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Why Is My Jade Plant Turning Red? – It May Be One Of These 4 Things

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Jade Plants are best known for their deep, vibrant green shade as well as their association with prosperity and luck in many cultures around the world.

So if yours have started changing their shade, it makes total sense you’ve been left wondering, “Why is my jade plant turning red?” or even whether or not its an unlucky and bad sign?

Well, to put it simply, red pigmentation or leaves on a jade plant can be caused by one or more several factors, such as genetics, lack of sufficient nutrition, under watering, high-temperature levels, and excess sunlight. We’ll expound on all these issues in the next section of the post.

The good news, though, is that fixing your jade plant and getting it back to its original, vibrant color isn’t a hassle. Basically, all you’re required to do is regulate the jade plant’s growing conditions and take them back to being optimum.

Without further ado, let’s jump into this.

Why Is My Jade Plant Turning Red 1
My jade plant is turning red. What should I do? – via Reddit

Why Is My Jade Plant Turning Red?

Extreme Temperature Changes

The Jade Plant has a sort of Goldilocks attitude regarding temperatures. Unlike most houseplants that tend to lean on one side, the jade plant doesn’t like getting subjected to intense heat, and it isn’t cold tolerant either. This leaves you with the excruciating task of ensuring that the temperature levels are “just right.”

If you’ve placed your jade plant inside your house, it should be okay since controlling the temperature in there shouldn’t be a hassle. If the jade plant is in your home but has still turned red, possibly due to extreme temperature changes, you’ll need to inspect where you’ve placed it inside your home.

Did you place it next to a draft window over winter? Or perhaps you placed it next to a heating vent? Seemingly minor temperature adjustments like these may just be the proper drastic levels that jade plants require to start turning red.

Insufficient Nutrients In The Soil

Of course, jade plants are one of the easiest plants to take care of as they do not even need fertile soil to exist. That said, this doesn’t mean that the plants do not need adequately fertilized and well-amended soil in order to truly thrive and maintain the deep, vibrant green shades. The truth is they do.

If you’ve planted your jade plants in a space that probably lacks the proper nutrients, it could be why your plant is turning red. Note that the ideal soil conditions required for jade plants to thrive are slightly acidic soils (similar to what cactus and succulents need.)

You must also ensure that the containers you have placed your jade plants in are well-drained as they do not like staying in moist soil.

This brings me to my next point.

Why Is My Jade Plant Turning Red 2
I need help. Jade plant shriveling, turning red? – via Reddit

Under Watering

90 percent of the cases I’ve come across of jade plants turning red were caused by underwatering. Like leaves on trees and plants behave during autumn, the reddening of a jade plant is simply an indication that the plant’s growing conditions aren’t ideal anymore, and it has started undergoing a chemical change as a result.

With that in mind, if you suspect that your jade is probably turning red due to underwatering, you still need to be careful not to give in to your urge of overcorrecting the situation by simply feeding it all the water it can take.

Overwatering your jade plant can just be (if not more) as harmful as underwatering since these plants are highly susceptible to root rots and infestations caused by moist soil around roots.

This implies that while underwatering will give your plants a tinge of red in their leaves, overwatering will leave you with an utterly dead jade plant over the long run.

As such, after a period of under watering, you’re advised to simply go back to the watering schedule you had before.

For example. If you watered your plant once a week but accidentally went three weeks without giving it water, do not try making up for the two weeks you mixed. Simply give it the regular portion you’d have given it had you not skipped any week.

Another point worth noting, your jade plant could still exhibit signs of “under watering” even though you’ve never skipped a session and have been giving it the appropriate amount. If that happens, chances are you planted your jade plants in sandy soil that’s draining the water too fast.

See? creating the optimum growing conditions for your jade plants requires a delicate balance.

Increased Sunlight Exposure

Jade plants are the biggest sun lovers. If you left them out in the open, chances are they’d still survive beyond your wildest imagination.

That said, this does not imply that you should stick your jade plants under the hot summer sun throughout the day. Especially not when you want them to maintain the vibrant, green shade.

The magic word to keep in mind when it comes to the proper sunlight exposure levels your jade plants require is “indirect sunlight.” If you can find a spot with bright, indirect light on your compound, you can rest assured your jade plants will be happy there.

With that in mind, jade plants tend to redden under harsh and intense sunlight because they’ve evolved to do so. It is a survival mechanism that allows them to survive in their wild days.

Basically, the reddening will enable them to suspend some of their plant functions and focus on preserving nutrients. That explains why these plants are incredibly suited to survive in conditions that’d kill most other houseplants.

To conclude, note that exposure to intense sunlight is the most common cause for reddening in jade plants. So, if you notice yours turning red, the first thing I suggest inspecting is their lighting conditions and ensuring they’re optimum.

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Final Thoughts

Keeping your jade plant green is all about awarding it the optimal conditions it requires to grow and develop with minimum stress. Simply put, exposing the plant to anything slightly above or below its optimum growing requirements will cause it to start turning red.