Switched from grow lights to a south window for my succulents, 6 weeks in

I had them under a fancy LED setup for months and they kept stretching out, but after moving my echeverias to the south-facing sill in my Denver apartment, the color and compact growth are unreal. Has anyone else found that natural light beats artificial for certain plants, or is it just my cheap fixture?

2 comments

2 Comments

alice8916d ago

Oh man, I've been exactly where you are! @the_faith is spot on about the UV thing, my echeverias turned into little purple gems after I moved them to a south window too. Try rotating the pot a quarter turn each week so they don't lean, and you might need to water less since that intense Denver sun dries things out fast. Once they're happy, they stay happy, just don't overthink it.

the_faith19d ago

Did you catch that episode of On The Ledge where they talked about how LED lights are great for the wattage but the spectrum is still not the same as real sun? I remember they mentioned that succulents especially seem to respond to the UV rays you just can't get from most fixtures. That's probably why your echeverias are finally behaving, Denver has that intense high altitude sunlight too. I've seen people use those cheap blurple lights for years and then wonder why their plants look like aliens, the sun just does something different to the cell structure. If the color and compact growth are showing in six weeks, I'd say the window wins this round.