People love plants. Many people around the globe love greenery over anything, and they like their room or balcony to be filled with plants or trees. The Jade plant is such a plant that is not only beneficial but also symbolizes wealth.
It can be used in medical treatment and also helps you to keep insects away from your home. Jade plants, also known as crassula argentea, are deeply rooted green succulent plants first found in South Africa.
They are very popularly cultivated and grown in North America and Europe, mostly used as a house or container plant.
The jade plants usually prefer daytime temperatures like about 65 to 75 degrees.
And in the nighttime, not more than 55 degrees. This allows them to grow outdoors even in climates like USDA (USDA climate zones 10 and 11).
An important report of University of Florida (IFAS EXTENSION)) states that flowers that bloom on jade plants look like star-shaped flowers which are either pink or white.
But jade plants need some care, which includes fertilization, proper sunlight, and sometimes proper watering, which is very important for the long life of jade plants (they live more than 65 years if they are properly treated).
They are called succulents because their leaves are filled with water, but they are plants, and they need to be watered a few times.
The best time to plant and water them is during summer and spring to grow steadily during these two seasons. Even in frost areas, these plants can be grown with no barriers at all.
Does The Jade Plant Need Fertilizers?
Jade plants can only survive with regular watering and light fertilization from time to time. It requires full sun and moist soil for its proper and steady growth. Jade plants need fertilizers to grow healthy and not sloppy.
They should be fertilized once every two weeks during their period of active growth.
Too much fertilizer is not at all good for plants like jade. Jades require fertilization at least once every 3 to 4 months.
Their busy period usually falls during the summer months. It would help if you kept in mind that they are slow-growing plants. During the winter months, they require very few fertilizers and water (before flowering).
Of course, they need bright sunlight for at least 3-4 hours a day, and as they are very slow-growing plants, they require very few fertilizers (very budget-friendly indeed).
For proper use of balanced, water-soluble fertilizer is a must.
The soil must never be fertilized if dried. It can cause great harm to the plant; especially it damages the roots. Only with proper care and fertilization, a jade plant can transform into a jade tree one day.
Also read:
Is Fertilizer Important For Your Jade Plant?
Well, it’s a known fact that fertilizing plants continuously plays an important role in growing a healthy plant and increasing yields. Fertilizers are manufactured in many different formulas, called an NPK ratio. It is mentioned on the packaging, ensuring you that it is a balanced plant fertilizer for your jade plant. Balanced fertilizers can be described as fertilizers with equal amounts of micronutrients.
Why Do You Need Fertilizers For Your Jade Plants?
Fertilizing your jade plant is very important for the long and healthy life of your jade plant’s life cycle. If they are not fertilized, they will turn up dying within a few years; they will surely need vital nutrients to develop their growth. If they are not fertilized, they might have flat leaves, poor stems, poor colors, and very little vigor.
The potted jade plants do not have much exposure to soil. And if the earth loses all the nourishment, the plant might die after a few months because its root cannot reach more.
But yes, jade plants can survive without fertilizers but will not grow in full potential.
Also read:
What Kind Of Fertilizer Is Best For Jade Plants?
As already stated, jade plants can only survive with scheduled watering, proper fertilizing, and proper sunlight.
Too much of anything (sunlight, fertilizer, water) can lead to weak stems, leaves, less color, no flowers, etc. jade plants must be fertilized every two weeks, especially during their active period (two to three months and sometimes it might extend to five months).
Vigorous growth usually occurs in the summer months (it is already mentioned that they are slow-growing plants).
Plants need sunlight throughout the day, if they don’t receive sunlight, there must be some fertilizer treatment, or your plant can be sloppy and weak.
During the winter months, they require fewer fertilizers and water, which is just before flowering. Plants must be fertilized if they don’t receive proper sunlight or proper watering.
Something that must be noted about the soil is that it must be properly potted; this helps them obtain the nutrients and minerals they need, which will help the ground hold the nutrients for more than three to four months.
The soil must contain nutrients like nitrogen, especially for plants like cacti and succulents.
To have the perfect ground for cacti and succulents mixing two parts of sphagnum, peat moss, one part of coarse sand, and one-part coarse perlite plus rich with organic matter for your jade plant.
Liquid fertilizers, compared to others, are the easiest to apply on jade plants; there are special formulas made for jade plant fertilizers, before application of the fertilizers, the soil is to be watered properly; hence in the fertilizers, the most ratio is occupied by the water, it is very dangerous to apply fertilizers in dry soil because it can not only damage the roots of the plants but can permanently damage the stem of the plants.
How Much Fertilizer Does Jade Plant Need?
As already mentioned, the ground needs to have a certain amount of nitrogen to survive and be healthy; when the jade plant starts dropping its leaves, it indicates two things, either it is not receiving sunlight properly, or it requires a bit of nitrogen in its soil.
