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 Want some green to look at in your home but you cant even keep weeds alive? Want to look at bugs with zero risk of touching those icky things? Want to get into gardening but you don't believe in manual labor? Moss Terrariums are for you! Moss terrariums or mossariums, are a type of vivarium, a self-contained ecosystem where moss is central to the design. Mosses are popular components of terrariums because of their lush, green character, ease of maintenance, and resilience. Because mosses do not have traditional root systems, they absorb their water through their leaf surface - making them ideal for enclosed terrariums where the air can be kept at a high humidity and constant temperature. Mossariums require very little maintenance - generally only a re-misting/watering every 6 - 12 months and trimming any plants, and cleaning the glass. If placed in a good location with lots of indirect light or some artificial light, they will thrive in these mini ecosystems for years. To compliment the mosses themselves or add some color, many species of "regular" plants also do great in these conditions: ferns, fittonias, ivy, pepperomia, etc. In addition to plants, mossariums also contain bugs! Springtails are very common as part of the cleanup crew and longterm health of a mossarium. Homemade Examples I started making mossariums 2 years ago after making one as an impromptu christmas gift, and I thought "wow I'm really enjoying the heck out of making this and looking at the result of it, this is great". I have since made about 2 dozen of them in various sizes and designs, for myself, as comission, or to give away as a gift. I'm definitely no expert but 99% of them are still alive, including the very first one, so I'd say that's good enough. Below are some examples in different formats:             Getting started Technique-wise there is not much to know other than the basic layering process which is common across all mossarium types. There are some online guides that will cover this much more indepth than I can type out here, like this excellent basic step-by-step construction guide. For the container, you can go with any glass or acrylic container you like as long as you can seal it (doesnt have to be 100% airtight). Be careful with some glass, especially cylindrical ones like vases, because cheap ones will have "banding" flaws and it makes it hard to actually properly see into it from the sides. Use a ruler or something to check for any warping. I would highly recommend against using the classic distillation bottle or other bottle shape, or anything with a very narrow opening. They are perfectly doable but unless you have specialized tools and a lot of patience, I guarantee those bottles will frustrate the hell out of you for a first time attempt. I get all my glass containers from a nearby thriftshop where even the huge vases and bowls are sold for under $5. If you want to start with a new container but keep the price low - think vases, food storage containers, store display boxes, etc. For substrate, any petshop that deals in reptile and/or fish supplies or gardening center can get you set up on the cheap. For the false bottom layer you can use basically any 3-5mm gravel - aquarium gravel, paving gravel, even hydropellets or clay pellets. Coco fiber and sphagnum are both sold in dried bricks, expand greatly in size when wet, and you only need to break off a few chunks for each mossarium. If you are going to include other live plants, you'll need potting soil and some aeration material. A mix of orchid subtrate and potting soil, or some perlite, to make sure the soil stays aerated. For hardscape, that is, things like rocks, sticks, ornaments, and other design elements, the choice is up to you. Those same pet shops often have spiderwood, rocks, and other hardscape materials already available and those work great. However, nothing stops you from just collecting pretty rocks and sticks from outdoors and going for a fully native scape. You can go all natural, or you can make what are esentially dioramas with live plants - up to you. As for plants, there are a couple of species that are almost impossible to kill once they're set up in this kind of environment. Pepperomia, Ferns, Creeping Fig, Fittonia, Syngonium, Polka dot plants, and prayer plants are all available pretty much everywhere and will thrive in a mossarium. Do not use succulents or cacti. You'll want some bugs. Springtails should be a part of any setup - they love nothing more than eating decaying plant matter and fungus in a humid environment, and are the cleanup crew that keeps your mossarium thriving. They'll jump around similar to fleas when agitated, hence their name. You can get them at any reptile pet shop where they are sold as live feed for frogs.Just look at these cute lil' guys As for where to get moss, you have some options. You can buy moss species online, but usually this is either in extremely small quantities for aquariums and thus expensive, or large bulk crates of 5+lb. That does not sound like much, but I trust me when I say that is entirely too much moss. You can also harvest it yourself - unless you live in a literal desert you more than likely have several native moss species nearby, probably on your roof, gutters, or in between driveway tiles. If you're in a temperate environment and near even a tiny piece of nature with trees you're likely to run into mood moss, star moss, fern moss, and in particular sheetmoss/hypnum moss. All of them grow in pretty large mats and clusters that are easy to spot. Bring plastic containers and a small digging/cutting tool (I use a tiny paint trowel) and remove small patches of mats. Don't go tearing entire moss mats off of trees and ripping up entire balls of mood moss from a nature preserve - moss patches on the edges of walkways, from bricks, or from bare construction ground work just as well once you know what to look for. Limit yourself, few handfuls from different locations is enough for a medium sized mossarium.  