How To Make Your Long And Leggy Jade Plant Look Full & Healthy

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If you're a fan of fleshy succulents, you might have purchased a jade plant (Crassula ovata) as a gorgeous pot of greenery for your space. When you first brought it home, it no doubt looked full and healthy. But after some time, the stems may have become elongated with the leaves spaced out too far from each other. When your jade plant becomes leggy like this, there's an easy fix — you'll need to increase the succulent's sun exposure.

These succulent houseplants have fleshy, egg-shaped leaves that look beautiful when grown compactly. Without enough light, though, the stems of the houseplant will reach towards the window, giving the indoor plant a stretched-out look, rather than a healthy, full appearance. But even though the stems are less attractive when they grow too long, there's no need to worry, since legginess is one of the common problems with indoor jade plants that you can spot and treat easily.

To counteract or prevent legginess, the best place for a jade plant in your home is a location where it will receive at least four hours a day of direct sun, or at least 12 hours a day of bright, indirect light. A south-facing window may be a good spot to provide this luminosity and keep your succulent's stems from getting too long. If you don't have a bright, sunny window in your home, an alternative approach to keeping your houseplant healthy is to use an artificial light source, such as the LBW Full Spectrum Desk Grow Light.

However, if your houseplant is currently looking a bit stretched out and in need of greater light, make sure to move it to more intense sun gradually, or the leaves may get scorched. As you increase the Crassula's luminosity, don't be surprised if you see some harmless, red edges developing on the succulent's leaves. 

While adjusting sun exposure will help new growth become fuller, it won't change the way the current stems appear. To get your houseplant looking more compact again, you'll need to use a pair of snips. You can prune your jade plants to keep them happy, healthy, and more compact by trimming individual stems up to one-third of the way back, cutting right above a leaf, which will cause the indoor plant to branch and become fuller and bushier.