Repotting 30 year old jade plant. Need advice

It's been at least five years since last repotting. This is going to take 3-4 people since the plant is so big and heavy. Found a pot that's wider, but not taller. Will that work? Should I trim back the roots? Is this a good time to prune? Anything else I should know?

Welcome, mazmom. It's great to see a new face here.

I've never seen one that big, so I won't be of much help. But Wow - for a jade plant to be that big, you must be making it happy.

There may be others here who will post later, but you might also post on the Houseplants Forum here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/houseplants/all/

There's also a Cacti and Succulents Forum here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/succulents/all/

I'd love to see pictures of your plant before and after.

Kathy

Thanks from a newbie about where to post the question. Just discovered this site and am really excited to be able to get answers to questions that have been perplexing me for years. Just posted my question to the succulent group so we'll see what happens. After 30-some years I don't want to kill the plant repotting it.

Yes, there is so much here. You'll find that when you pop around you'll see people you recognize on other forums doing the same thing.

Feel free to ask questions about getting around, posting messages, etc. We've all learned from other people.

I'm interesting in hearing what the succulent people have to say about your plant, too.

Wow - please post a photo of it!!

Will do when we get back to Washington. We're snowbirds and are in Nevada till about May 5. Was going to repot it last year but couldn't find a pot in eastern WA that was big enough that would blend in with our living room, so I'm on a hunt for a 24" pot down here to bring back. Found just what I wanted at a nursery, but the bottom was a bit sketchy (already breaking apart in a few spots) so I'm still looking.

I have a small collection of houseplants (mostly cacti and succulents) that I move back and forth. The jade stays in Mazama, along with about 35 other plants, under the care of a friend.

Sounds ideal!

Welcome mazmom. I have killed every jade plant I've had, so I'm no help. But that is how to root prune. Take off an inch or so around and some off the bottom. Good luck and would love to see it.

A welcome from me, too, Mazmom.

I have grown jade plants for years and know how tough a job it is to repot them once they get big and heavy. As a matter of fact, I pretty much avoid that whole task until absolutely necessary. My perception is that they are pretty darn tough critters and just lifting out of one pot to the next and then adding soil to fill the pot should do the trick. (Maybe I have just been too lazy to do it right. The ones I still have, I keep in the greenhouse over the winter and then kick out in a protected part of the yard for the summer, moving them into more sun when appropriate. They are getting so big that moving them is more like a "drag" than a move. I hope you plan to have the pot on some kind of rollers.

I have a small Jade plant that I started from a wild one growing along a parking strip in San Francisco. I like it so much that I brought it with me when I moved to Oregon. Can they be divided if they get too large?

Judi, new ones start so very easily by just shoving the broken off piece into the dirt. I have new babies from the "leaves" that fall into the dirt of the pot of the mother plant.

That's basically what I did when I couldn't resist taking a piece of the one growing wild in SF. It taunted me everyday as I walked home from the train I took to work. So one day I gave in to temptation, snapped off a twig, and stuck it in a pot. Now it is a beautiful houseplant about 14" high. I guess when they get too big you can trim them and stick the trimmings in soil - and then try to give them away with all your extra zucchini!

I like the zuchinni idea--they get a bonus with their zucchinni gift. Around here nobody locks their car, except in zuchinni season. Otherwise when you come out of the post office or grocery store you're likely to find zuchinni in your back seat.

Well, since you haven't gotten many posts in response to your question, I'll throw in some articles I found on the web.


http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extnews/hortiscope/houseplnts/jade.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jade_plant

http://www.growingjadeplant.com/

Wow! Thanks for the web sites. Answers to questions I didn't know I had till someone else asked them.