The plant literally needs to be no more than a few inches away from the bulb for it to do any good at all. Where you have it now is basically shade. The intensity of the light scales as the *square* of the distance. That means moving it two times closer to the light bulb will increase the intensity four times!

With aloes in particular, you could never burn the leaves from the light, just the heat of the bulb. As long as there is decent airflow, I would put the plant as close to the bulb as without actually touching it.

I second Jo's content about the light. Aloes definitely like being under fluorescent lights in the winter (I see you're Zone 6, and though I don't know where you are I presume you have a winter that is significantly below freezing).

I have found, after several years of experimenting, is that the best way to handle aloes when you can't just keep them outside (like Jo can, I believe) is to keep them under lights in the winter, and keep them chilly so that they don't try to grow too much. I keep mine in my 55 degree basement under lights. The way to get those nice fat leaves you are thinking of is to put your plant outside in the summer.

The trick, at least for me, is: aloes sunburn after being inside for the winter! Mine are very sun delicate after a (very long and dark) Minnesota winter. It takes me literally half the summer to work them up to full sun again. By the end, though, they look great.

I actually keep most of my aloes in the cold garage overwinter with hardly any light at all - at 38oF min and about 50oF max.

The only Aloe I keep under lights is A. plicatilis as it clearly grows during this period, and some of the small varieties like A variegata because it is easy to do so. The big A dichotoma, ferox, arborescens and cryptopoda are in the dark. No problems for many years, not even acclimating back to sun in the spring. But I take them out when it is still cold with light frosts so the sun is not strong or warm.

x

Xerophyte, thanks for the thoughts.

I actually would keep a number of my plants in my cold garage, only it is completely frozen solid in there for several months in the winter (approximately Thanksgiving to early March, depending on the year). Thus my options are A) upstairs in my house, with temperatures in the 60s, B) basement with temperatures in the 50s, and C) frozen solid. (I also have a nice light setup in my office, but I don't want to keep anything big there unless I absolutely have to.)

So, do you think I could get away with no lights with temperatures of 50-55 degrees for aloes? I have found this to be OK for various cacti.

My A. vera seems to be sun-sensitive no matter what I do with it. Maybe I shouldn't have sold my A. dichotoma before I moved here. It seems it might do fine.

Could you be specific about when you put your plants out when it's "still cold with light frosts"? Here in central Minnesota, that means now. I just took outside some of by bigger succulents this past week. I am assuming that you were able to do this in NYC several weeks ago. Perhaps the difference in sun intensity from early to late April makes a significant difference. [I am assuming that the difference in April temperatures between NYC and Minnesota are quite a bit greater than the sun intensity differences, though there is undoubtedly some latitudinal difference.]

Thanks everyone!

I'm at the very tippy top of Z6 in Kentucky. I could put it outside now I suppose. We're not getting back into 40s consistently again until the fall I'm sure.

pasimachus

I think you might be able to get away with 50's as long as it stays that temp even during the day. If you keep them dry you'll have even better luck. The key is to not trigger growth.

I put my Aloes out usually in mid to late March, around the time that the Daffodils are ready to bloom. They come back in around Thanksgiving.

Here's a graph showing the monthly averages for my neck of the woods.

Xerophyte-

Thanks for the reply. Mid-March is fairly serious winter here still (on March 12 this year the low temperature was -15F). My daffodils are blooming now.

My basement is consistently chilly in the winter, because the ground is frozen hard around it and I redirect heat away. It is sometimes 60F during the day where my thermometer is, but at floor level I'm pretty sure it's at the low 50s, and maybe colder at night. I think next winter I'll reduce the light to maybe a flourescent bulb or two and see if growth stays little to none.

Sounds like a plan - there's no way to know the outcome for sure without trying :-)

Best of luck, x