Wasted $45 on a fancy grow light that barely worked for my succulents

I bought this sleek LED grow light off Amazon because the reviews were glowing, said it was perfect for indoor plants. Set it up over my succulent shelf in my apartment near Seattle, and after 3 weeks my echeverias were all stretching out and looking sad. Turns out the light was way too weak, only like 20 watts, and succulents need intense full spectrum light. Anyone else fall for those cheap grow lights that look cool but do nothing?

3 comments

3 Comments

stellanelson15d ago

I bought a 30 watt full spectrum light off Amazon for $35 and my succulents have been fine for over a year now. Maybe your light was legit just underpowered or you had it too far away from the plants. Most cheap grow lights need to be like 4-6 inches from succulents to actually work.

craig.john15d ago

Wait, are you telling me I could have saved my poor, crispy echeveria with just 4 inches of distance instead of the 2 feet I had it at? lmao. Yeah I think I was treating my grow light like a ceiling lamp instead of a sun-forced proximity device. My succulents were practically doing yoga trying to stretch toward that weak little blurple glow. Now I feel like I owe them an apology for making them reach for months like they were in a plant version of the hunger games. Honestly though, your setup sounds way smarter than my 'just wing it and hope for the best' approach.

barbarah1915d ago

My haworthia ended up sunburned from a cheap clip-on light I left too close for like 3 days straight. Nobody ever warns you that these lights can actually scorch leaves if they're too strong up close.