Here’s how to prune a jade plant that’s gotten overgrown or scraggly.
Otherwise, your plant can get top-heavy, growing leggy branches that bend and sometimes break.
Ideally, you want a jade that is as tall as it is wide.
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Prune jade plants once a year to prevent them from being top-heavy and to maintain their shape.
Jade plants are in their peak growing season in warm weather and generate new growth quickly.
These might be diseased, and theyre ugly.
Credit: Marty Baldwin
As you prune, examine the plant forsigns of insects or fungithat could be causing the discolored leaves.
Prune off any dead, dried branches where they meet the trunk.
Dont cut into the trunk of the jade, as this could cause scarring or disease.
Prune them off so the main trunk of the plant will grow stronger.
It will grow back bushier and stronger.
Prune leggy branches that are thinner and longer than other branches.
Theyre not as healthy as the others and are sapping strength from the rest of the jade plant.
The weak branches must go so the jade plant can grow stronger ones.
Save any healthy jade stems pruned off the plant and use them topropagate a new plant.
Let the cuttings end callus, and thenpoke it into a rooting medium.
Look at pruning as a way of making new plants.
This encourages the jade plant to grow out instead of up.
Removing too much of the plant can shock it and stunt its growth.
Watch for New Growth
after you snag pruned the plant, water it.
To provide nutrients for new growth, give it a shot ofliquid plant fertilizerdiluted to 14 strength.
