When to water a Cork Jade after a repot and defoliation.

[Bonsai Buddy]

Hi all! I just repotted my cork bark jade for the first time today. I had grown it indoors for a good while but decided to transfer it outside about a week and a half ago. To my astonishment after two days the poor thing looked terrible and had dropped a bunch of petals. Some looked kinda burnt... I guess it was kind of an adaptation shock because now it’s growing new petals that seem to handle the sun. So today I repotted, repositioned and pulled the rest of the sad looking petals off. So my question is when should I water my little cork jade? I let it dry out before this. The main reason I ask is because it no longer has a bunch of petals to draw water from. I did not cut any root because I put it into a larger pot. I’ve heard you should feed heavily after defoliation. So any help would be greatly appreciated as this is my only jade and it’s very special to me. It is currently in shade under an awning. Thanks in advance.

 

[Bnana]

Petals? Don't you mean leaves?

 

[Bonsai Buddy]

@Bnana Sorry yes I do mean the leaves or foliage of the jade plant.

 

[thams]

I've heard that you shouldn't water for about a week after repotting to give any roots you might have torn a chance to callus over. I usually do this for mine and I've never had any issues.

 

[Bonsai Buddy]

Hi @thams Thank you so much for the helpful reply! I'll have to mark on my calendar to water her in a week. By the way thams do you keep your jades in the shade after you repot yours for that week or is it better as long as it's not going to rain to keep them in the sun? Please let me know, thanks.

 

[thams]

Hi @thams Thank you so much for the helpful reply! I'll have to mark on my calendar to water her in a week. By the way thams do you keep your jades in the shade after you repot yours for that week or is it better as long as it's not going to rain to keep them in the sun? Please let me know, thanks.

As long as they're not in scorching sun, they should be ok. I don't worry about the heat too much. Just wait until they're pushing leaves or actively growing some, or they start to prune up a little and then water very thoroughly.

 

[thams]

I forgot to ask, is the soil free draining? If so, there's less of a worry of root rot.

 

[Bonsai Buddy]

@thams Yes the soil does drain quickly. It's lava rock, pumice, calcined clay and a bit of pine bark. Thanks for all the help this morning thams, I really appreciate it.

 

[thams]

@thams Yes the soil does drain quickly. It's lava rock, pumice, calcined clay and a bit of pine bark. Thanks for all the help this morning thams, I really appreciate it.

Cool, you should be totally fine. As long as you weren't too rough with the roots during repot, then you should be totally fine to water after a little time. I just up-potted all of mine and they're all appreciating the room to stretch out.

 

[Bonsai Buddy]

Thanks @thams Yeah I was very easy on the roots. No cutting, just had to kind of reposition them as I repositioned the tree itself. It went from a bit of a cascade style to more of an upright. Thanks again for the help, I hope all your jades keep doing well in their bigger pots.

 

[AJL]

Could you post some photos please?