Unless you have giant, south facing windows with direct sunlight all day... It's very difficult to give your succulents the light they need. Using grow lights is an easy way to help your plants grow compact, colorful, and healthy even if you don't have the perfect window light.

However, using grow lights often sounds tricky, confusing, or just expensive. After over 7 years of growing succulents exclusively under grow lights, I've figured out what works, what doesn't, and where to find grow lights that work without breaking the bank.

To make things even easier, I've put together a grow light cheat sheet you can download for free. It shows at-a-glance what grow lights work best for succulents. Click here to get it. It will be super helpful.

3 Apects of Using Grow Lights You Need to Know

Many people focus on finding the "right" or "best" lights for their succulents. While the light you choose is important, it's not the only thing that impacts how well grow lights will work for your succulents.

There are 3 factors that contribute to the effectiveness of your grow lights:

• How bright the light is
• The distance from the light to the top of the plant
• The amount of time the lights are on

If you are using grow lights and your succulents are still stretched out, you can adjust any of these three factors to improve the situation. Once you've purchased lights, it's usually easiest to change the distance and time. However, you can also add additional lights to increase the brightness of the light.

I'll cover each of these topics in more depth and give specific suggestions for each below.

Best Grow Lights for Succulents

The good news is, succulents will benefit from exposure to just about any LED light as long as it's white and bright.

Other plants may not respond the same way, but after 7 years of growing succulents under basic LED shop lights, my results speak for themselves.

Hundreds of succulents have grown under these lights and only a couple haven't maintained their color. They aren't "grow lights". They're just super bright, daylight colored LEDs.

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Now, this setup might seem fancy or much bigger than what you need. My husband custom built this for me after not being able to find a shelf setup I liked, but we used these lights. I love this setup, but you don't have to have something like this in order to use grow lights for your plants.

If you just have a few succulents, this can look as simple as a desk lamp with a bright LED bulb. To prove that this works, I've been using the setup below in my office (which doesn't have windows) and the succulents have stayed colorful and compact.

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Here's what I recommend you look for when purchasing a "grow light" for your succulents:

• LED or fluorescent bulbs — see my personal recommendations and examples on Amazon here
• Bulbs do NOT need to be labeled as a “grow light” — they can simply be regular fluorescent or LED bulbs
• What color of light: “Daylight” spectrum — preferably a color temperature of 5000 – 6500K
• As bright as possible — if possible, look for a bulb that lists how many lumens it is, the higher the better

These suggestions are based on two goals: inexpensive and effective. There are a lot of really expensive grow lights out there. I've tried some and had good results, others didn't impress me.

At the end of the day, I've had the best experience using super bright LED bulbs and paying attention to the amount of time I have them on and how close they are to my succulents.

Many people use and/or suggest using red-blue lights. I don't like the look of these in my home. I want to have my succulents displayed around the house and the "blurple" light isn't attractive.

While I tried those for a while, I've actually had better results with white lights. Plus, it means I can have succulents anywhere I can plug in a lamp.

Getting the right brightness or number of lights is a little bit trickier... but if you get the brightest lights you can and use the time and distance recommendations below, you won't have to do any complex calculations.

If you notice your succulents are stretching out, you can adjust the time or distance to increase their exposure. If that still isn't enough, you can add another light.

How long should I leave grow lights on?

All succulents need light and dark each day to maintain a healthy growing cycle. I recommend leaving grow lights on anywhere from 10-16 hours per day during normal daylight hours. If your succulents are also next to a window that receives bright light, you can leave the grow lights on for less time.

Using a smart outlet is a great way to keep the lights on a specific amount of time so you don't have to remember to turn the lights on and off at a specific time. You can simply set a schedule and let them turn on and off automatically. The smart outlet also allows you to easily adjust the schedule if you notice your succulents need more or less light.

The smart outlet I have actually keeps track of the amount of energy used so I know exactly how much my lights cost to run each month.

As mentioned at the beginning, you can increase or decrease the amount of light your succulents get if they start to stretch out or show signs of burning. Though it doesn't happen often, it is possible for succulents to burn under grow lights.

If your succulents haven't been under bright light (inside or outside), I recommend starting your succulents under grow lights for a very short amount of time and gradually increasing the time over a few weeks.

You might start with 3-4 hours per day and then each week increase the time by 2 hours. That way the succulents can acclimate to the increase in light.

How close should grow lights be to my succulents?

Start by placing the grow lights about 12" away from the top of your succulents. Over time you can move the light closer to the plant if you notice early signs of stretching. However, avoid placing the lights closer than 6" from the top of the plant.

While LED lights are much cooler than old incandescent bulbs, they do still put off heat and can burn the plants.

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If you aren't able to move your lights closer to your plants (I run into this with my plant stand), you can set the succulents on a stand or upside down bowl to move them closer to the light.

A few of my smaller plants are on a decorative cake stand so they're about 6" away from the lights.

How much does it cost to use grow lights?

I love the walnut grow light plant stand that my husband built for me! The biggest question I'm always asked about it is - how expensive is it to have grow lights on all the time? I run my grow lights for 13 hours a day, every day of the year. In this video, I walk you through just how much it costs to run my grow lights.

Do succulents need grow lights indoors?

The short answer is, no. However, I typically recommend it especially if you're growing succulents like Echeveria that need a lot of light to maintain their color. If you have a window that gets bright light all day your succulents will likely survive just fine, especially if you water infrequently. However, when the days get shorter in the winter they won't get as much light as in the summer and are more prone to stretching out.

Grow lights are a great way to supplement the natural light your succulents are already getting and as you can see from the suggestions above, they don't have to be complicated or expensive.

For another great resource on grow lights, be sure to check out Epic Grow Lights.

And don't forget to grab your free grow light cheat sheet too.