Sometimes, high nitrogen or soluble plant food that includes some ten to 20 formulas can help grow good jade plants. Sometimes proper fertilization will grow African violets. It’s proven that organic fertilizers are much better than the chemical ones out there.
Some examples of organic fertilizers are fish emulsion; they provide proper nitrogen for jades to grow properly.
Usually, people have to be observant during its active growth; during that time, fertilization must be increased, and it should not be overfed.
It is recommended to read the instructions on the package label before using it; the fertilizer must be diluted by mixing half fertilizer and half water.
If fertilizers are used in the summer months, then proper growth can happen. Active growth depends on and varies from plant to plant.
Normally many farmers refuse to fertilize their plants, especially from November to March, so soft leggy stems can be avoided.
It is recommended not to fertilize their jade plant before four months of repotting.
House plants usually do not need much attention, but they do need good and porous soil.
Normally homemade fertilizers are always better to use than any other manufactured fertilizers. It is cheap and much more efficient than artificial ones.
Normally, you will have all the ingredients in your own house plus you won’t have to go to the store every day. As already mentioned, they need light fertilization, so homemade fertilizers are the best ones for them.
Ways To Fertilize Jade Plants
1. Epsom Salt
Epsom salt water once a month is very important; here is what is essential for making fertilizer with Epsom salt, it will require one teaspoon of baking soda, one tablespoon of Epsom salt, one teaspoon of salt, one gallon of water, and half of the teaspoon ammonia, mixing all these will be essential for any jade plant.
2. Eggshells
One of the easy methods to fertilize your jade plants, using leftover eggshells. Firstly eggshells are to be baked. After baking them, they are to be placed in a jar of water.
After keeping it for more than a month and letting it sit for more months, the pot must have some holes for air circulation for bacterial reaction. Normally it is supposed to be mixed with one gallon of water which is perfect for jade plants.
3. Fish Tank Water
If you have an aquarium with natural nutrients in it and then when you change your water, you can easily water the plants with them; it has natural ingredients; hence it’s a win-win situation.
4. Green Tea
Normally many people have changed their diets and morning tea from milk tea or coffee to green tea because it is healthy.
It increases your body’s metabolism; hence, if you are one of them, then it might be extremely beneficial for you because it has some natural tree substances that can act as nutrients and therefore can be used as a nutrient.
Just make sure before using it to add a gallon of water to it. After that, it can be used as a very good fertilizer.
5. Bonus Tips
Suppose you want to be a bit experimental with your jade plant.
In that case, you can add two to three eggshells from eggs, add some coffee, and at least two teaspoons for Epsom salt and ammonia mix then if it’s stirred properly with a big spoon, it will give a perfect result, this can be sprayed around your plant it will help them grow and stay fresh all the time.
When Should I Fertilize My Jade Plant?
Jades require fertilization at least once every 3 to 4 months. Their active period usually falls during the summer months. It would help if you kept in mind that they are slow-growing plants; during the winter months, they require very few fertilizers and water (before flowering). Of course, they need bright sunlight for at least 3-4 hours a day, and as they are very slow-growing plants, they require very few fertilizers.
The jade plants usually prefer daytime temperatures like about 65 to 75 degrees. To have the perfect soil for cacti and succulents mixing two parts of sphagnum, peat moss, one part of coarse sand, and one-part coarse perlite plus rich with organic matter for your jade plant.
Liquid fertilizers, compared to others, are the easiest to apply on jade plants.
There are special formulas made for jade plant fertilizers; before using the fertilizers, the soil must be watered properly.
Hence, the most ratio is occupied by the water in the fertilizers. It is very dangerous to apply fertilizers in dry soil because it can damage the roots of the plants and permanently damage the stem of the plants.
If the ground loses nourishment, the plant might die after a few months because its roots cannot reach more.
But yes, jade plants can survive without fertilizers but will not grow in full potential. Normally many farmers refuse to fertilize their plants, especially from November to March, so that soft leggy stems can be avoided.
Even if you are a professional gardener or just a normal beginner farmer, you have to be very cautious when it comes to plants because a single mistake can make your plant die, and you won’t be able to know.
We recommend you read the instructions and everything behind the label of the fertilizer packages you buy and do thorough research before buying the seeds from a particular place.
Many people scam and give you dead roots, mostly scams happen in online e-commerce stores.
Hence beware before you buy seeds from unknown sites. Using water-soluble fertilizer can help you a lot in having a healthy plant.
Final Words
A few important things to keep in mind is watering your plants regularly can be harmful to the plants sometimes, do check the top layer of the soil, if it’s dry only then water your plant or else do not water your plants, it can make them sloppy and weak and can reduce their lifespan, the plants are very simple compared to pets they need some care.
With a little bit of TLC and love, one day, your plant might transform into a beautiful tree.