Although we are aware that succulents require a specific level of light to survive, do they require direct sunlight? Some of you gardeners have to bring your plants inside during the winter to protect them from frost, while others just lack the outside space needed for outdoor plant cultivation.
Even if your home’s lighting isn’t the best, there are still things you can do to make it better and provide your plants the best light for growth. The primary solution is artificial lighting. Artificial lighting can be utilized either as an additional source of light for your plants or as their only source of illumination.
Succulents can live under artificial lighting as long as they receive the proper amount of light since, unlike us, all they require from sunshine is light. Artificial lighting can mimic sunlight and give the nutrients that your succulent plants require. You must select the artificial lighting option that best suits your requirements.
How much light do succulents require?
Depending on the species, succulents require vastly different amounts of light. Others, like cacti and some desert plants, require many hours of bright, direct sunlight each day. Some succulents, like zz plants and snake plants, can survive in low light environments. Knowing what kind of succulent you have can help you determine how much light it needs.
Direct Light
Direct light occurs when the sun’s rays pass through the window and directly hit your plant. Direct-light succulents should be placed in front of a south or west-facing window, where they will ideally receive six to seven hours of sunlight each day (although this can vary depending on your variety). Desert cactus, echeveria, sempervivum, jade, aloe, aeonium, senecio, agave, sedum, hoya, and other succulents need direct sunlight.
Because it is still being filtered through a window, direct sunlight indoors is not as powerful as direct sunshine outside. This only really matters if you want to relocate your indoor succulents outdoors for any length of time, as the sudden change in sun exposure might damage your plant’s leaves. Make sure to gently transition the plants to outdoor direct sunshine by starting with largely indirect light for a few weeks.
Indirect Light
Before reaching the plant’s leaves, the sun’s rays must pass through a filter, thereby creating indirect light. Even if the light is indirect, the area is still very bright. Indirect light is ideal for many different succulent species, including the haworthia, holiday cacti, snake plants, zz plants, string of hearts, rhipsalis, gasteria, kalanchoe, and peperomia.
Low Light
Succulents come in many varieties, and many can endure low light. Here, the word “tolerate” makes a crucial distinction. Although some plants can survive or endure lower light levels, most plants thrive in strong, indirect light when planted inside. You could observe that low light-grown succulents grow more slowly or have a leggier appearance than those grown in indirect light. Low light typically refers to plants that are placed at least a few feet away from a window and that do not have direct sunlight or bright filtered light shining on their leaves. Snake plants, zz plants, kalanchoe, mistletoe cacti, string of hearts, holiday cacti, fishbone cacti, and other succulents can all withstand low light levels.
Which artificial light color works best for succulents?
It’s time to set up your grow lights after choosing the best ones for your succulents. Find a location in your home where you can install the lighting and the plants.  
It’s crucial to leave enough of space between your succulents and the light. If you’re too close, the heat from the bulbs could damage your succulent. If it is too distant, there won’t be enough light for the succulent to develop healthily. In general, it should be at least 6 inches long and no longer than 40 inches. Of course, additional factors affect the precise distance.
A 10-inch spacing is adequate if you use LED or fluorescent lamps without any tricks. However, you can narrow the gap to 6 inches when using larger succulents.
The plant’s tolerance for heat and light also influences the distance. Maintaining the ideal light and temperature for your plants while not wasting any electricity is a tricky balance.
Water inside the cells of the leaves, trunks, and stems may heat up if they are 5 inches or closer from the light. Your plant will eventually become scorched or suffer from dehydration. The following are some fundamental guidelines for using grow lights:
- It is advised to keep fluorescent tube lights and bulbs 6 to 12 inches away from your succulents. The suggested distance for LED lighting is between 18 and 24 inches.
- The ideal color temperature for promoting succulent growth is 6500k. A 3000k light is preferable if you want your plant to bloom. Just be cautious if your plant is a monocarpic succulent because it can bloom if you give it too much light.
- The lights won’t need to be on all the time. Giving your plants a break from the light so they can breathe is good. Generally speaking, expose your plants to light for 12 to 14 hours each day.  
Don’t let the plants stand with the light source at just one angle. Instead, turn the plants over once a week so that all of their sides receive the same amount of light.
Keep a watch on your succulents when you move them indoors to observe how they respond and make any necessary adjustments. Your indoor succulent plants will be strong and content with the optimum grow light and routine hydration.
With our selection of the best indoor succulents, enjoy your gardening. They are fantastic for any house, workplace, or garden to create the ultimate green area because they are simple to cultivate, very versatile, largely pest-free, and low care.
Do plants tolerate artificial lighting well?
Some rooms in your home may not have enough natural light if you’re trying to grow indoor houseplants. Although sunlight contains the ideal ratio of wavelengths for plant growth and blooming, you may also utilize artificial lighting to support your plants. In reality, with enough artificial light, low-light foliage plants (such pathos and peace lilies) may flourish in windowless offices. Plants require the following for growth:
- Blue light for the growth of foliage.
- Red wavelength light for flowering and fruiting.
- Green wavelengths are reflected back by plants because they don’t utilise them much, which is why leaves appear green.
How long do succulents need artificial light for?
It’s crucial to consider where to place your plants in relation to the light. If you are using a basic grow light, starting distance for your plant should be between 3 and 6 inches from the lamp. Of course, you must take into account the plant’s tolerance to heat and light.
Your goal is to provide as much light and waste reduction for your plants as possible without endangering them. Move your plants a few extra inches away from your grow light if it has a hood since hoods reflect heat and light, which could cause damage to your plants.
