves, but all my trees get sprayed with a hose occasionally when they are outside
mainly to knock off critters, but also dust, etc

and like you said, they are easy trees, which is why i am super grateful for my co-worker
getting me started in bonsai with those 2 little cuttings just under 3 years ago...
something harder may have been daunting and discouraging,
but with these, one can see results of growing and manipulation techniques very quickly (in the bonsai time zone)

and because of that, i can "play" with these while l try to learn about my difficult and daunting trees

drain jell..... :

and my own Beaurangel !   Pronounced of course :[ brain jel ] 

hi hihihihihi hih hi hihi hi hih i hihhiii

So sweet guys , I feel slightly teary..........                            

Ok not really. hi i

hi

the walter pall videos i mentioned re: substrate, watering & feeding

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccOGUj9b6dc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pij3eGv-nW0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q11HMWatCxY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF0W0KKpzS4

Tom wrote:Don't water it again for a *long* time. Don't even think about water for a couple of weeks. As it stands, you've probably got rotten roots. Just let it dry out and leave it for a while.
Wait until the leaves start to look a bit shrivelled (the healthy ones, not the dying ones it's currently shedding). Then you can water. The sign that you've left it too long to water is that you'll see tiny white roots developing at the leaf bases - the plant will still come back fine from that.

Tom, I don't know what you meant in this thread I've revived. What does "too long to water" mean? I ask because I notice a lot of those small white roots growing at the base of leaves on my crassula. Do these form when too long IN water or too long WITHOUT water?

I have seen a variety of answers on 'leaf roots' when searching the web, everything from too much to too little water, to it being a normal condition for quick rooting if branch breaks off. Don't know if Tom will respond, but many responses would be welcome anyway, so what do you folks say?