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Even with a grow light you’ll still have a dormancy period. I use grow lights too (t5’s) just be careful, some really will burn fast if they’re not acclimated to a lot of light slowly; in the wild they grow in dappled light under shrubs or bushes. The less light the better your roots will be, the more light the more energy gets taken from the root growth and focused on leaf growth. You want a balance both ideally, some tolerate more light than others but tons of it will cause a dormancy like state. Mine are under a glass shelf with full sun plants above them.

Haworthia adapted to live in nutrient poor soils so they don’t require much, I think a full strength feed would kill them honestly. I fertilize at half strength maybe even less only during the growing season (I use Schultz’s Succ/Cacti feed but just began putting a slow release fertilizer in the Akadama) some I potted with this. Others have plain old Osmocote. Some with both. Also I should mention ALWAYS bottom water these too.

Ultimately experience will be your best teacher but hopefully that’ll help you! This is a fun easy species, a week of Akadama you’ll be the Haworthia master! When I started I had so many questions, so thats a promising sign you’ll end up grow some beautiful plants!

I’ve only ever grown with artificial lights (unique living situation) so here’s some I can personally vouch for and recommend.

Sansi bulbs. I have the 24W model (fits in any standard desk lamp) and the 15W lights. These have special lenses that focus the beam very strongly in one spot, like a spotlight so it can be raised pretty high and cover a large-ish area. Don’t underestimate these, I put a plant too close to center and it turned jet black in 2 days. He bounced back just fine but these are definitely strong.

Strip lights. I’ve since upgraded my Sansi’s to these with a dedicated shelf. These aren’t as strong, I talked to a user on r/Succulents that reported haw etiolation 9 inches away from the light. However, once she lowered it to 5 inches they said they get amazing stress coloration. To put it in perspective, they said they had a Black Prince that’s always been green but has since gone black like the plant’s supposed to be.
As a bonus, here are the shelves I use, they are exactly the same dimensions as the lights.

Both are very capable depending on your needs.

Edit 11/26/19: Sooo, the strip lights have shot up to $200 for some reason. When I linked them, they were only $49. It’s either a stock issue or the new price, not sure.

Most of my indoor growing has been in a cool garage under some old 24” T-12 fixtures with a combination of daylight and ‘grow spectrum’ tubes. A couple of years ago I wanted to try LED, so now I also have a small (10”x22”) flat of misc succulents and bulbs under a Fluence Bioengineering Ray22 in ‘PhysioSpec Indoor’ spectrum.

I mainly got the fan in order to cool the LED lamp, and I have it mounted at the end of the setup, directed downward at a low angle over the lamp. Even though it’s on ‘Low’ and doesn’t blow directly on the plants, the air movement completely changed indoor growing for me. I can water with impunity now, the tops of the plants dry off quickly, everything is healthier, and the plants tolerate a soil mix with more moisture-retention. At first I had some rooted cuttings in that flat with an all-mineral soil mix, and they required almost daily watering.

Edit; The fan is on the same timer as the lights. I can run the fluorescents as close to the plants as I want, some are under 3” away, the leaves of others grow up between the tubes. 6” seems to be good for the LED, any closer and I start to see a lot of reddish coloration.

My plants are inside from around now until Aprilish. I use a 48x18” shelf, 10/20 trays fit on it nicely. There is a cheap clip fan on the end of each shelf that runs 24/7, this is imperative. I have some of these lights and some of these lights– they work fine. They’re on timers for 12 hours or so. The LEDs are tricky because they’re too strong to put very close to the plants, oh well. I have another smaller shelf that’s basically the same set up for cuttings and seedlings.

Edit: fixed link maybe

Sure, I use these pots: https://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Starting-Seedlings-Succulents-Terracotta/dp/B01MZARDKS

I also find them on eBay and buy them there sometimes. They are pretty thick plastic for the size of the pot and I haven't had any trouble with them snapping in the sun yet. I also don't have to line the bottom of the pot with anything since my mix is (mostly) too big to fall out of the holes on the bottom which is nice.

