The impact of lighting on the growth of succulent plants
Do you know this? Little experiences with succulent plants, the impact of lighting on the growth of succulent plants, next[] the editor will introduce.
Among the many elements of growing flowers, the most important is lighting. As the saying goes, "All things grow rely on the sun", sufficient lighting can make the plant grow short and strong, increase resistance, bloom abundantly, and look lovely. Of course, different plants have different lighting requirements. Too much lighting can also burn the plant, causing ugly yellow spots on the surface, affecting ornamental value, or even death. Succulent plants are the same!
So what kind of lighting is considered reasonable? This has always been a problem that confuses me. I can say that to this day, I am still vague about some concepts. The key is that there is no good standard for judging the intensity of lighting. This is somewhat similar to the judgment of wetness in watering (of course, there are now some intuitive and simple methods), and everyone's judgment criteria are different. Because the knowledge we usually get comes from flower books, with a few vague terms that leave us at a loss. If there were methods similar to those for judging wetness, such as the bamboo skewer method, the pot-lifting method, etc., it would be great if everyone had rules to follow!
Let's start with some ready-made knowledge from books. Lighting has length and intensity, length refers to the duration of sunlight exposure in a 24-hour day, and intensity refers to the strength of sunlight reaching the ground. Based on the light requirements of flowering plants (mainly divided by the light time required for bud differentiation), they can be divided into long-day flowers, medium-day flowers, and short-day flowers; based on the light intensity preference, they can be divided into sunny flowers, neutral flowers, and shady flowers. The purpose of these two classifications is different, but there is some overlap for the same plant. That is to say, long-day flowers are generally sunny flowers, such as jasmine, pomegranate, and lotus, while short-day flowers are mostly shady flowers, such as most ornamental leaf plants. However, it is not absolute. Some flowers like long-day lighting, which is conducive to bud differentiation, but they are afraid of strong sunlight, a point that many cacti and succulents reflect, such as the common Guanyin lotus. For example, the common chrysanthemum is a typical sunny flower but also a short-day flower, so it only blooms when the daylight becomes shorter in autumn. From this, we can also make simple judgments from some common sense experience, such as flowers that bloom in summer are definitely long-day flowers and most of them are sunny flowers.
What is confusing now is the concept of lighting. For example, strong light, sunbathing, direct light, scattered light, sufficient lighting, semi-shade, etc. The most frustrating thing is that some books say that a certain plant likes strong light but is afraid of sunbathing, and I really can't understand it. How to correctly distinguish these concepts is very important for us to grow healthy flowers. Of course, we still have ways to use light meters to judge, but it's too professional, and where can most flower enthusiasts have such good equipment!
Next, let's take the lighting needs of succulent plants as an example to try to explain the judgment of plant lighting needs, hoping it can be helpful to everyone.
Firstly, we can determine that this type of plant generally likes sunlight, which is a big premise. Therefore, when buying plants, we must understand the basic habits of the plant, which is very important, as mentioned in the previous few articles. According to the intensity of light preference, I think basically all succulent plants are neutral flowers or above. Because for succulent plants, their body shape evolution is like this, the purpose is to drought resistance, and in arid areas, there should be relatively strong lighting (of course, I have not investigated the original habitats of these plants, this is just my speculation), otherwise it would be difficult to form a desert climate. Therefore, except for epiphytic plants from tropical rainforests, the rest should like plenty of sunlight, even the soft-leafed百合科 Vireya plants that we generally think like semi-shade.
After understanding the basic premise, we start from the angle of the least likely to cause problems, just like watering "better dry than wet". I think lighting should be "better strong than weak". Of course, it is undeniable that different varieties of succulent plants have different abilities to withstand sunlight. For example, the common Disocactus, although belonging to the cactus family, is a typical short-day flower, meaning that only when the lighting time is less than 5 hours a day can it form flower buds, so Disocactus usually blooms in winter and spring (now some markets often sell blooming Disocactus during the National Day, but don't think it's a new variety, it's just been treated with shading and low temperature to form flower buds ahead of time, blooming during the National Day. In fact, as long as the planting method is correct, it will bloom again in December). However, except for the noon sunlight in summer (12 pm - 3 pm), which should be appropriately shaded, the rest of the time can fully enjoy the sunlight, which is proven by the Epihexis荷花 I've been growing (this is still considered an epiphytic variety).
As for the different planting effects produced under different lighting intensities to meet the aesthetic needs of different people, this is a matter of personal preference. For example, some succulent plants look greener and more lovely in scattered light (my understanding is the light intensity under tree shade on a sunny day).
It should be noted that the above discussion is for the normal care period of adult plants, while for seedlings, newly potted, newly propagated, or newly moved plants, there will definitely be a period of adaptation.
The specific introduction of the impact of lighting on the growth of succulent plants shared in this article is for netizens to refer to and learn from.