Depending on how into it you are, there's a lot of accessories and tools you can end up buying but in my experience you only really need two to make your life easier during construction - a set of long tweezers or equivalent (chopsticks work just as well), and some kind of soft tamper for putting pressure on soil/moss without crushing it. I personally use a silicone bottlecleaner for that, but you can also just use pieces of rubber on a stick. A brush of some kind is also handy for removing dirt/cocofiber from leaves and moss.  Basic shopping list
Construction and design This guide covers the basics of construction better than I can type out, and you'll see its not the actual construction thats the hard part. Once you get down to it you can create a mossarium in about half an hour if you want. Often it's the design process that takes the longest, and sometimes it's just a happy coincidence of finding the right container or centerpiece that inspires you, or some rock shape that gives you an idea. That being said a lot of the same design guides you can find online for aquarium and bonsai such as Iwagumi work for mossariums too, as well as other common principles like the rule of 3. Keep the intended viewing angle of your mossarium in mind - is it going to be on a shelf mostly visible from only one side, or do you want something viewable from all sides? For large pieces of hardscape like rocks or wood that need fixing, pure silicone works fine for attaching basically anything to glass, but do not use it directly on plants or moss. For plants or moss, cyanoacrylate-based superglue is the best choice. It cures fast, even underwater, is safe for animals and plants, and you can use it to directly glue moss or plants onto hardscape. Protip when fixing hardscape using superglue: saturate a cotton ball with some glue and use this as a medium between the two items you want to glue together, giving much more contact than just directly glueing things together. Maintenance Light: Never put a mossarium in direct sunlight. Not only do most mosses not tolerate long stretches of direct sun, it'll turn your enclosed glass jar into a pressure cooker. At best it'll kill everything inside, at worst it'll crack and spill everything everywhere. Put it in a bright location and/or supplemented with some artificial lights. 3 of my mossariums are in an open plan office away from any windows and they're doing just fine. You don't need grow or heating lights, I use a set of 3W LED lamps for shelf lighting for above the jars in a darker part of a room that does get some indirect light and they also do just fine. Water: Look for condensation on the glass: if there is condensation in the morning but none during the day - the humidity inside is perfect. Is it always condensated, leave the jar open for a day, close it again and recheck. If it's never condensated, you'll want to mist inside the jar. If possible, use rain water or softened water instead of hard tap water when misting. Temperature: Place your mossarium outside of any drafty areas (prevents condensation on the drafty area of the glass) and preferably nowhere where it gets colder than 15c. In sealed mossariums, some kind of fungus or mildew growth explosion at the start is all but guaranteed. You can boil all your hardscapes, wash all your moss, sterilize all your fiber and sphagnum, microwave your containers, and you will still get fungal threads from the aerial spores that made it in there during construction. In my experience you'll see a big fungal growth in the first 1 - 4 weeks while the springtail pop is still balancing and the plants are still getting used to their new environment. After 2-3 months or so the mossarium is usually stable, and if you want to for aesthetic reasons, you can remove any leftover mold/lichen by dabbing some diluted peroxide or vinegar on it with a cotton swab. Fishstick fucked around with this message at 03:03 on Feb 25, 2024 |
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Feb 24, 2024 00:32
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Reserved because I accidentally posted before I was done
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Feb 24, 2024 00:34
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Currently working on a mossarium starting from what I think used to be an outdoor candle wind protection... thing. 60cents from the thriftstore. Some cleaning and sanding later, it looks pretty good  I have a lot of christmas led lights left over, and the majority are water-resistant, so I wanted to do something with that in this one as well, in keeping with the former function of the glass. To that end, turning an old jam-jar into a lantern for the centerpiece  Height-testing, the top of the styrofoam will be the lowest point, probably.  To be continued once I can tear myself away from Helldivers Fishstick fucked around with this message at 15:31 on Feb 24, 2024 |
