I was given a handful of succulents in 2020 and was immediately stressed out by the thought of them stretching that I just put them under a grow light ASAP. I love succulents as a whole but there is something about cacti that just speak to me and wanted to add some to my plant collection down the road once I figured out the whole grow light situation.

I began researching seriously on grow lights and what is actually going to do something in early August 2021 and finally just pulled the trigger on a Mars Hydro. It’s like the sun is in the apartment, which during the winter months isn’t a bad thing, ahaha.

My rainbow cactus has been doing really well under there. I’ve taken progress photos now for a while and felt save enough to put some cacti back on my wish list for 2022.

BUT…..

Now I’m kind of wanting to turn it off and have them sit in my south facing window during the summer. I think I just want to change things up due to being stuck in the same apartment for 2 years (2020-2022) but that really makes me nervous about stretching. I have south facing windows but live in a humid, can be cloudy for days kind-of-state, and perhaps they might not get enough direct sunlight.

The second reason for turning off the grow light is the Mars Hydro is a bit expensive to run and I’m so nervous about the cacti stretching. 

Did I say I’m worried about stretching? Ahaha

While writing this I feel like I’ve talked myself out of turning off the grow light but maybe I’ll give it a whirl this summer if I’m brave enough.  To help change things up I moved the succulent and cacti display into the office which gets direct sun for the rest of the day now since spring came around finally  

At the very least I’m not turning it off until May….but probably won’t turn the grow light off.