If they are out on the sill and receiving direct sun they will be fine in summer. You won't need to supplement the light.

Even inside the window they'll be fine but you should probably turn them regularly since one side will not be getting a lot of light. One thing to watch for behind a closed window is that the plants overheat because there is no air movement. You could put a fan on them. I found that central air which had vents right under the window worked great.

Hi Blandy,

Sorry can't speak to either of yr. issues, I don't grow Burseras, nor do I use light set-ups.

As it happens, the Indoor Gardening Society meets Tues. eve (tomorrow), about 6:30 pm in Chelsea. They sometimes discuss growing under lights & I believe that's part of tomorrow's planned talk; I expect to be there.

If you think you'd like to attend (as my guest), pls. EM me at KRSternberg@yahoo.com for further details. (like location, etc)

PS: what little I know abt growing under lights (have a couple of friends who do this), I believe the plants have to be less than 12" inches from the lights, more like 4-5" from what I've seen myself.

Thanks for the follow-ups. S&B, that's reassuring. I'd prefer not to have to mess with artificial set-ups. All that talk about watts and light-temperature and ballasts...makes my brain hurt. Really, I just wanna look at pretty green things.
All the best.
AB

I used to grow Lithops and other mesembs and some dwarf cactus in my mid-town apartment, I used bookshelves that had 2-ft banks of fluorescent lights screwed into the undersides, and had the plants within 2-3" of the lights themselves - if the distance were any greater the light is not enough, you can do this for small species like the ones I mentioned, but something more leafy like bursera will not look very good under anything other than HID lamps, which are not practical in an apt. I also kept a small fan running 24-7, it built up black soot in about 3 days after cleaning it, just think of what the NYC air is doing to our lungs.

There's nothing wrong with a sunny windowsill, you don't need supplements as long as you get about 3 hours of sun, just be careful not to knock the plant off!

I used to go to the NY Cactus & Succ Society meetings, they were every other month on E 72nd, but it was mainly older folk, I did not fit in to that crowd and it was pretty lame.

Hi Blandy,

Thx for the EM, sorry you couldn't make it. I'm the same way abt lights, all that tech talk abt various factors, sort of makes my head spin, thank G_d for my west windows!

Hi Xerophyte,

How long ago did you go to C&S mtgs pls? Am asking just out of curiosity, as I belonged to it for abt 10 yrs. myself; we parted ways a couple of yrs. ago, but I felt largely as you do abt it.

I understand it to be a struggling, dwindling group now, whose focus has switched from largely succulents to largely cacti & is quite badly run & administrated.

Have we actually met, my name is Karen, what's yours?

Karen, my name is Mark, I stopped going about 6 years ago, I was doing my residency so I couldn't make it to all the meetings, I did a presentation once on the mesembs.

x