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Feb 24, 2024 10:21
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mrfart posted:
That could look really nice! Wooden figurines pair real well, there's also a wood type called "mopani wood" you can find in aquarium stores that often has very soft organic curves, knots, and openings that you can easily carve into something unique:  If it's natural driftwood I would definitely boil or (briefly) microwave it before using to get rid of anything nasty that might have hitched if your dad doesn't already do something like that as part of the process. mrfart posted:
In an open terrarium you're just going to have to clear dead leaves and such yourself like with a houseplant, not an issue if it's a moss-only terrarium though. If you don't you'll get mould and fungus; which shouldn't harm the moss or plant but won't look or smell very nice. Healthy terrariums basically smell like wet forest floor, it's kind of wonderful. In enclosed ones you're going to have mould issues pretty much constantly without any kind of detritivores, especially if there's any dead plant material left in it.There's honestly no reason not to add springtails to any of the terraria you make - they're tiny (about the size of fleas) and mostly chill just under the soil unless there's an abundant food source like a dead leaf or root. Their poop and remains also act as fertilizer for your plants, and once most of the mould is gone the population self-regulates. I keep a small breeder colony in a tupperware box with wet spagnum on the bottom, flyscreen, and clay hydropellets on top. The springtails love the surface area of the water-retaining pellets, and this way if I need to add any springtails to a new terrarium I can just pick up a pellet and shake em into their new home. 
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Feb 25, 2024 02:56
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Slugworth posted:Because of this thread, every glass vessel I see is immediately judged by its terrariumability. Those are some nice varieties! They look a little on the dry side though. Good chance that creek has giant mats of hypnum/sheet moss too during low water too. I keep my "waiting" moss in a transparant tupperware with some wet sphagnum and half open in indirect light, jar should work just as well. Keep it humid and out of direct sunlight _____! posted:Did you know Winter is not the best time to try to get moss? Frozen ground, who would have thought? Good start! You're almost guaranteed to have some pillbugs and other soil critters in there, I almost always get some kind of stowaway even if it's just an earwig or a couple of ants. Leave a piece of natural wood in your yard on the ground for a week or two and you'll have no trouble finding em  . Just keep in mind some pillbug species will happily eat up all your moss (springtails will not).If you'd like some constructive tips, you've probably got more soil/cocol than you need for that moss if you're removing it with big sod clumps, and it might be a good idea to put in a layer of sphagnum between the false bottom and moss like that - helps keep humidity stable. Maybe remove some of the bigger unnecessary sod before putting them in a jar, leaves more room for more moss and some rocks/etc as an attention piece. You don't have to get super fancy but even a couple twigs or a single pretty rock does a lot for a simple jar! Here's one with only 2 moss species and a single Ryuoh stone I made for my desk at the office:  Edit: And some that are of a friend's making: Paving stone and some old busted up paving bricks + backyard moss  Forest moss/plants in a thriftstore deco element  These two are a little more "technical" because there's a wick running from the false bottom into the sphagnum the moss is on. Fishstick fucked around with this message at 08:15 on Feb 28, 2024 |
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Feb 28, 2024 08:06
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_____! posted:Oh yeah definitely ignore the 2 on the sides - I was trying to err on the side of caution so as to not hurt the roots. Very much just experimenting and figuring it out on those first ones. If it stops raining today I may dump those and start over. For gravel I usually go just an inch or under depending on how big the jar is. Thin layer of sphagnum or sphagnum/coco fiber mix on top (about half the thickness of the gravel?) as a base - I also like to use this layer to play around with what I want the final "layout" to be in terms of depths/heights and where the hardscape(s) will go. For the moss, one thing you can do is wash it - just rinse it with some distilled water until most of the soil is gone. Moss doesnt have any roots so really you don't need any of it. The hardcore bonsai people that play with moss don't use any of the original substrate, you just need a surface the moss can eventually attach to. I personally like to leave a little layer of soil/substrate attached so the moss doesnt have to waste time/energy regrowing all those rhyzomes first.
