Advice for growing succulents strictly with grow lights.

7 years ago

Hey guys,

I have recently set up a sort of growing display on some shelving in my basement (my wife was tired of too many plants upstairs!). Now these plants are growing strictly under grow lights (T8) for 12hrs on a timer.

I’m wondering a few things:

are the succulent types that I have under the lights going to be negatively effected?

Do I have the timing right?

How do I account for seasons so the plants don’t get too greenhouse confused if I want to bring them back upstairs in real sunlight?

Thank you for any advice!

Featured Answer

User

7 years ago

Photsynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD) is a very useful measre for grow lights too.

Full spectrum grow lights are very easy to use and they are suitable for many plants from snake plants, dragon plants to succulents.

Red and blue spectrum grow lights are more efficient to succulents compared to full spectrum ones.

Red Blue Spectrum Grow Light at Amazon

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Comments (10)

User
7 years ago
I can't really tell - do you have a diffuser (the frosted, translucent cover over the light bulbs) on that light?

Why is it purple?? What sort of fluorescent bulb do you have that's purple? Some sort of plant bulb?

How far above your plants is the light? I can't quite tell from the pictures.

Since it looks like there is no natural light there, and you are using a relatively weak light, I would suggest you leave the light on more than 12 hours. At least 16, maybe more.
Joey G
Original Author
7 years ago
There is a diffuser on both lights and they are mounted about 5 or 6 inches above the plants. The bulb is a T8 grow light bulb which I’ve read some posts where these are relatively good grow lights.

I can definitely leave them on longer to adjust for “weakness” of the bulbs, but the plants I have under them seem to be doing great. This includes some propagating leaves, which have all rooted very well (I know rooting doesn’t take much at all).

Wouldn’t I start to see some stretching of the lights weren’t enough?
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User
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Hey, if things are going great, then keep doing what you're doing (I might ask why you asked for advice, though..)

If your plants haven't been in place long, it's possible you won't have seen etiolation yet (it occurs on new growth). You also may have enough light to avoid (much) etiolation, but not enough to encourage (much) new growth. You are correct that rooting requires much less light than active growth does.

My advice is to ditch the diffusers (they reduce the light reaching your plants), lower the lights a couple inches, and leave them on longer.
Joey G
Original Author
7 years ago
I guess my biggest question is whether I need to do anything to adjust for seasons, or if it is not possible under the grow lights?
gdinieontarioz5
7 years ago
You can let the room temperature go down at night, and you can give a few hours less of light. Twelve in winter, 14-16 in summer, or something like that. I have mesembs under lights, and in winter the room temperature goes down to 16 C, and I change the timer. They keep the seasons.
User
7 years ago
Agree with gdinieontarioz5

Temperature and lighting time, humidity...

If it's difficult to change temperature, you can change lighting time.

14 hrs in summer, 13 hrs in spring and autumn, 12 hrs in winter.

When you bring them upstairs, use grow lights for a period of time, wait until they accommodate themselves to new environment.
Joey G
Original Author
7 years ago
I asked this in the growing lights forum today, but I’ll ask here too in hope to get a quick response.

I am changing the bulbs. Currently I am using a 3500k bulb, but have read that I need to be much higher for succulents.

So I am looking at two bulbs. One is a 6500k full spectrum and the other is an 8500k “gro-lux” bulb.

Any suggestions on which to go with?
rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
7 years ago
I am not familiar with GroLux tube, but 6500k will be ok. Using anything lower than 5000k won't help much. Do you have more info about GroLux - how many lumens?
User
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
The GroLux bulbs, from what I can find, are generally much lower in lumens than typical fluorescent bulbs. This does not reflect a lack of suitability for growing plants, but rather that lumens are not a useful measure for how "good" an artificial light source is for growing plants. That's what PAR is for.

Lumens measure how bright a light appears to the human eye (which prioritizes yellow and green wavelengths), while PAR measures how much of the light produced can drive photosynthesis (which prioritizes blues and reds).

Since GroLux bulbs are heavy on blues and reds at the expense of yellows and greens, they produce half the lumens of a normal fluorescent bulb - but are likely to be a bit better for photosynthesis (I'm guessing.. you'd have to find PAR values to actually compare the two).