Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Jade Plant Experiment

Jade Plants - Team M

Jade Plants - Numbered



I chose the plants for my personal experiment. The numbered ones are just strictly water. The ones with M are the ones that'll get the funky mixture from the recipe I listed earlier.


I really thought I had several Gollum clippings but I could only find the one which I decided to use in Team M.






Plant NameNumberedTeam M
1. (Dwarf?) Jade Plant 8.5" 7"
2. Hummel Sunset 8.5" 6"
3. Gollum Jade Plant   8"
4. Hobbit Jade Plant 7" 5.5"


I thought it'd be interesting to have the taller plants to have just water and see if the shorter plants in Team M would grow faster and end up being taller.


March 1st is when I plan to water them and then just let my personal experiment start.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Using Epsom Salt on Jade Plants

Over a week ago, I asked on a forum to see if anyone had ever used epsom salt on succulents. My mother's roses are doing very badly so I did a lot of looking around online for tips such as using bananas and coffeegrounds. I stumbled across someone suggesting epsom salt and how it was a miracle.

I looked around for information on epsom salt and with people giving raves about epsom salt, I wanted to know if anyone ever used it on succulents. I asked on a forum but it was kinda interesting. People had great results on other plants but either heard good or bad things about it from others.

Not only that but one member provided a recipe that involved epsom salt. The recipe goes like this:

1 12 oz. beer
1 cup epsom salt
1/2 cup ammonia
2 cups water
1/2 cup molasses

You mix it together and store in a container of some sort. This is the fertilizer. You use 1 teaspoon per gallon of water.

I've decided I'm going to group apart some clippings. A few will get water as it usually does and a few will get this mixture to see if there's any big improvement. The worst is that a few plants could die and the best is that the jade plants respond really well. I have a couple clippings that I'm more than willing to test it on. None of my big jade plants will be subject to it.

Sad thing is, most of my clippings are from this dwarf jade variety. I may use one from the gollum jade to see how big it can actually grow if it reacts well.

Friday, February 9, 2007

Variegated Jade


Variegated Jade
Originally uploaded by dragonslumber.
The variegated jade plant that I purchased from ebay arrived in the mail with a small dried rootball but I'm hoping it's enough for the plant to establish itself. I'd really like for this one to survive and not fall apart like the other did. Maybe I'm just being slightly paranoid about the variegated jade plant even though all the other types of jades I currently have have grown well.