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Feb 28, 2024 14:51
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Nice wet spring day, ideal for some harvestin. Got a nice haul of threadmoss, starmoss, hypnum and even some moodmoss _____! posted:
Isopods are easy to find, just toss over any piece of wood in the forest soil. Springtails are gonna be difficult, not only because they're like 0.2 - 1mm big but because they jump around like fleas. You can get a box of them as feeder insects from pet shops for under $5 and then breed those indefinitely with a piece of mouldy bread and some bbq charcoal. If the mold starts to get out of control you can dab it with diluted vinegar or peroxide. If it's not a full on mould explosion yet you can also try misting with diluted chamomille tea which acts as a mild fungicide. Fishstick fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Mar 2, 2024 |
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Mar 2, 2024 18:25
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Slugworth posted:I made a terrarium. Few different unknown species of moss from an NC creek, a string plant of some sort, and a piece of driftwood I had laying around from an old aquarium. I see similar string plants in terrariums, so I'm hopeful it does well. It seems to have a narrow opening at the top so you can probably keep it open topped easily for a while, takes a while for a jar to dry out if theres no air movement. The string plants look like string of hearts, which are probably not going to survive long in a closed jar, but I've never tried them personally before. If you want to stick with a climber (I think you should, would look neat if you can guide it around/on your driftwood), Creeping figs look a bit similar and do ridiculously well in jars and are very easy to make clones of from trimmings. String of Turtles, which are completely unrelated to String of Hearts and are actually a pepperomia, look similar too and also do real well in closed jars.
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Mar 3, 2024 21:42
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Slugworth posted:
Thats the fun part about harvesting from nature - if its already growing in a mossy area you know they probably like similar conditions so it'll likely work out!
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Mar 4, 2024 09:30
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Clingfilm works as a temp lid. You often see corks used but I'm not a fan of corks in these jars because of mildew issues and the fact that they block light. I get glass lids looking for things like glass serving trays, glass plates, cheese/pie covers, ashtray bases, glass coasters, etc. Sometimes you just have to get lucky of having Things Fitting Into Things. Also: Belgian or Dutch? Can't tell if that's a GVA paper 
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Mar 6, 2024 12:18
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mrfart posted:Haha, well spotted. Belgian, yes. They used the paper at the thrift store. Belgian hi-5. Here's my assorted "possible future lids?" cabinet/box, most of that is also easily findable in thrift stores. Glass coasters are super common and work great for small jars, also things like ethanol candle containers.  
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Mar 6, 2024 19:39
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Fishstick posted:Currently working on a mossarium starting from what I think used to be an outdoor candle wind protection... thing. 60cents from the thriftstore. After experimenting with the lantern I ended up not going with it in this piece - it heats up way too much despite being 2x3W, and in the end didnt really match the style of the base. Instead, I used an existing wood ornament and gave it a coat of waterproofing and mounted my outdoor lights on the inside. It was extremely sticky and messy work, and the inside ended up being a lot more wiring than I had anticipated so I had to adjust some plans.  Here it is set up with bugs and all, ready to settle. I might go back and add some finishing touches once the plants have settled a bit, I'm not sure about one of the trimmings I planted but I'll have to see how it goes. The foreground needs some low cover and after all this string plant talk I think a string of turtles would be neat as a final addition if I can find one.  
