Where to Keep a Jade Plant, and Why It Drops Leaves When You Move It

The brightest window you own is the right one

Crassula is a full sun plant in the wild, and almost every problem people bring to it indoors starts with too little light rather than too much. In good light the stems thicken, the internodes stay short, and the leaf edges take on a red rim. In poor light the stems stretch, the leaves come thin and widely spaced, and the whole plant leans toward the glass.

Judge the position by the new growth, not by whether the plant is alive. If the gap between one pair of leaves and the next is longer than the leaves themselves, the plant is telling you it is short of light.

Why moving it makes leaves fall off

The single most common complaint about a jade plant is that it shed a pile of leaves within a week or two of being moved, repotted, or brought home. This is a light adjustment, not a disease. The plant built those leaves for one light level, and when the level drops sharply it cannot afford to keep them, so it withdraws what it can and lets them go. The leaves that fall are usually plump and healthy looking, and they come away from the stem cleanly with a light touch.

1. Move it in two or three stages Never take a plant from a sunny window straight to the back of a room, or from outdoors straight indoors. Put it halfway for a week, then to its final spot. The same applies in reverse when you take it outside in spring.
2. Leave it alone once it has arrived Shuffling a jade plant between rooms restarts the adjustment every time. Choose the position, accept the first round of leaf drop, and do not move it again for a season.
3. Cut the water right back while it adjusts A plant that has just lost leaves is using far less water than it was. Watering on the old schedule during that fortnight is how leaf drop turns into stem rot.
4. Judge recovery by the tips Within three to five weeks you should see small new leaf pairs at the shoot tips. Once those appear the adjustment is over, whatever the plant looks like lower down.

Leaves that fall plump and clean mean a light change or a shock. Leaves that go soft, translucent or yellow before falling, with damp compost, mean overwatering instead. The difference is in the leaf you pick up off the floor.

Getting it through winter

Crassula is not frost hardy but it takes far more cold than most people give it, provided it is dry. Cold and wet compost together is what kills it. Kept nearly dry, a jade plant is comfortable in an unheated bright room that stays above 41F (5C), and a cool dry winter is exactly what sets the flower buds on an older plant.

Summer outdoors, done properly

A summer outside does more for a jade plant than anything else you can do. Stems thicken, leaves shorten, and the red edges come out. The two things that go wrong are sunburn in the first fortnight and rain sitting in the pot.

1. Start in full shade on a dull day Indoor grown leaves scorch in a single afternoon of direct sun. Put the plant out in full shade on an overcast day once nights hold above 50F (10C), and leave it there a week.
2. Add sun an hour at a time Move it to morning sun only for the second week, then to a spot with four to six hours. Bleached white or brown patches mean you went too fast, and those marks never fade.
3. Keep the rain off Stand it under an overhang or eaves. Days of rain on a pot that also gets no sun is the fastest route to root rot. Never leave a saucer under an outdoor pot.
4. Bring it in before the first cold night Once nights start dropping toward 50F (10C), bring it back in over two stages. Check the leaf axils and the underside of the pot for mealybugs first.

Reading the position from the plant

Almost every symptom on a jade plant traces back to light, cold or water, and the plant shows each one differently. Note in your records where the plant stood each season and what the new growth looked like. After two years you will know which window in your own home actually grows it, which is worth more than any general rule.