Jade Plant Dropping Leaves: Reasons and Their Solutions

Jade plant dropping leaves is not a sight anyone wants to come home to. These lovely plants are something between succulents and trees that give us plenty of joy. However, this can quickly be spoiled by dropping leaves.

If you’re worried, find out the causes and ways to deal with them properly; read on, and you will learn it all with the necessary details.

What Are Common Reasons Jade Plant Is Dropping Leaves?

The common reasons the jade plant is dropping leaves are water saturation, getting a bit too dry, and an imbalance of humidity and temperature. Also, due to insufficient light, an infestation of diseases or pests, improper fertilization, environmental changes, low-quality soil, and lastly it may be aging.

If you’re a proud plant parent of a jade plant, you might’ve noticed the occasional leaf drop – and it can be a bit alarming.  Before you get anxious, you must know that there are some common, pretty solvable reasons why this may be happening, and you should know the reasons well.

One culprit could be a lack of light, as these plants love and need plenty of sunshine. Another possibility is that you’re over or under-watering your plant or subjecting it to cold or hot air drafts, and this is why the plant would stress and no longer has the ability to thrive as it used to. In short, jade plants also experience the effects of aging and may lose leaves naturally over time.

– Water Saturation

These plants are a type of succulent, meaning they don’t require as much water as you may think, and for this, overwatering is one of the biggest culprits behind leaf shedding in jade plants. When the plant is watered excessively, you’ll soon notice that the leaves turn yellow and shrivel before falling off. Even if you stop watering, the leaf loss can continue if the roots are already affected or if the root rot has developed.

If you feel that the potting soil is too heavy and doesn’t dry out quickly, consider switching to a more rapidly draining mix. In such as case, what happens is that the plant will have a compact or tight soil where the water will not drain, so the roots become discouraged of being surrounded with too much water content.

– It’s Getting a Bit Too Dry

Even though jade plants are succulents and are relatively drought-tolerant, forgetting to water them can lead to leaves falling. Without adequate hydration, the jade plant leaves will start to wither and dry out, eventually falling off.

Larger jades can still develop drought-related issues, since certain parts of the soil mix or rootball can become packed, making it difficult for water to penetrate as much as the top part has dried out. This may cause your plant to alter its growth habits, and you can lose some beautifully developed parts of the tree, so this can be painful for enthusiasts to see that their tree is weakening and cannot hold water any longer.

– Humidity and Temperature Levels

Jade plants are relatively easygoing when it comes to temperature preferences. Generally, they are comfortable in temperatures ranging between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit during the daytime, with nighttime lows above 55 degrees Fahrenheit and won’t appreciate significant temperature fluctuations, even within these ranges.

The direct flow of cold or hot air onto the plant leaves can also cause the plant to shed leaves due to stress. This is especially common if the air is too dry, where your jade plant experiences blasts from a heating vent or air conditioner.

These plants are not big fans of low humidity levels either, and they thrive when the humidity is at least 50 to 60 percent, but when the quality of the air deviates, they will not function in a healthy way. High humidity can be achieved by using a humidifier, placing a water tray near the plant, or grouping plants together to create a mini-greenhouse effect.

– Insufficient Light

Jades, like other succulent houseplants, crave bright light to thrive, and a lack of light is the primary culprit behind jade plant dropping leaves. Too much direct light can lead to sunburn, which leads the edges of the leaves to turn red before falling off. This would result from not, finding a proper balance of light for these plants.

– Diseases and Infections

By overwatering crassulas, you run the risk of waterlogging the soil. This leads to creating a breeding ground for fungi and bacteria, which can quickly spread and cause root system issues. The telltale sign of this condition is yellow leaves that eventually fall off.

One of the most typical bacterial infections that Crassula ovata can fall prey to is root rot. This one is caused by a number of factors — overwatering, low humidity levels, poor drainage, and low temperatures are but a few that can trigger it.

These conditions all create a conducive environment for the growth of the harmful bacteria. It would worsen if you don’t maintain an appropriate humidity level around it and with this, if the temperatures fluctuate, it would permit bacterial infections.

– Pests

The notorious mealybug is your number one enemy when we talk pest infestations. It can wreak havoc on many houseplants, and one of them is the Jade species that would go through a wrath period as the pests would target thee sap of the plant.

While a few mealybugs or spider mites may not cause much harm, they tend to multiply rapidly and form a chaos-making colony. Before you know it, your once-thriving plant may begin losing its leaves, leaving you with a sad and wilted silhouette. In short, it’s crucial that you would keep an attentive eye on these persistent pests and take action.

– Improper Fertilization

Growers may think that adding nutrients will make the plants grow faster, but that’s not always the case. Crassula plants don’t require a lot of feeding!

If you’ve planted your jade in the right soil, try to resist the urge to over-fertilize. Doing so could cause your plant to start dropping its leaves. It is as if the plant is being force-fed even after it has had the right amount of fertilizer. Instead of thriving and showing off new growth, your jade plant will need help to grow.