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Mar 8, 2024 18:19
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Genderfluent posted:I've been interested in learning more about mosses for a few months now and plan to look more closely at them this summer when I go out hiking. Do you have any good resources about ID'ing mosses? I could see myself really getting into this hobby Serpadesign has a good video specifically about finding and identifying native mosses of different types, so it might not apply completely to your biome, but they are some of the more common ones for terrariums: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJAmG1pHqho Visited my florist for some baby plants and he gave me a couple of free A. Coleus plants that he couldn't seem to keep thriving, and from what I've read they should do well in a terrarium biome, so that's what I'm doin today.  Edit a few hours later:  Ate up all my moss supplies and I'm not sure if either plant is going to make it since they're problem cases to start with, so their "slots" have coco-fiber plant pots. That way I can remove their pot easily if they do end up dyin'. Fishstick fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Mar 9, 2024 |
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Mar 9, 2024 13:39
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There's fire ants in Belgium?!
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Mar 14, 2024 15:38
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Are they the same guys as this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbS8XSa4V3c ? I've found strays a couple of times and I'm pretty sure one of my jars on the cabinet has a nest - either the log one or the dome one, I frequently find a tiny straggler outside.
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Mar 14, 2024 18:19
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This is what €12 gets you at the thrift store here: glass for the glass hoard, 2 bags of fancy rocks, a bunch of wooden bases/lids and some shapes/possible future ornaments. Now all I need is fresh moss again
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Mar 15, 2024 16:07
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Fishstick posted:
Friendship ended with forest floor Now Flood Plain is my best friend 
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Mar 16, 2024 14:16
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DR FRASIER KRANG posted:I've had these two glass pots kicking around for a while and I finally made it up to my friend's shop to make a collar for them. Dang that's a really neat enclosure concept. If you've got the inclination you could so something paludarium-style (50/50 water/earth ) with driftwood as the centerpiece. I can't really tell the volume but the bottom bowl looks voluminous enough to support a couple shrimp for cleanup duty. mrfart posted:
Love it, the plants should be fine - I have fittonias stuck to glass and they don't care. Might even get a bit crowded after a while! mrfart posted:Still didn’t find any of these fungi eating critters. Fishsticks, if you buy them anywhere near Mechelen in Belgium, please let me know:) thanks. Amfibia for sure has them as feeder bugs, depending on where you are in Mechelen I can bring you a box from my farm sometime, I work near the trainstation. Fishstick fucked around with this message at 09:47 on Mar 27, 2024 |
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Mar 27, 2024 09:43
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mrfart posted:Wow, I live 10 minute walk from the station (one of the reasons we moved here). Small world! Hit me up on waffleface@gmail.com and we can set somethin up for bug sharin'. This week I'm only in Mechelen tomorrow but I can meet up somewhere around noon if you want. uguu posted:What's the difference between these and that jar that was closed off for 50? years and did fine? Technically nothing, other than the scale and age, and that most of those big terrariums are generally plant-focused rather than moss-focused. Bigger jars also tend to last longer with zero intervention because there's just more ecosystem to buffer any swings in one direction.
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Mar 27, 2024 12:59
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Interesting, i've had some odd fungal growths but I havent seen those before! I thought they were lady fingers first but those dont have those feathery caps. If its an open jar and youve got some springtails or 'pods I wouldn't worry about it, those fruiting bodies don't generally stick around long and you can often find springtails just swarming em. Next few times you mist you can use some chamomille tea that will make it a little harder for fungus to stick around but won't harm moss or plantlife. I don't usually clean fungus and a big fungal explosion is almost to be expected the first few weeks, it can be a bit aesthetically displeasing with some wood molds but most of the time they're benign to your plants/mosses.
