Don't know where to start, not really to share experiences, but more on sharing observations and experiments that I've done so far.
I started playing with succulents only in the past 2 years, but quite familiar in growing plants like flowers or fruits, etc.
In Indonesia everything can grow well, the main difference will be high land and low land, they will have around 10 degree celcius difference. Since you mentioned 90+F, then it will be the low land like Jakarta where I live.
Most of the succulents like Echinopsis, opuntias, euphorbias, aloes, sanse, agave, gymnos, adeniums etc. can grow pretty well in here. ( need to match on the zoning below), surprisingly Huernias growing well also.
So far I failed in almost all succulents that have thick/watery leaves like echeverias, sedums and crassulas, types of haworthias with thick skin can grow well, but not for haworthia with thinner skin.
I classified the place for keeping my succulents into 5 areas:
A. Shady, bright, no direct sunlight at all
B. Hot and bright , no direct sunlight
C. Hot and bright , 2 hours of morning direct sunlight
D. Hot and bright , 4 to 5 hours of direct sunlight
E. Hot and bright , 4 to 5 hours of screened direct sunlight ( with plastic and/or mosquito net)
Last year I grew everything in zone A and they did not performed well, this year I moved everything to zone B to E, every now and then I move them within the zones to find the correct spot for them, it seems like zone B and C works best for most of the succulents.
Personally I like to have plants that have different stressed color like brown and purple, so I like to explore the stress level of the plant to get the color that I want, I may kill some of them along the way, but since I only focus on cheap succulents ( I have set up the maximum price per cactus that I purchased), then those are still within my budget.
Since there are no winters in here, I think we will enjoy a long growing season, but the trade-off is our succulents are very difficult to flower, so far mammilarias prolifera, haworthia, stapelia gigantia, huernias, aloes, persian carpets, dorstenia can easily bloom, the rest are quite difficult. Some of the plants grow very fast, I don't know it is normal or not, I'll share some details later to you to see whether it is normal growth or not.
July and August will be the hottest months of the year, and I have started to see some sun burn indication on the plants in my zone C to E.
On top of the climate / sunlight limitation that I mentioned earlier, I think the watering regime, soil fertility may contribute to the growth. And I also believe that I can slowly train some of the plants that currently can not survive, to make them accustomed to our weather.
I am still experimenting on what can grow well and what can not, at a latter stage then I will try to train some plants that I failed before, also as a preparation for me when I bring some plants from other country directly to Indonesia.
They are in my shopping cart now, possibly I will get them this month to test my growing skill :
- haworthia truncatta
- Aloe Christmas
- Haworthia tesselata
- Gasteria Fuji mini
I will share some photos later to give a better picture on what is all about
