Yes, the lean is very slight. Not etoliation exactly, just a look on the sunny side of living. In ground, it would be insignifcant for many, many years. In a container, however, especially those containers on the smaller side - the slight tilt is avoidable and saves some staking down the line. That's why the slight bulge on the shorter barrels doesn't get as much attention as those that grow taller. It's barely noticeable and even if never rotated will not cause any instability even if lives as long as Methuselah.

Well I only have a few cacti and several succulents! I guess you could say that the temperature range is more like 21 C to 35 C through the summer with a very few
occasions where we would see 40 C. It might feel like 40 C but I would also say "not that often". Now as for the humidity that can range from as low as 40% up to
near 100% and it pretty much stays above 70% a large part of the time.

Kaktus said:I really need to learn from you guys about this watering succulents, especially for us living in a hot climate where the temperature can reach up to 38C, summer daily range will be 25C - 38C (77F - 100F) . I understand the general rule of thumbs is "to water a lot until the water drips from the draining holes and wait until the soil dry at depth before the next water". I also read in other post that not to water much at a dry plants at hot weather as they will even stress the plants more, and will kill them eventually. Try to connect all the information but still can not get a clear picture, something still missing. Below are how I water my succulent now, including the reason why I did it, please help me to find the missing link:
A. I water the succulents at late afternoon or night, not in the morning, afraid that if the soil is soggy, at noon time when the temperature is high, the water will become too hot and will cook the cactus
B. I don't give too much water to make the soil wet for the same reason as A, I ever measure the cactus mix, knowing that it will need around 25ml to be completely wet, then I only give them around 17ml of water
C. I water the soil using modified bottle with straw, never water the plant/leaves
D. I don't spray the plant, as have experienced that water trapped on the leaves under direct sunlight ( sunny days) will create sunburn, if there were rains at night, I have to dry out the water from the cactus leaves in the morning for the same reason
E. sometimes when the I feel that the weather is hot, but not reach the water schedule, I will mist some of the plant using nano sprayer
F. Most of the time I water the plant when the soil is dry ( normally twice a week) , but for some plants that I assume need more water, every now and then
I give them additional water.

With the above watering method, so far the cactus generally ok, but I have killed almost 10 echeverias and 2 gollums, have get some good insight from the members here, but still try to dig more into this.

Would appreciate if you guys can help me with this, tx

Indonesia like my homeland, the Philippines is in the Southeast Asian region, and we do have similar very hot and high humidity environment. My friends who grow succulents there, grow them in a very porous, rocky and gritty media, that is due to the intense tropical monsoon season we have there, got to help the succulents dry out faster somehow. I do not know which part of Indonesia you are in, but nevertheless, the humidity levels will always be high since both countries are archipelagos surrounded by the sea, so that contributes even more humidity conditions around. I know right now, it is just a ridiculous moonsoon season just never ending rains, so in my mind, you should not be watering too much your plants, It can actually go without for a long time, Mother Nature will handle that for you naturally. It is different here on my side, where there is just zero rainfall and always hot temps towards noon to late afternoon. So I have to be more attentive to augment their watering needs, since we get nothing from Mother Nature during these months.

I would not recommend at all in your situation to water in the late afternoon to evening. Your sun sets at a constant time like always at around 5:30 pm, compared to here, our sun sets at 8:pm- ish..so we have much longer daylight hours. That is why we can still afford to do late afternoon watering.

As long as your containers are not too deep, you media is very porous and well draining and you are able to protect your plants from excessive rainfall especially the desert type succulents, then your plants should thrive. At times, you may be too pre occupied with temperature levels there, but do factor in humidity. Water content in your air is way higher, and desert type succulents do not like that too much either, so got to keep them drier.

If you do have excessive rainfall forecast, protect your plants in an awning that still allows good air flow, otherwise, it will continue to suffer fungal issues. Try to learn to restrain yourself from watering, especially during the monsoon season. succulents hold water well on their own.

It is a different handling when you are growing tropical succulents, these types will thrive very well on your side.

OK @tarev and @Kaktus I am just wondering which succulents that you might consider to work well with the temperatures in the 90+ F range and the high humidity that
we often get in Houston, TX or in Indonesia, or even in San Joaquin Valley CA

Please use the general chat thread, or start a new thread in the forum if you would like to discuss plant recommendations (which I think is a great idea, by the way). I would like to see if we can keep this thread on topic, since it is a sticky and it's pegged to the top of the forum.



The thread "Cactus and succulents chat" in Cactus and Succulents forum

https://garden.org/forums/view...

I am still not very clear on this watering until the water come out from the draining holes.. The purpose is to make sure there is enough water for the plant to consume? or to make sure that all media are exposed to water? If the purpose is to let the media exposed to water, then I can achieve that by using 1/3 of the water as to compare to the watering until the water come out.

As you can see in the picture, after 12 hours (or maybe less), all of the media will get their portion of water. Or do we still need to give more water during watering, as the plant will need to absorb much more water?

My goal with watering is total saturation. Not moist, not just wet, but soaking wet with no ability to contain more water.

More on the obsessive steps one can take to get there:

The thread "Sunday afternoon experiment: watering in multiple passes" in Gardening Ideas forum

One of the ingredients in my mix (25% cocofiber) can absorb 4-5 times its dry weight in water. I generally pay attention to how much water is actually needed to saturate the soil when I water, because that tells me how dry it was to start with. So then I know how much each plant is drinking, and whether my watering interval is right or not.