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Mar 27, 2024 19:32
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I deal in bugs and bug accessories mrfart posted:Thanks for the springtails, Fishstick. I use a long set of tweezers to pick up the hydropellets and just "tap" them off into the jar like you would tap the ashes off a cig, any super small white specks left over on the pellets are probably eggs so you can keep it for the farm or add the whole pellet to kickstart the population. You really can't "overdose" on springtails, and if you "underdose" it'll just take a bit longer for the jar to stabilise. A bunch of them are probably also on the twig/moss I added to the container, they love dead moist wood. It doesn't have to be 100% hermetically sealed permanently, it'll still be months before you'd need to rewater properly, and you can always "top up" on springtails if you ever do make the drive to Amfibia. I usually try to let it settle for a week or two to figure out the humidity and monitor the first fungal blooms before I properly seal em.
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Mar 29, 2024 09:33
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HelloIAmYourHeart posted:Some of my terrariums: Fittonias are hardcore, I'm not surprised they did that well for so long with zero intervention. Wanna see the other water terrariums (aquariums? aquascapes?)! I've always wanted to do something with water, I've even got 2 of those tiny-as-heck pumps to use someday, but its tricky planning if you want to balance "hide all the pumps/filters" and "leave access to the pump for maintenance".
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Apr 1, 2024 11:34
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HelloIAmYourHeart posted:
I knew I heard that name before! There's a tiny youtuber that makes small walstad aquariums, and I had one on my todo-list to emulate using a terrestrial plant's roots (strawberries in this case) as an extra filter and bonus fruit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at-kyYI2avM
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Apr 2, 2024 16:49
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mrfart posted:I also filled our old secondhand terrarium with moss and a bunch of other plants now. It used to be our hamster hangout. But hams don't live that long and was a bit too emotionally taxing on my wife. Dang that's a full on jungle, looks great! Personally, aesthetically, I would see about some (drift)wood, sticks, and/or some rocks to break it up a bit and for some background, it would make all those plants pop more. 70 - 80% ish humidity is ideal for moss but they're very hardy and won't wilt from a week of being too dry. I've had mats of thread moss that would put old christmastrees to shame in terms of how dry and flammable it was, but soak it in water for a few days and it'll go right back to growin. As for springtails, they have no reason to leave the enclosure. They're not ants - they're not in it for the exploring and foraging, if they're in an ideal humid environment with tons of delicious debris to eat they're not leaving there unless you agitate them. One or two might get out by accident if you have those sliding front windows on that terrarium, but in general its a non-issue if they have much more enticing places to be other than cold glass. Since you're also in Belgium - I went to a shop in Leuven yesterday called Spore Nursery; lots of choice from some of the most common terrarium plants including a variety of carnivorous ones. I didn't need more plants, but, well, you know.  Also some extremely overpriced terraria: 
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Apr 6, 2024 12:17
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buglord posted:I made a moss terrarium today after doing a bit of walking around parks/trails in Los Angeles. I also got a venus flytrap and pit it in there. I did the whole perlite/spagnum moss mixture below the moss which I used for the "topsoil" and then dug a little hole to put the VFT into. I did about an inch of small pebbles for the false bottom, and used a very thin cloth that I stuck a gazillion holes into to allow excess moisture to pass through. Flytraps should do great in a mossarium as long as they have good draining soil which it sounds like you did! Post the pics Edit: Spontaneous shrooms time! 
Fishstick fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Apr 8, 2024 |
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Apr 8, 2024 11:02
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buglord posted:
I like it a lot! I wouldnt mess with it, sometimes less is more. The tiny jars can get crowded easily and it's nice and bright now, and the bark you have now with those square cuts goes well with the angled jar, and you got some nice layering going. Re: bugs if it's "wild" moss with some soil its most likely gonna have some fungus gnats for the flytrap to snack on already, if you can I'd still always recommend springtails just for the maintenance - and I think unlike easier-to-find isopods they won't trigger your flytrap.
