I was potting some new plants I recently acquired and realized I was short the correct sized pot, but did have one bigger pot so stuck my jade plant and silver torch cactus together. Do you think they will survive cohabitating a pot together? I think they look sort of cute but will go out and find another pot to separate them if need be. Thanks!

Could also potentially switch in the road kill cactus and put the jade plant in the smaller pot that the roadkill cactus currently is in

Short answer:no.
Long answer:still no.
Jade has a different yearly cycle than cacti.

skopjecollection said:Short answer:no.
Long answer:still no.
Jade has a different yearly cycle than cacti.

Thanks! Can you tell me more about this yearly cycle? Do you mean with watering? I will find a pot tomorrow and separate them. Do you think to roadkill cactus might do good potted with the silver torch or should all 3 have separate pots?

skopjecollection said:Jade has a different yearly cycle than cacti.

It does?

I treat my jade plants exactly the same as my cacti.

anxiouscactusparent said:

Thanks! Can you tell me more about this yearly cycle? Do you mean with watering? I will find a pot tomorrow and separate them. Do you think to roadkill cactus might do good potted with the silver torch or should all 3 have separate pots?

long story short Both plants take different care to thrive. In typical home care, The jade will out grow the others and smother the others out. I would keep the jade in its own pot.

Baja_Costero said:

It does?

I treat my jade plants exactly the same as my cacti.

Your plants are in zone 11 though. Cacti go dormant. Jade less so.

So how about if I plant another cactus in the pot with the silver torch? Would that work?

Is this to say if jade goes less dormant that in the winter they should be watered more frequently?

anxiouscactusparent said:So how about if I plant another cactus in the pot with the silver torch? Would that work?

Is this to say if jade goes less dormant that in the winter they should be watered more frequently?

Sunlight in the winter months plays the biggest factor. Less light/less water when dealing with "Catus with spine's". In the winter i keep mine very dry. Jades like more consistent watering during the whole year. I am just trying to keep it simple. In simple terms you have succulents with leaves and succulents with spine's. The 2 type's prefer different care and grow at different rates.

skopjecollection said:Your plants are in zone 11 though. Cacti go dormant. Jade less so.

My indoor cacti never go dormant.

I see no problem with those plants sharing a pot, given the mix is quite rocky and the pot is unglazed terra cotta.

Baja_Costero said:

My indoor cacti never go dormant.

I see no problem with those plants sharing a pot, given the mix is quite rocky and the pot is unglazed terra cotta.

Youre still in zone 11. For the rest of us common mortals on the other hand....
For best results, they are best kept split

No, my indoor plants are not in any zone, nor are yours, nor are the original poster's. Zones are for the outdoors. Our indoor temp is basically room temp (70°F) year round. It would be exactly the same in a climate controlled indoor growing area in New York.

Baja_Costero said:No, my indoor plants are not in any zone, nor are yours, nor are the original poster's. Zones are for the outdoors. Our indoor temp is basically room temp (70°F) year round. It would be exactly the same in a climate controlled indoor growing area in New York.

Azemuth, ambient and direct light intensity, time of sunlight...I could go on. Heat is secondary indoors. Some plants dont really ...abide by any either way.
In any case, indoors here and further north is nowhere near close to being indoors down south.

I think if I watered my plants the same all year they would grow consistently. But we're I live winter sunlight is a rare luxury due to almost constant cloudy skies. Also I don't control the heat in my house and it's often cooler than average. I just stop watering the ones I know can tolerate it to keep them from growing elongated and weak. You can't do that with jade plants or any succulent with leaves.

I don't see a reason they can't share pot... I would be more concerned about how soon one of them gets unhappy with the other because they grow at different rates and to different sizes. But that problem is a couple years away. At some point, you may want to have to try to sort out roots. That would be my only reason to separate them now. I hate root drama.

To recap: indoor cacti will not go dormant given strong light and mild temps. There is no difference in the growth cycle between these plants under those conditions, where they will enjoy exactly the same care. Whether you keep them together is completely up to you. Provide the maximum possible amount of light, ideally a position right in front of your sunniest southerly facing window. Water well and then wait for the soil to go dry at depth before watering again.

I am with Baja. They can definitely share a pot for at least a year or two.

My jades have to be indoor in the winter. From Nov to early March, I rarely water my jade plants, if at all.

You may separate them in the spring if you like.

Baja_Costero said:To recap: indoor cacti will not go dormant given strong light and mild temps. There is no difference in the growth cycle between these plants under those conditions, where they will enjoy exactly the same care. Whether you keep them together is completely up to you. Provide the maximum possible amount of light, ideally a position right in front of your sunniest southerly facing window. Water well and then wait for the soil to go dry at depth before watering again.

Didnt you yourself said you cant provide enough light indoors?

No, I said you cannot provide too much natural light indoors. The more, the better.

I think part of the confusion here stems from cause and effect being hard to distinguish.

Cool temps and low light will slow down the growth of many succulents, and in the extreme they will pause growing. The natural tendency of many plants is to go dormant when conditions are not permissive. This is the time when overwatering is the most dangerous, because the plant does not need or want water when it is asleep, except perhaps intermittently to keep the roots in good shape, and evaporation is at its slowest in cool temps and low light. So many people in zone 5 or 6 who overwinter their cacti indoors tend to pull way back on the water during winter, like Charlinex has described. Not everyone has a warm (room temp) growing area where their plants can see the sun for hours a day year round. I understand that.

At some point though, withholding water can also trigger dormancy on its own. It may seem like the changes in temperature and light (ie. environmental changes due to the season) are causing the observed effect (dormancy) but in fact what often tips the balance is a lack of regular hydration (ie. environmental changes due to care). Depending on the relative strength of all those different changes, some natural and some due to our behavior in response to nature, the actual cause for the observed result may be obscured. I would caution people against assuming that the season alone is the direct cause of the dormancy they observe, except where it is obvious (like in a dim basement for example).

I have learned to filter out almost all recommendations to water starve cacti (and many other succulents) during winter given the mild, bright conditions they enjoy in my indoor growing area. Withholding water doesn't make things better when conditions are otherwise permissive, it makes them worse. Now in a cooler, darker environment the situation changes dramatically, and that's when you have to apply judgment.

All of these observations would apply equally to a jade plant and the average xerophytic cactus.

This was a really informative discussion and really appreciated all of y'all's inputs!

In the end I went out and got a couple pots that could fit them and separated them because I thought about the massive jade plant a client of mine had and realized no matter watering it would outgrow the cactus in no time. I plan on using my bigger pot to either plant a couple like-minded succulents together or combine my two snake plants that are in two separate pots and one of them really ought to be repotted in the spring anyways (has been in the same small pot for 2.5 years now).

My last question is when you say "cactus with spines" does that also include pad cactuses like angel wings?