Okay, basic facts first:
-I'm in central Colorado, 6200 ft elevation. Climate is relatively hot and sunny in summer, with a few weeks of drenching afternoon thunderstorms in July/August, and moderately cold in winter (nights average 20F).
-I have an assortment of plants -- agave, aloe, some cacti, Adromischus, Adenium Faucaria, Crassula, Haworthia, holiday cacti.
-The holiday cacti, one aloe, and the Haworthias are indoors year round in front of a south window; the rest are outside for the summer in partial shade (mostly sun for the Adenium). They will all come inside to the south windows in winter.
-Pots are a mixture, mostly ceramic but some terracotta and one plastic. Except for the holiday cacti, which are in straight cactus potting soil, they are are all planted in about 50/50 cactus potting soil and grit (pumice, coarse sand). Some have a little bit higher proportion of grit.
Since I have such a variety, with different needs, in pots of different sizes and materials, I have little choice but to check everybody every few days right now, weekly in winter. I mainly use cues, as Ms Doe mentioned -- leaves that feel thinner, softer, squishy, or puckered. This works for all the smaller ones and the holiday cacti. With the agave, aloes, desert cacti, and Adenium (which is brand new and I'm still figuring it out) I mainly use a moisture meter. In summer everybody gets watered deeply, indoors and out.
In winter: the windowsill gets cold enough at night to keep them mostly dormant, but sunny enough most days that they do get thirsty. I water the larger cacti, agave, and aloe maybe every 2-3 weeks and more lightly as I'm paranoid about the bigger pots drying too slowly. The others, whenever they show those thirsty cues. I'm also careful to refrain from watering if it's gray and overcast; without the sun coming through the window to warm them, they can stay cold and wet too long and that's bad! (Learned that the hard way after an Adromischus got root rot.)
Stush2019 said:On Aloe and Agave. Starts as a stain which progresses into a hard dried spot then a hole. I think the water acts as a magnifier glass and increases the suns rays. Not all the time but it does happen most to plants not used to the hot sun and not acclimated.
I had that happen to my Agave this spring. It seems to happen only under just the right conditions, when it's sunny but cool enough that the drops don't evaporate quickly. The rest of the time the water dries up too fast for that magifying-glass effect to happen.
