Hi guys!
New member, brought here by a google that lets me know when someone says "Portulacaria"
. I have about 100 of em right now so obviously they're my favorite, I live on in the USA in Florida and they love it here.
Was reading the threads, lots of great advice! I'm fortuante to live about 40 minutes from Jim Smith who is considered a master of P. afra so I have seen lots of them LOL. Have a few hints to share
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If you're going to wire, let the plant dry down until the leaves juuuuuuust start to wrinkle to reduce the number of branches snapping. When they're well watered they are very turgid and break way too easily to wire. Then you can wire them in circles if you want (did it once as an experiment).
When rooting, on the huge ones yes let em dry over a few days. I don't bother on anything the size of a finger or smaller, but I also don't water until I see new growth or until the newest leaves are starting to wrinkle (or until mother nature gives em a drink on her own). I've not taken cuttings as big as what you guy are doing because I've not found any interesting trunks that size-they're usually telephone poles. I start em out smaller so I can bend them into something interesting, bending something an inch thick is frustrating.
Don't be afraid to whack back. Mine are usually sticks and stumps when I'm done on their first major overhaul. If you take one to Jim Smith, you will guaranteed have zero leaves and probably not many branches after a styling....but he's right, they come back (provided you dont let them get soggy). I've learned to cut to the closest to the trunk nodes on branches.
A hint on getting "interesting"-let em dry and let them get potbound. When in the ground, they tend to grow straigth telephone poles because of plenty of room and water. When in confined pots, they don't grow quite as fast and you can control them better. When they dry down, the bark gets more interesting from the shrinking/expanding-many of mine are cracked and gnarly from drying out.
And last hint: "real" jade isn't as great of a bonsai subject as P. afra , can't tell you how many emails I get from people saying thier jade doesn't look like the jade they see on the internet...........if it were me I'd ban the use of Baby Jade forever LOL.
No rules means no mistakes 
i think that's how it goes . Seriously mate hack and chop thousands of plants and sooner or later you get it right , don't worry i still have disasters every now and again , but they get fewer and farther between .
