Once I’ve found succulents I have fallen in love with them, the variety, the colors and shapes, the low maintenance (I, probably as many of you can’t dedicate as much time as I would like to my hobby and that doesn't work with high maintenance plants - succulents don't need to much time, you don't need to water them every day and even if you forget to water them for some time they will survive)

Living in the UK makes it difficult to grow succulents in the garden. They will not tolerate the winter temperatures (even in the south) and temperatures even in Spring and Autumn aren't high enough.
Succulents need light and thats something that I believe we can’t provide enough in the UK.

I couldn’t find enough information about growing succulents indoors, but from what I could read and collate I decided to give it a try. Mostly the concern when growing succulents indoors is the lights. Temperatures indoors are stable and high enough for succulents to grow.

So I started small, a couple of plants under a Desk Lamp. I found that 6500k daylight CFL lamps were what I should be looking for and that around 3000lm/sqf is ideal. But I was able to grow some Haworthias at 1750lm. I used this lamp on a home made pot 30x30cm. At 25w its very cheap to run.

Since I’m keeping my succulents indoors, I dont get a lot of natural light so I decided to use a timer and keep the lights working at the cheap period (Economy 7 - night period). This ends up being half of the cost during 7hours (midnight to 7AM). The timer is setup to start at 7PM and runs until 7AM every day. Allowing for 12H of light. Many growers of succulents advise going up to 16H. Most probably I will extend to 16H during the summer to provide some sense of seasons to the plants and during winter come back to 12H.

As my collection started to increase I needed more space and decided to build a structure to support more plants.

I also decided to go for small individual pots that sit in gravel trays (So that you can water the pots and water can drain into the gravel tray). I purchased these pots as they provide a nice fit to the structure I made and are also cheap and good quality. The Gravel Trays I got from Amazon here
I have yet to finish the Succulent area and as such lights are not yet sorted but currently I’m running 3 of these over an area of 140x80cm.



Will try and update with more details as soon as I have some picture of the structure

Succulents Soil is mostly focus on 2 main characteristic: very good drainage and soil that allows good aeration.
Succulents dont like soils that retain to much water - This is probably the main factor to kill a succulent, too much water. As such you want to find a soil that retains some water, but that allows most of the water to drain down.
If the soil is too compacted the roots wont be able to breathe as such a soil that allows for enough aeration is very important.
Most of the soil mixes for cactus dont provide these 2 essential characteristics and as such I found that its simpler and cheaper to make my own soil. There’s so many references online that sometimes its difficult to choose.
By no means I’m assuming that my recipe is the best one, but I’ve tried several mixes and very happy with the final result:
1 Part - Coir - Buy Here
1 Part - Horticultural Grit - Buy Here
1 Part - Horticultural Sharp Sand - Buy Here
2 Parts - Perlite - Buy Here
I tend to buy a bigger quantity and mix it so I can have soil mix always available.
If you are wondering where is the soil/compost, the answer is simple, it isn’t. I feed my succulents with fertilizer and as such not having compost or soil allows more control over the feeding and its nutrients. This is very similar to some of the methods for growing vegetables on sandy soil that contains no nutrients and then providing these through water/fertilizer.
Coir is the coarse fiber from the outer husk of coconuts and will provide some water retention but also aditional aeration due to low compression it provides to the soil also making the soil very loose.
Perlite - is a non-organic additive used to aerate the soil. Its volcanic glass that is heated to high temperatures. Its very light allowing for very good aeration and some water retention.
Grit and Sharp sand provide the volume without too much water retention. Grit will also help the soil avoiding compression that doesnt provide enough aeration
Try your own mixes, what ever works for you and makes your succulents grow happy:)