Interesting to read this, it means I am somehow underwater my succulents, no wonder I need to water them like any other day. Will slowly adjust the way I water them, will make it 2 pass. Too afraid of root rot.

Thank you for the post! I do not have experience with cactus, but have been gifted with 5 starts of an unknown cactus variety. The only info I have about them is that the original plants are about 150 years old and in huge containers. They went out on a porch in the summer, and bloomed extravagantly. I think they have resided in Ohio for at least a few years, maybe in the southern US before that.
I am trying to root the cuttings, and have just been dribbling a little water around the root area for the last 6 weeks. I pulled out one cutting and it has small roots on it! However, it is also looking a little wrinkly. Based on the advice already written, I have thoroughly drenched all the pots and the water flowed out nicely.
The one plant seems to be getting dried out at the tip. Would this be because I didn't water it enough?
After they are rooted, I'll put them in soil with sand. Right now they are in some type of loose material, which looks to me to be mostly compost.
They are in bright indirect light, with a little sun.
I would really like these cuttings to grow. Can you give me any further advice?
Do you have any idea what they are? (The leaves are less than 1/2 the width of a Christmas cactus, and they seem to be more upright, rather than arching.
Some of the "leaves" have three sides and some are just flat.
Here are some pictures, which might help.
Thanks for the thread. It's so nice of you all to share your experience.

What do you use to determine the moisture? Those meters don't seem to work if the media is coarse. Tooth pick?

I agree that the meters are worthless. Just use your finger, and get used to the weight of a dry pot vs a watered pot. Lift them so you can tell. Of course this only works for pots easily lifted!

I agree, lifting pots (esp. small plastic ones) can be informative. With ceramic pots the difference becomes harder to judge relative to the overall weight.

Everybody kind of has to work out a solution to this problem, and it is not entirely straightforward. My favorite way to judge soil moisture is not one you can rely on for regular use: a visual and touch examination of root balls at the point of repotting. It is the most informative test for me, but it only happens once a year or whatever. So I am careful to perform the repotting (when it's time) a day or two before it would otherwise be time to water, when the soil is going dry but may not actually be there. That gives me a decent data point that helps me judge my watering interval.

In general, soil will dry out predictably the same if conditions stay the same. So once you get a sense of the right number of days to wait for a certain pot, that number will not change the next time around unless there is a change in light (for example) or humidity or temperature.

Basically what I am saying is you don't have to measure the soil moisture every time, whether with a moisture meter or by weight or whatever. Your experience will sort of render regular testing mostly optional.

One other big picture observation is that bigger pots, especially deeper pots, will dry out slower than smaller pots, not taking into account whatever water passes through the plant. Doubling a pot's diameter may mean the watering interval also goes up two fold, or something like that, depending on the situation. So basically bigger pots may need different watering schedules, especially with dry growing plants. Don't assume big and small pots dry out at the same time.

Hope that helps, though I realize it's not really what you were asking for.

If you look at them everyday for years, I will say by looking at the color of the media, especially Pumice will somehow give us the indication on the overall moisture of the pot. When I am in doubt, then the weight and toothpick will do the trick.

Or use a bamboo skewer. It's old school but I listened in on a seminar on growing orchids Saturday and his take was different (and maybe better) than mine.

Usually, we say stick a skewer into the soil, give it a few minutes and pull it out. You can see/feel the moisture and gage where the moisture is in the pot.

What he suggested is you plant the skewer into the pot (shoved to the bottom) and leave it. Pull it out to check moisture and poke it back in.

I'm visualizing an entire potted garden with a forest of skewers.

I did the skewer thing for a while, using takeout chopsticks as the skewer. Stick it in a couple of inches or whatever, wait a bit, pull it out, watch for a change near the tip. You can get a readout that way. I decided to stop because I'm pretty sure it's not great for the roots to be poking woody objects into them, at least not repeatedly in a long term way.

Hi, I have to say, i'm actually really stumped reading the replies. I was under the impression that cacti and succulents are part of a xeric landscape? I am up north and we had to have a bunch of trees removed from our yard and was looking to relandscape the whole yard and fell in love with the xeric landscapes. (secretly wishing I could use the plants that grow in the West). I have a bunch of succulents as houseplants and kind of stumped that they take more watering then I expected. How are you supposed to save on water if you're watering once a week?

Rose, They grow best with just enough water. They could grow in more drought than most plants but don't look their best. Also with hardness rating is wetness. If too wet and cold, they rot. Reason I have to shelter my zone 5 agave in my zone 6 area.

This thread is about watering plants in containers. Plants in the ground can get by with much less water (when established). Many plants get by here in the landscape with zero water, despite us having zero rainfall during summer and an annual drought of 5-8 months. Anyway, be careful translating one situation to the other.

Baja_Costero said: This thread is about watering plants in containers. Plants in the ground can get by with much less water (when established). Many plants get by here in the landscape with zero water, despite us having zero rainfall during summer and an annual drought of 5-8 months. Anyway, be careful translating one situation to the other.

Yes, the difference in water requirements between containers vs in ground planting is huge.

my cacti and related plants
in containers are doing well. Need to water every other day here with the heat but could use some rain