Hi everyone. I'm new here. I love my houseplants and am always looking for some new ones. I have a jade plant that is about 5 years old. The problem with it is that it has a main stem, which is only about 1/2 inch thick, it's over a foot long, and then at the top it has 3 branches that have branched out. I usually put it outside during the summer and that is when it started to grow the branches (over the last 2 years) However, with this years growth, it can no longer stand by itself--I need to fasten it to a pole to keep it upright. What can I do about this? I'd like to have a bushy jade plant not this long leggy thing that can't stand on its own!! Any help would be greatly appreciated! Pauline
I had this problem and this is what I did. I used poles to hold the stem upright and straight and then I simply stopped watering it until it completely dried up and was almost too dry. This caused the trunk to get really big and thick and it is now solid as a rock and close to 2 inches in diameter at the base. I also eventually cut off the longer new sprouts so that it could stand easier. It is so thick now though I could probably let all the branches grow that can get a foot hold and it would stand on it's own without a problem. Possibly try adding some plant spikes to the soil. I have done this with all of my jade plants and they thrive beyond belief. I use them with all of my houseplants now and have nothing but good results.
You could support it, but what I do is cut it hard back. It looks frightening, but mine had all lovely new shoots within a couple of weeks. I started by just taking back the top heavy areas, but once I could see it was happy and was going to carry on growing, I got rather scissor happy and cut it quite hard. It is now a shorter, but much stockier plant, growing quickly and I reakon within 6 months it will be almost as big as it was before it's haircut, but chunkier and much more full of leaves and branches.
