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Cacti & Succulents

Question about addition light for growing succulent and cacti

6 years ago

Hi all,

I am just a newbie in growing succulent and cacti, now I have around ~10 pots with succulents and cacti and want to make them happy.

I just about the light, water, soil and now have a question about light.

Currently I am putting outside and have no problem with light ( my garden is in rooftop, face east and has a shade in mid noon) but in place where I live is going to "Rain season" and I will move all of them inside and use light for them.

I am going to use 2x9w CFL bulb ( I will update pictures later).Do you think it is ok to make them live strong and thrive ( I love to see them strong and bloom) ?

and I am waiting for the 30w led (red and blue led) do you think it is ok?

One more question is: I will combine daylight + light ( from 6AM-6PM outside, from 6PM -9PM inside with light I have mention above) do you think it is ok?

Sorry for two much questions but you know I love my succulents and cacti and love watching them grow everyday and want to make them happy :D

So thank you a lot if you can answer me.

Featured Answer

ewwmayo

6 years ago

You are free to combine natural and artificial light. =)

2x9W CFL is not enough, probably multiple 50W+ CFLs would be better? Hopefully your new LED panel will help.

Good luck with the rainy season! Feels like that it's the rainy season here in Canada - we have flood warnings right now, but nothing compared to the monsoons.

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Comments (7)

rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Do you mean to use lights only from 6pm - 9pm while plants are inside? I would rather enhance daylight during 6am - 6pm period of time. IMO, 12 hrs of good light is better than 15 hrs of mediocre light. I would use minimum 23W CFL bubs (equi to 100W incandescent) and/or higher and make sure they are 6500k. I have only CFL bulbs, and 23W is minimum I use. I do not have any red-blue LEDs.
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Tan Nguyen
Original Author
6 years ago
Yes I mean that I will put my plant outside for daylight and I will put CFL light from 6-9PM to have the plant grow fast. Do you think it is ok? because I want my plants have a lot of light so they can grow fast and strong
rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Are they going to get lots of sunlight outside? Personally, I don't see much reason to give them extra 3hrs of supplemental lights indoors if they are in good light outdoors. And I would keep them outdoors day & night, not quite clear on why do you want to keep taking them in & out every day?

I thought that you need to keep them indoors during the rain season. If so, I would give them lots of light (keep by the windows + supplemental light) during daytime hours. 12-14hrs of good light is plenty IMO. What succulents are you growing?
Tan Nguyen
Original Author
6 years ago
Here are list of succulents/cactis I am growing in "phase 1" ( just like newbie phase :)), I will buy more of succulents in "phase 2" when I have more experience) and I just finish my grow light using 2x23w and 2x9w like in the picture

I think that in sunny day, in outside the light is enought but the reason I open this topic is I want to put more light to my plant to make them grow faster and make more flower that why I need to open light for them in night
rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
So you want to push them, hurry up plants? lol, jk...Do not overdo it with lights, give them some sleep time too...
ewwmayo
6 years ago
My tip is to get reflectors for your four lights. The dish/cone-shaped ones are pretty good. Reason is that the majority of light goes out the sides of the CFL bulb, not the end. You'll be able to get double or more output with reflectors that extend past the sides of the same bulbs.

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