So I set up my light and have been increasing the amount of time per day it is on half an hour a day. I'm up to 4 hours a day and already the succulents are looking better. My avonia in particular looks great. Yay for an easy fix.

It's a 6" Crassula Ovata "Gollum"

I finally got around to repotting a couple of crassulas yesterday that were still in peat and the roots looks pretty yucky, not very deep or extensive and very fragile. Now that they're in a more granular mix, the roots don't seem to want to hold the plants up and I'm afraid to breathe on the plants...

There's an article in the "Cacti articles" section about mixing soil that has a few alternatives for pumice. http://www.cactiguide.com/article/?article=article8.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; I use NAPA oil dry #8822, which is granular diatomite. It was about ...

I did read the article, but it left me with a number of questions because it seems to be mostly focused on growing cacti under lights with no natural light. It says you need 30W per square foot if you're using fluorescent bulbs, and recommends against them because they're not powerful enough. The se...

We've had a string of very dark days here in New England and it's only October. Because my collection of cacti and succulents live on a shelf in a window, they're not able to get cold and dark, and I'm worried about them being warm and dark. I have a t5 fixture that I used to start seeds last year t...

I keep seeing pictures of beautiful Crassulas that appear to almost have trunks. Is there a way to get them to look like that? With mine, the leaves rise straight out of the soil. Is it a different variety or a cultivation practice that makes them tree-like?

It's in a south facing window, which is as much sun as it's going to get in my house, and it's mostly afternoon sun. Should I consider supplementing it with fluorescent light? I have a T5 tube from starting seeds that I could use. How would I go about doing that?

Here it is. The caudex feels firm. A little moreso than the base of my thumb. What do you think? Green light for watering?

I don't have an answer for you, but I was wondering something similar. How to balance mixing the best soil for a particular species and the need to not mix 15 different tiny batches of soil. I would bet that the success of a soil mix depends on the species. Can you find out more about your succulent...

So here we are, almost two weeks later. The foliage is still droopier than when I bought it but it looks slightly better than the above picture. The plant also seems to be working on a bunch of new stems. It's giving me mixed signals. Droopy stems says unhappy, but new growth seems like a good sign.

I would like to repot some of the succulents I bought over the summer that were in a peat mix that's like cement when it's dry. I didn't want to repot while they were actively growing, but now that I'm winding down for winter, I'm starting to think about getting them in a loser mix. When would be a ...

So, I've noticed that some people say to not water "just a little" and always water the same way if the plant is thirsty, and some people say to use less water. The guy I bought the euporbia from said it wants to be dry in the winter, but if I was really worried, I could mist the soil, but...

Hi Ian, I don't really have anywhere outside I can put any of them, since I live in an apartment. My current collection includes a couple of Mamillarias, Aloes, a Crassula Ovata "gollum," a Kalanchoe bracteata, a Euphorbia obesa and an Avonia alstonii.

Thank you! I am very worried about it because I wasn't able to find much information about it after I brought it home. I have moved it back from the windowsill a bit and will not water it again for a while. I am in New England and my whole (small) collection lives on a shelf in a south facing window...