– Environmental Changes

Even the smallest change in your plant’s environment can cause it to drop a few leaves. Just moving your precious jade from one room to another could cause it to stress and shed a leaf or two while they adjust to its new digs.

In addition to this, if you’ve recently transplanted a mature plant or snipped off some pieces for propagation, don’t be surprised if you see a little leaf loss, as this is another environmental change that it becomes subject to. Together with this, if you’re spraying chemicals or using leaf shine products, be prepared to say goodbye to any leaves that get coated.

– Low-Quality Soil

Dropping leaves could happen due to the poor soil mix. If your soil mix has been sitting in the pot for ages and is super compacted, it’s going to mess with the drainage. And when drainage is bad, you’re at risk of both overwatering and root rot.

If your soil mix is too depleted of nutrients, your jade is going to struggle to grow and thrive. The poor quality or the false quality of soil would weaken the roots In the long run, you would see that it is holding on to a great deal of water content, and no longer able to thrive, so it droops the leaves.

– Aging

If you’ve been raising a jade plant for a few years now, you would have noticed a few leaves fall off now and then. But don’t worry – this is normal! As your plant leaves grow in the upper sections, the leaves at the bottom will start to drop because it is a part of the natural circle of life.

Sudden increases in leaf drop could be a sign of a problem. However, if you’re only seeing one or two leaves drop per month, it’s likely only a part of your plant’s growth pattern. While it’s impossible to avoid this kind of leaf loss completely, leaves lost in this manner shouldn’t turn bright yellow or dry up entirely before falling off.

As your Jade Plant sheds its leaves, it will start to develop a cool, tree-like look with a bare trunk and lots of lush foliage at the top, and there will be a weakening as the plant grows.

What Are Easy Solutions to Leaf Drop on Jade Plants

Easy solutions to leaf drops on jade plants are improving the watering regime of the plant, and giving it the right lighting requirements. In addition, you must try to fight the diseases it faces and ensure to fertilize it properly.

If natural leaf sheds are the only thing you’d want to see with your jade plant, there are a few tips and tricks to help ensure your plant has healthy growth. Always approach your plants with caution, sterilized tools, and gloves. And remember — less meddling is usually more.

– Improving Your Watering Regime

Use water trays and place them beneath the plant pot. Resist the urge to water your plant until the soil and tray have had a chance to dry out. If the leaves are still looking sad after a while, it may even be the time to repot your jade plant.

Succulent plants like jades need special soil to thrive. Get your hands on some top-notch substrate specifically made for cacti and succulents. You can easily find them at a nursery or online.

So note that, as a general rule of thumb, only water jade when the soil is dry about two inches below the surface. Make sure to plant crassulas in containers with drainage holes at the bottom. This is what will allow excess water to escape and prevent your plant from getting waterlogged.

– Considering Light

If you notice a lack of light around the jade plant, it’s time to give it a new home. If you have a spot near a sunny south-facing window, that’s the perfect one to move your plant to. The bright light will nourish your jade plant and help it regain its former glory.

A west-facing window will also work wonders — the morning sunlight will give it the boost it needs to perk up. On the other hand, if natural light is just not an option, don’t give up hope. Artificial lights are your plant’s way of surviving, thriving, and being healthy with their beautiful leaves.

– Fighting Diseases

If your poor jade plant has a bacterial infection, then you should remove your Crassula from its pot. Remember, it’s in a weakened state, so handle it with care. Gently shake off any loose soil and get ready to do some root surgery.

Don’t panic if some of the roots fall off, because they may be infected, and this needs to go. Use a sterilized pair of scissors to snip away any diseased roots. Now is the time to give your remaining plant roots a good spray with a fungicide to stop the infection it has from spreading any further. When repotting, make sure to use a clean pot and fresh, healthy soil to give it the best chance at a full recovery.

– Mind the Fertilization

When it comes to crassulas, store-bought fertilizers won’t work. Together with this, if you do wish to provide them with some food, though, there are a few household items that will give them a boost to thrive.

We’ve got coffee grounds, an ever-present household drink that can provide some much-needed nutrients to the soil. Green tea leaves are another great option too. If you have some eggshells lying around, you can crush them up and sprinkle them on the soil for a calcium boost. Even banana peels can be turned into plant food – mash them up and bury them in the soil.

Conclusion

These symptoms and signs can be caused by a variety of things, so let’s remind ourselves:

• Jade plants won’t like being water-saturated, nor will they appreciate being too dry or overly fed.
• Jade plants are pretty sensitive, and when they don’t receive the care they need, they will drop some leaves to get some attention.
• Jade plants drop leaves easily, so don’t assume that you’re dealing with those deadly diseases. Nevertheless, you can do plenty of things to keep them happy.
• With jade, less is more; however, you can improve your watering regime, consider giving them more light, and stave off with fertilization.

By giving your jade plants the love and attention they need, they will keep growing into wonderful specimens.