Jade plants tend to break easily, especially when the roots and stems get more succulent or weak. As I have had this experience of fixing my broken jade plant, I’ve put down various causes of the breaking and the solutions for fixing a broken jade stem.
The most common reason for broken jade plant trunks is stem rot. Overwatered jade plant is more vulnerable to stem rot disease. Besides, excess nitrogen application encourages rapid vegetative growth without proper development of the cells, consequently the stem breaks down easily.
Besides the most obvious reasons, I have researched and listed down some of the potential causes that may cause this issue.
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Causes of the jade plant stem breaking
Stem Rot
The stem rot of the jade plant comes from the root rot extending to the stem. The rot is caused by the fungus Rhizoctonia or Furasium, which thrives well in damp conditions, resulting from overwatering or poor drainage.
The fungus attacks the jade plant’s root, causing the roots to decay. After the roots decay, the absorption of water and nutrients is restricted to the plant.
Additionally, if the rot extends to the stem, especially at the plant base, the other body parts don’t receive any nutrients. Lack of nutrients and moisture makes the plant wilt and collapse off.
Vegetative Growth
Due to higher amounts of nitrogen, the jade plants may seem to grow very faster than normal, making the stem not develop fully.
Thus the stem becomes fragile and gets vulnerable to breaking off. The plant may break off when the large and heavy leaves outweigh the stem. Therefore it would be important to prune the plant once you notice a lot of vegetative growth.
Lack of Sunlight
It’s more likely that jade plants receiving adequate lighting will generally grow healthy and strong, as light is one of the driving forces of the process plants use to make food.
When plants make their food, it supports their development and growth. However, insufficient lighting means that the photosynthesis process won’t take place effectively.
This situation may lead to the plants getting emaciated and later breaking off. Alternatively, the stems elongate to any light source around where it is and this leads to a weak stem which may eventually break off.
Lack of Nutrition
For the jade plants to grow strong and healthy, they need sufficient nutrients. The jade plant requires potassium and nitrogen to make them grow strong.
However, if the plant receives a lower quantity or lacks nutrients generally, the plant will grow weak and thin.
After some time, the plant’s part, including branches and stem, wilts, causing them to collapse. Therefore, you need to provide the plant with sufficient phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium fertilizers.
Lack of Water
The jade plant needs water to grow strong, as water makes the stem and other parts of the plant more turgid. However, when the plant lacks water, the stem loses turgidity and later may start to wilt.
To prevent wilting of the plant, you need to provide the plant with sufficient water and avoid overwatering as it may result in stem rot.
Physical Contacts
Mishandling the jade plant either from the children or pet’s disturbances on the plant may cause its breaking.
In addition, you can be having the daily maintenance routine on the plant, such as weeding and break the plants unknowingly.
Thus, it’s good to be very cautious when handling the plant and keep the children away from the plant.
Here’s an article on fixing tipped-over houseplants you might find useful.
How do You Root a Broken Jade Plant?
The fastest way of propagating a jade plant is usually through stem cuttings. Thus, it’ll be very easy to root a broken jade plant. The following are the simple steps you need to follow to root a broken jade plant:
- From the broken stem, pick the healthiest part of the stem. You can get the healthy part by cutting and separating it from the broken part. Ensure you use a clean cutting tool to avoid any infection or damage to the part while cutting.
- You need to retain a sizeable part of the healthy stem. It would be good if you retained a healthy stem of size 1-3 inches. This space is necessary for allowing more root development while the plant is growing.
- The broken stem may have some leaves on it. It’s essential to remove some of the leaves on the healthy stem you’ve got from the broken plant. Removing the leaves will create more space for leaves joints as they grow. The more leaf joints will provide a lot of parts where the roots will grow from.
- After cutting the healthy part of the stem from the broken plant, you need to let it be calculus. It’ll be important for the bottom part of the stem to calculus. The process may take approximately two to three days. During this time, put the stem cutting on a clean paper towel.
- During this time, don’t water the stem cutting to allow the cutting’s lower end to calculus. After the cutting has callused, you can then transfer it into a succulent soil mix in the planting pot. You need to mix the soil with some manure and moisture to support the faster growth of the cutting.
How do You Fix a Broken Jade Plant Stem
A broken jade plant stem can be so disheartening to the owner. However, we have various ways of fixing the stem of the broken jade plant stem. The possible ways of how to fix a broken jade plant and heal it includes:
Using A Drinking Straw
This method is the easiest method of fixing a broken stem of the jade plant stem. It would help if you had a drinking straw, clean free from any contaminators that can contaminate the plant’s stem.
While holding the straw up the broken stem, put marks to indicate the straw’s length you’ll need. Using a pair of scissors, cut the straw according to the length up to the marks you had made.
Afterward, you can split the straw lengthwise using a paring knife. Then carefully, you’ll fit the straws around the damaged stem. Then to make it attach itself well, you can wrap it using plant tape.
However, you might use another type of tape if you don’t have the plant tape. To ensure effective healing, it’s good to use fabric or twist ties. Continue watering the plant while making a close observation on it to see the healing progress.
Using A Tape
Using tape to fix a broken jade plant is the most common and effective way most people use it. When using tape to fix a broken jade plant, you’re required to follow the following procedures:
- Assess the extent of damage on the stem, and then prepare your tape according to the size. For larger plants, you need larger tapes, while for the smaller plants, you’ll need less tape. However, the approximate size of the tape should be 10cm.
- You then need to attach the broken part of the plant to the main plant. When attaching the parts, it’s good to ensure you’ve done it tightly for faster healing.
- Wrap the parts of the plant around using tape. When wrapping, you need to ensure you cover all the broken parts and the main plant.
- Ensure to make the stem and the base tight while mending the plant. Making the damaged part and main plant parts tightly together will fasten the recovery process of the jade plant.
- Once you have correctly placed the tape around the plant and the damaged plant, you need to leave it for around two weeks up to a month. During this period, you need to be checking the plant regularly to monitor its healing process.