As you said they are very nice for seedlings and for a lot of my other plants, once their root systems develop more they will probably want deeper pots.

I think the morning direct light and afternoon indirect it's been getting for a long time contributed a lot but I'm using these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RTVD1HJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I don't know if it's been long enough to say it's the best option, but I've heard a lot of good things about this one specifically here in r/haworthia : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BRKT56T/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_4VprDbKA7T01X at a lower price point! Will make updates as my haworthia get used to the new grow lights, but they look good so far! When in doubt, you can always lift the light further away!

I don't have super helpful advice as I don't have the space for a large collection. I use my lights year around, tho I truck my plants outside as much as possible during the summer.

I have these bulbs.

And I just pop one into a desk lamp, which is plugged into this automatic timer.

The timer does have a slight learning curve to it, but it's so nice to have something that does all the work of turning my light off and on.

The bulbs are great and cheap. I usually rotate my plants closer and further away every other day or so. I find if I leave them directly under it (about 5-6 inches away) for too many days, they will skip right thru pretty stress to ugly stress. In the dark depths of winter, I might pull out my red and blue light gooseneck as a supplement to make me feel better, but I really don't think I'll need it, and that usually has to be within 2-3 inches tops to be any good.

It’s these: MUZHI 12PACK Deep Round White Flower Pot, Sturdy Plastic Round Tall Succulent Pots Bulk Indoor Plant 4" https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076WX5B8T/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_BJIhDbHC65PK6

I thought they were 4x6, but I guess they’re 4x5. They have a few other sizes too. They’re nice because they’re white, so if they gat a lot of sun, the roots stay cool.

I used this - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011HXVEQM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_JgmvDb8ZNPDHS

Until I left it outside and it got rained on and clumped up.

Then I stopped by Lowe's and got one of Miracle Grow's organic fertilizers that is in a 3:1:2 ratio as well. Well, almost 3:1:2. It's actually 3.33:1:2 ratio. The Jobe's fertilizer at Lowe's with the exact same labeling isn't 3:1:2 so keep an eye on that.

I soak my plants for 30-60 minutes so they get a good deep drink. When I first went to Bonsai Jack I didn't soak them long enough and they were struggling. After I started fertilizing and soaking long term my plants perked right up and actually took off.

Nice plants, despite their long journey!

Okay, I’m gonna show my newbie-ness with this question: how can you tell when a haw (like your Comptoniana) is beginning to etoliate? Is it that the outer leaves get long? The new growth gets long? They aren’t as compact?

With my babies under a questionable light source, I really wanna catch any etoliation in my “prettier” ones as soon as possible. These lights have me so confused: some of my babies are getting burnt, others are etoliating like crazy (glaring at my planifolia and cymbiformis Duval: these guys have elongated leaves quite noticeably).

Yes, Id recommend a grow light. I use these guys. They're fairly cheap, dont take tons of energy, the leds dont get hot, and provide the proper light range for succulents.

I have heard really good things about gritty mixes like this: https://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Jack-Succulent-Cactus-Soil/dp/B0194E9RW4/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2KYYV2PIY74LK&keywords=bonsai+jack+succulent+soil+mix&qid=1572720029&sprefix=bonzai+jack+%2Caps%2C209&sr=8-4

I had to contend with a basement once upon a time, so nothing’s impossible. If you only have a north facing window, treat yourself to a couple of LED grow lights. I was skeptical until I tried them and was surprised they even brought out nice coloration of the leaves. They can supplement that north window you have. I use these:


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CVTJLD8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_oxR1Db44FPYHE

i think it's a retusa; i have the same one (leaf shape, color, and the way the pups are growing in are all the same as yours) and have been trying to get an accurate id on it for a while lol. retusa seems to have slightly less pointy leaves than mirabilis, which is what makes me lean toward retusa, but it's hard to tell because there's some inconsistency with photos/documentation online.

some retusa photos that look like they match:

https://planetdesert.com/collections/all-products/products/haworthia-retusa-cactus-cacti-succulent-real-live-plant

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VBSX42F