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Ok after the help with my last plant - seeking more advice. What do I… | Anything about plants | Planta community

Goddess

Ok after the help with my last plant - seeking more advice. What do I do to this jade plant to make it into a tree? I saw a HUGE old jade tree with a trunk at least 2 feet wide and fell in love. I want one of those. What do I do?

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10 comments

  1. ABagel

    Two options: you can select the largest or straightest branch to be the tree and hack off the rest. You can try tying all branches together and hope that over time they fuse together into one.

    3 likes
    • Karzdan

      This looks like 4 separate plants. Pick one, repot and start pruning it. As it grows the trunk will thicken. Keep pruning over and over to maintain the same height as you aim for the thickness you want. Propagate the cuttings, jades propagate extremely easily.

      1 like
  2. Nikiller

    I think most of the fatty trunky jade plants are extremely old, and have been consistently pruned for years and years to get the desired growth.

    2 likes
    • Goddess

      I am in for the long haul!

      0 likes
    • Nikiller

      I believe you just have to prune it down to the same size every spring after it goes through a short dormancy over winter

      0 likes
  3. Katomarose

    I also think once you trim it you should take note of the lighting. If you keep it inside, make sure its a south or west window. If the light isn't bright enough it will stretch. You may want to consider growing it outside during summer months

    1 like
  4. ABagel

    Mine started off as a small branch and I never pruned it since I know that means I’ll have more plants. The trunk naturally started getting thicker.

    1 like
  5. Waspinator

    Split up the trunks (the right-most one or the Y shaped one are your best picks for trunk size) (you can use the other two for other bonsai projects if you want.) Give them relatively large pots so their roots have room to grow (this helps it gain size faster), and put something flat under the roots in the pot to help spread them outwards instead of down (this encourages girth and a good root to trunk taper.) If you can, coppice it about once every other year (i'm not as familiar with jade plant; for species that can do this, it's one of the fastest ways to thicken a trunk, but you'll want to check if jades can handle it.) Allow it to keep a lot of branches and grow branches past where you want them these sacrificial branches add trunk thickness, and add more near where they meet the main trunk. As long as they're adding in a spot you like, keep them. Cut them when you don't need any more trunk girth at that spot, remove them before they get so big that they'd leave an unappealing scar behind. Prune any branches you intend to keep to maintain shape and encourage back-branching. It also looks like the very tops of yours are etoliated slightly, so giving it a bit more light can help it grow.

    1 like
    • Waspinator

      Or if you want a less hands-on approach, you can keep upsizing its pot as it grows and do no pruning until it's a massive plant and then trim it back once it's huge.

      1 like
    • Goddess

      Thank you!

      1 like