If you don't mind me saying - your plants are buried in soil, especially the aloe. Pots are very large. They contain lots of soil that will take long time to dry up. I see some perlite (?) in pot with aloe & cactus, not much in the pot with sans. Smaller pots & fast draining mix would be much better for your plants.

Cooler it is, less often plants should be watered.

Very interesting, I actually received advice to find a pot that is double the height of my aloe :0

so do you recommend I don't water until it drains? :)

If you have well draining potting mix, excess water would drain out thru drainage hole. Next watering should be done when the mix is just about dry. If plant is potted in soil that drains poorly, it gets very wet and dries up slowly, and that is not best for succulents.

To improve drainage, it is better not to use fine soil and/or peat, since it will be quite water retaining. Buying bag of perlite and mixing lots of it would help, many ppl do it in 50/50 ratio. Other inorganic materials could be added too for even better drainage as I already mentioned.

Pot that is double height of the plant is usually too large, and since there is lots of fine soil it will take very long time to dry up. If that was my plant, I would use pot about 1/2 that size. I would fill it with mix high enough so the plant doesn't sit too low inside of pot. IMO, there is too much soil piled up around the leaves - soil level is not too high for the pot but plant is too low inside of soil.

Rina is correct. The clay pot is good but should be about half as tall. You know the test with a skewer or pencil? Stick it in the soil for a while, pull it out to see if it's moist, and if so, don't water. I am guessing that if you do that test on the aloe now, it will still be wet inside even though it's been four weeks since you watered. Clay is best but if you replace that tall pot with plastic, you'll have to be extra careful about watering.

Remember these plants do better with less water rather than being overwatered. When the skewer comes out dry, you can water until it comes out the bottom. If you just give a little water, it may not trickle down to be available to all the roots.

Succulents don't grow into oversized pots like kids grow into oversized clothing!

Oh wow! That's all very interesting tips! I use to have my aloe in a pot that was a little larger than the plant and was told to double. Now everything you both said makes sense!

thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question! I'll surely plant it accordingly next time. And that skewer tip is great! Can't wait to try it next :)

If you read other posts here and look at the plants the successful growers post, you'll see pot sizing for succulents. Also, these growers don't pot their plants too low because the side of the pot can shade the plant too much. I notice Christmas cactus seem to tolerate a taller pot, but most succulents don't want an overage of soil and a too-big pot. (Don't look at the photos of people who are having trouble, OK? lol....)

Socks,

FYI: One ought not compare Xmas cacti & other succulents as they are actually cacti (not succulents).

Further, as jungle cacti, coming from the humid jungle, they require more frequent &/or thorough watering & quite different mix than succulents.

May I pls ask what's going on w/ the plant on the left, a Snake plant (Sansevieria, which we sometimes call Sans, for short)?

Seems very spread out from the center, they usually grow with their central leaves more closely together than that. Is the center of the plant soft or wobbly in the pot?

Or is it buried as suggested above?

Karen;

that sans is actually 'rescue' plant I managed to save a few months ago - the base is really strong and thick :)

it was worst when I first got it :( poor thing

Cacti unless they're from tropical regions should be resting/dormant right now- cool and dry. I recently made the mistake of getting some water on a dormant cacti and rotted a sizable portion of it unfortunately.

Rina is on point w/ soil culture! You are much safer with smaller pots than larger ones.