Hi all,
Having no sunny, safe space for my cacti, I was thinking: anybody experience growing cacti indoors?
I'd like to grow my two 5 inch cacti (pachanoi and peruvianius) and cacti seed over winter - preferably in the same grow box.
So I found this article online and got the following ideas…
Thinking about grow area of 1m x 35cm - about 3 square feet. About 3 feet high.
Putting in a heat mat, then two plastic pots (30cm wide) plus a seed tray (covered with shade cloth) and covered by a 80Watt T5 high output 6500k fluorescent light with reflector on adjustable chains, on for 18hrs a day.
All this in a pine wood grow box, painted white inside, ventilation holes on top, cupboard style doors on front for access.
Plan is to put them outdoors when they outgrow the box or once I get a garden.

Would love to hear your ideas, cheers!

I have some modest experience growing indoors. I think your idea is rather brilliant. However I think your light may be a bit much. I've never had to use a light to grow indoors. As long as it was near a window with the shades cracked they grew just fine. 18hrs daily at that wattage seems a bit much, You can give your cacti too much sun, which comes with it's own host of problems. I'd look into it before you purchase your lights, especially if they're seedlings I could foresee that being a problem for you. Also depending on how cold your house gets during winter, I wouldn't expect a lot of growth over the winter season. Either way good luck! You seem to have your bases covered.

seedlings are fine under floro lights- no shade cloth needed unless you are moving them in from a dark space?
best to sprout them under the light they will grow under for the first stage of life.
i've had good results 2-4" under floro shop tubes

more mature cuttings may grow ok- but wont thrive and may grow skinny under lights other than hid lamps. mine did great 24" from 1000w metal halides

im not an expert gardner or anything, but i did notice whenever ive planted a peruvianas in the same container with anything else the peruviana's roots always end up taking over the other cactus roots so fast they would end up looking malnurished. just from my experience...