I would suggest getting a grow light. I have zero experience in this department tho. All my plants are kept outside. I do know that Echeveria start reaching for light pretty quickly. I find me Echeveria definitely slow down in the cooler months, but still grow.

Stop watering them in a couple weeks. I would just get a grow light:). I don't think you're going to have tight compact Echeverias in springtime if you don't.

Thanks Kara - I do have a grow light already, rather a re-purposed floor lamp, 3 x 32W and 1 x 10 CFL bulbs. I could replace the 10W bulb with a 32W one for sure and could probably move the plants a little closer, but I don't want a setup that looks like grow lights, ya know? I'll take a bit of winter stretch over that. But ideally, I would like them to just... snooze in stasis till spring!

Haha, wow, what a difference halfway up the stem!

Ok - I'll swap the 10W bulb with a 30W, move the plants a little closer, and they'll do whatever they're gonna do! I don't mind a LITTLE bit of stretching, nor lobbing off the top in the spring and starting over, they grow pretty fast and I love how they look with a few new florettes growing off of a stem that the top was removed from.

I think the best thing you can do in the winter is to decrease the watering as much as you can. When the plant isn't getting water, it won't be able to grow/stretch, so if you want to minimize the stretching, it is best to limit water when lighting becomes a problem.

Thanks, that I can do! Any tips on how to gauge when to water again? Currently I water about every 7-10 days, at which time the soil seems pretty dry (bone dry and "crumbly" several inches down, and dry but slightly cool to the touch any deeper). It's a perlite / dirt mix, heavy on the perlite.

Wait till it's totally bone dry? Bone dry plus a week? Set schedule ie monthly? Will the plants give sign when they are ready? If it's humid in the apartment, is it possible I will not need to water really at all? I just don't want to wait TOO long and then have them croak on me because of lack of water, of all things!

Indoors in winter they can easily go a month without water. I would start at 3 weeks or so and gauge from there.... Also, when you water, don't do real deep soakings. Just light waterings.

Okay good to know as I have been doing deep soaking all summer. Thanks guys, I have hope for the future now!

I think the deep soaking is great for summer/spring, when they are growing. Deep water encourages the roots to go down. But for winter you want just enough to keep from losing too many roots to dessication. If you behead in early spring your plants will put energy into roots and pups, which means less growth, less stretching. Just extra thoughts...

If they can be kept cool, very little watering (or even none) is needed. There is still need for decent light. But your place is warm & humid - I am not sure if they can be kept 'dormant' in such conditions. So good supplemental light would be needed. What is k rating of your CFL bulbs?

No they don't really go dormant, I think that's misinformation, they just slow down a lot.

But as most folks said it's near impossible to give Eches enough sun indoors & they invariably get so leggy that they become unhealthy & bad looking. I only grow indoors & even w/GREAT western light, I don't have enough light for them & gave up even trying them indoors.

I have two 23W 27k and two 32W 65k bulbs on em