I am brand new to this forum but have received so much great information. Thank you to all of you. I am hoping you could give me some advice. All my research has helped but I am still bewildered.

I live in northern Minnesota. We have brutal winters and about the only thing that keeps me sane is some indoor gardening. Last year I over wintered many succulents in my sun porch. They only received the natural light they got from the west, south and north windows. The temperature got no lower than 50. Many of the plants made it through the winter but looked pretty sorry by spring. (Our spring started in June!)

I would enjoy actually growing and propagating succulents over the winter and would like to augment the light in my sun porch. Any ideas on what light I should use. Is florescent the way to go? Should I put the lights on a timer? By the way my sun porch is used as a room all winter (very small house, need every inch) but will sacrifice space for a nice set up.

BTW-I am transplanting my succulents to Al�s gritty mix. Love working with it. Thanks to Jessica for all the info. Printed it all out when I went on my ingredient hunt.