Hello! After scouring these forums for the past month I feel as if by posting I'm finally joining the coolest party around. Thank you to everyone for your great informational posts!

I picked up some succulents intending to pretty up my desk at a new job, but, well, I've become addicted. My plants have stayed at home in the interest of getting them better light and care, and I've managed to acquire a few (A LOT) of cuttings and leaves by making friends at Home Depot. After finding myself in this situation, I realized it would have been better to dip my toes in the water before jumping in at the deep end, but here I am anyway, and I'll do the best I can. I understand that some questions could be answered differently depending on the type of succulent. I've ended up with so much so quickly (oops...) that I haven't been able to identify everything yet. If you can, could you provide an answer that works in general, for most succulents?

My set up is almost all scrounged from what I had around the house, making it fairly imperfect. I'm hoping it's still functional, though. Please let me know if there's anything here that seems like a succulent deal breaker!

My containers are some knick knacks I got at the thrift store and drilled holes in, 1 quart soda bottles cut in half and painted black, some cat litter containers cut in half long ways to make propagation trays and a couple general planter boxes. I'll be slowly transitioning to terra cotta as funds allow. I did spring for Foliage Pro, which seemed like a cheaper solution than trying to manage things separately. I also have a seedling tray so I can monitor roots on cuttings and water accordingly.

And soil, of course. Again, I used what I already had at the house. It's half hydroton/leca balls and half granite gravel I had in the front yard. Here's a pic.

Soil questions: I have not potted anything into my mix yet. The particles are a bit big, will that change the way I need to water/care for the plants? Will it work even close to how correctly sized gritty mix does? If not, what about if I crushed up the hydroton, screened it to be between 1/4 and 1/8 inch, and screened gravel to match? Bonus soil question: do you know a place (national or local to CO chain) that sells custom cut sizes of hardware cloth? The rolls are too expensive for me.

Cutting questions: From what I understand, most succulent cuttings should be allowed to callus over, then potted in dry mix, given plenty of light (in my case, a south facing window), misted occasionally (depending on humidity, in CO it's quite dry) then watered as normal once roots grow. Is this correct?

Repotting rooted plants questions: I've got the original batch in half cactus soil, half perlite, and a couple just gifted to me in Home Depot default soil. I've seen several people say it's a good idea to completely remove traditional soil from the roots by washing them, to help prevent root rot. Based off what I've read, it seems like the best plan would be to wash roots, then pot into slightly moistened mix. Originally I thought to let the plants dry for a day without potting, but I've just seen a comment from Al saying to never let the roots dry out. Water as normal after 3-4 days. Any critique on this plan?

Fertilization questions: I plan to start with 1/4 tsp/gallon water with every watering. Advice I've seen here says to slowly wet the entire surface of each plant, then go back and do them all again. I've seen a few people say they only include fertilizer in the second round, is there a reason for that? Is it recommended? Can you begin fertilizing with the first time you water newly rooted cuttings? Would fertilizer in water used to mist cuttings or propagating leaves help them out at all?

Light questions: I've got everybody in a south facing window. I'd like to also set up an artificial light to supplement. My husband is letting me use a left over light, it's an AgroBrite High Output T5 with 24W and 6400K. I've seen another user with the same, only with 54W, who is getting good results, so I think I'll be okay here. I plan on researching this more as I get it set up, it's less crucial to me at the moment. Still, if anyone has good advice on this front, I welcome it. Probably questions to come on this subject as I begin actually setting up the light. I'm guessing I'll end up needing another/more lights.

Woof, I think that's all my questions. I'll almost certainly have more, as I'm still working on picking up the concepts and science behind what works for succulents and what doesn't. To anyone who reads any of this and provides advice, thanks very much! Please forgive any stupid mistakes I've made, I'm sure there are several.

For the interested, this is my entire set up. It appeared overnight, much to my husband's amusement. He's a grower himself (though of the uh...more smokable variety of plants) so he's very much enjoying the conversations we have now about maximizing plant health. A great photo, this is not, but hopefully it gives you an idea of what I'm working with.

Future plans are to repot everybody into gritty mix, set up seedling trays and pots over draining trays, rig up a system to get the draining trays draining into one bucket for easy disposal (that'll be a fun project), and set up the grow light.