lizzyda

I have soil in my terrarium but I changed the planting to Tillandsias they are glued on old driftwood.

Natural Cork can be used to grow plants on but again this depends on the plants being used.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/terrarium/msg1003481814191.html?10

Keith

This post was edited by keithgh on Tue, Nov 11, 14 at 2:57

I thought about just using an orchid mix but I can't mentally get my head around the idea of not using soil. In the end I settled for making a mix of 2 parts orchid mix, one part perlite, one part potting soil and a good dose of very fine gravel with a sprinkling of slow release fertilizer. I'm going by instinct of this one. For me gardening is fun, what's the worse that can happen? Haha.

Elizabeth

I thought about just using an orchid mix but I can't mentally get my head around the idea of not using soil. In the end I settled for making a mix of 2 parts orchid mix, one part perlite, one part potting soil and a good dose of very fine gravel with a sprinkling of slow release fertilizer. I'm going by instinct of this one. For me gardening is fun, what's the worse that can happen? Haha.

Elizabeth

Depends somewhat on the plants. I do not use soil in my 90gal, or 55 gal terrs -- just straight sphag. I have grown orchids, African violets, ferns, Streptocarpus, Epipremnum, Kohleria, and Cryptanthus planted directly in the sphag with no problem.

Yaknow,..I've been thinking about setting up a tank for direct planting as opposed to my usual placing of container bound plants. Just recently came into possession of a bit of lf sphag.

Really think I might just break down and do this...been on my mind for a while now.

Thanks for the enablement. lol

Paul - A 55 and 90 gallon tank is impressive! I thought I was living on the edge when I purchased a 20 gallon tank this week. You and I basically live in the same zone. I'm finding it very hard to find quality plants that would work in a terrarium this time of year. Planting up my terrarium may have to wait until next year.

â¢Posted by lizzyda
I'm finding it very hard to find quality plants that would work in a terrarium this time of year.

In part it will depend on just what type of plants you're interested in. There are online places that sell terrarium plants but most of the offerings, I find, get too big far too fast for my desires. I prefer plants that remain small or take a long time to get big. Of course, the downside to plants that take a long time to grow out is that they tend to be far more expensive than the ones that grow like "weeds". Still it enables me to make a few dollars here and there to fund my plant addiction as I am occasionally able to sell off divisions of some of my mini plants.

Maybe if you could find some bark with lichen on it you'd get both the bark and plant in the same package. Lichen takes something like 70 years to grow so it won't overcrowd stuff. As for growing it, it does require good air quality which was always my problem with terrariums.