To set up your grow light, you can utilize a plug-in timer. Turn on the light or program it to come on around sunrise each morning. For plants that get low to moderate sun exposure during the day, leave the light on for 12 to 14 hours every day.
Set or maintain the light on for 16 to 18 hours per day for plants that get little to no natural light. Give your succulents and cacti ample room to spread out so that light can reach the lowest branches of the plants if you have a lot of them.
Succulents housed indoors need to be aware of the seasons so they can start going dormant in the winter and develop more quickly in the summer. If you use grow lights for your succulents all year long, you must increase the light intensity and duration in the summer and lower it in the winter.
You must still adhere to the same fundamental watering instructions for succulents planted indoors under grow lights as you would for succulents grown outdoors. When the soil around the succulents feels dry throughout the summer, at least an inch or two, you should water them. If you’re simulating winter conditions indoors, water less during the winter.
Verify that all of your cables and plugs are in good functioning order and that there are no loose wires. Keep any electrical cables and lights away from water. You might want to unplug the lamps before watering your plants just to be cautious. Pets and young children should be kept apart for safety reasons.
If you’re not experienced with grow lights, keep a tight eye on your succulents. After adjusting the lighting, always keep a close eye on your succulents to observe how they respond. Moving the plants and adjusting the lighting as necessary.
For recommendations, please visit my resource page if you are considering buying a grow light.
Is it possible to use any LED light as a grow light?
Technically, you can use any LED light to grow plants, but this doesn’t guarantee that they’ll do so in a healthy or effective manner because ordinary LED lights don’t have the right amount of color or spectrum for photosynthesis.
Therefore, it is better to get specialized LED grow lights if you wish to grow inside in a greenhouse or grow tent.
We’ve examined if you can use regular light bulbs as grow lights in this brief post.
We’ll also delve into the issues and factors related to using both common LED lights and customized LED lights for plant growth.
Quick Tip: It’s time to experiment with LED light colors if your standard LED light is unable to nourish plants or cause a metabolic reaction.
What kind of lighting is ideal for succulents indoors?
Today’s market offers a variety of grow lights, including metal halide (MH), high pressure sodium (HPS), fluorescent, and LED. We will, however, limit our discussion to LEDs and fluorescent grow lights because they are more appropriate for smaller indoor applications (as opposed to medium to large greenhouse installations). These two choices are among the most accessible grow lights and are excellent for succulents.
LEDs
The most popular option for growing succulents indoors is LED grow lighting. Because LEDs are durable, consume little energy, and operate at low temperatures, growers don’t need to worry about their plants burning up if the light is too close to them. The initial expense of LED grow lights is their main drawback, yet as these lights gain popularity and become more generally available, the relative cost has gradually lowered.
Fluorescent Lights
Compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and fluorescent tubes are the two main types of fluorescent grow lights. Both can be used successfully for succulents, and your decision will probably depend on how much room you have for your grow light arrangement. Fluorescent lighting is frequently affordable, effective, and adaptable. Growers should be cautious about how close they position fluorescent grow lights to their plants because they do not last as long as LEDs and also tend to run hotter than LEDs. Fluorescent lights are less environmentally friendly to dispose of because they also contain mercury.
Can succulents survive without sunlight indoors?
The most light is reflected from south-facing windows throughout the day in the northern hemisphere. The sun shines through windows facing east in the morning and west in the afternoon and evening. The least quantity of sunlight enters windows that face north.
A south-facing window is the best choice for the majority of sun-loving succulent plants in the northern hemisphere. However, all of the low-light succulents covered in this article happily flourish in windows that face west or east. Even in a dark, north-facing window, some of them will make it, but I don’t advise it because even there, they won’t thrive.
However, no succulent can live in a completely dark environment. Therefore, even if your succulent plants are varieties that thrive in low light, think about buying a tiny desktop grow light if you live in a basement flat, have only a north-facing window, or if your space has no windows at all. When a modest grow lamp is placed over low light succulents for 6 to 8 hours a day, you’ll be astounded at how well they grow. You won’t need to remember to turn the lights on and off every day if you have a reliable timer.
Now that you are aware of how much sunlight low light succulents require, allow me to introduce you to some of the greatest low light succulents.
Succulents—can they survive in a windowless bathroom?
Yes, if you pick the appropriate variety. In actuality, there are several advantages to bathroom plants. They can remove bacteria, filter the air, provide some greenery and nature to one of our more antiseptic spaces, and absorb extra moisture. They are also totally current. The high humidity of a bathroom must be taken into account while choosing a plant, as well as sunshine. Houseplants may struggle if your bathroom is in the middle of your property without a window or any natural light.
Here, your options are more limited because they must be able to withstand both high humidity and low light conditions. A windowless bathroom might benefit from the presence of peace lilies, Boston ferns, philodendrons, spider plants, aloe vera, English ivy, and snake plants, among other plants.
If you have adequate space, putting plants in the shower is a growing trend. Safety should be prioritized in this situation. Bathroom plants should not be placed in an area that is already slippery or where they could pose a trip hazard. Having said that, a eucalyptus “bath bouquet” that is suspended from the shower head is a common shower plant. The aromatherapy properties of the eucalyptus are released by the steam and heat from the shower.
Succulents should not be used in a small or windowless bathroom since the greater moisture levels there will cause them to rot. They work well in a spacious bathroom or on a windowsill in the bathroom.
Without further ado, the top bathroom plants are listed below. Select the best option for your style and room…
This tall bathroom plant gives any room a sense of height. Snake plants, also referred to as mother-in-tongue, law’s can live in low light and thrive in high humidity. The lengthy leaves can assist in removing airborne pollutants.