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Apr 8, 2024 19:55
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buglord posted:
Within a week or two it should be obvious if the plant's taking hold or not, but it looks like you've got all the basics covered layering/soil/techiquewise. I don't know how you tell a flytrap's health though, but the shop I went to last week had them for sale alongside honeydews and beaker plants all for use in terrariums so I'm assuming they'll do allright. The only thing you might get is the regular fungal explosion from bark/soil without any cleanup critters but that's mostly aesthetics and won't hurt the plant or moss. Finished a jar on comission using another buddha from the buddha drawer:   Needs something more in the background or some extra depth, I think Fishstick fucked around with this message at 07:05 on Apr 9, 2024 |
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Apr 9, 2024 07:02
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Shrooms have evolved! 
Fishstick fucked around with this message at 13:27 on Apr 10, 2024 |
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Apr 9, 2024 15:36
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The fruiting bodies last like a day or 2 max, isopods and springtails go nuts for em, you can already see some caps having nibbles taken out of it. By this morning there were a few more stalks on the other side of the jar but both of those pictured shroom clusters are gone already
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Apr 12, 2024 08:40
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buglord posted:Hmm so I picked up some nerve plants and a string of turtles and these are pretty massive for my size enclosures. I did what I could to split them off a bit into clumps but ugh. Kinda sucky that I had a certain build idea in mind, then when it came to placement and arranging everything, it didn’t quite “work”. Internet said I could gently split these apart safely but we’ll see how both the plants survive, as I only used like 10% of my string of turtles and maybe 30% of my nerve plant. I've only just started experimenting with a string of hearts just now, still lookin for them turtles.In my experience as long as you dont damage the actual roots you can usually pry multi-stems baby plants apart easily if the soil sod is dry enough. If you are going to be sticking with the tiny format for jars, ferns, polka dot plants, and ivies can be cloned from a single leaf/stem easily so you can be very specific where you plant them and don't crowd as much as fittonia, and they work a little better on the small scale side. Clover and pepperomia (rotundifolia / trifolia) do great in jars and are on the smaller scale size too Experimenting with what does and doesn't work is half the fun in this hobby! Turns out that fairy lamp jar I made works fine but the combination of a ton of silicone + semi-enclosed wooden spaces means that jar stinks, really hard. I'm hoping airing it out a few days will help offgassing but goddamn. buglord posted:Further complicating this new terrarium is that the nice wooden lid blocks a lot of light for the nerve plant. That didn’t become super apparent until the build was done. I really don’t wanna use plastic wrap. Anyone have any ideas for that? Alternatively you can drill a hole in the lid and insert a little (IP44) led light, but I personally don't like adding wiring to the small jars, and batteries are a lot of hassle. buglord posted:Also I noticed that thrift stores like Goodwill seem to overprice their glassware quite a bit. I spent a whole day last week traveling through a SoCal Goodwill locations and kept coming up short of seeing things that were too expensive for how much compromises I’d have to make. Ross/TJ Maxx/Marshalls have actually been good alternatives. I honestly don't know what the secondhand market is like in the US - over here there's a bunch of extremely cheap thrift store chain(s). I picked this up this weekend for $5, a 35cmx25cmx30cm fishtank. Gonna use it for a proper paludarium or full on aquascape. 
Fishstick fucked around with this message at 13:32 on Apr 15, 2024 |
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Apr 15, 2024 11:04
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DR FRASIER KRANG posted:My terrarium started growing fuzzy mold. Is there a good guide for avoiding that? 99% of the time the mould will not be damaging to the plants or moss and is mostly an aesthetic issue. Fuzzy mold threads will disappear eventually (especially with some friendly insects), but if you get colored "stains" or full on colonies on any wood surfaces that might require some more active approach eventually. A Q-tip with a peroxide or vinegar solution works for dabbing heavily affected areas. Here's a piece of wood that molded hardcore after about 4 months, you can see the springtails go nuts once I blow some fresh air in the jar to show how many of them there are to eat all that delicious fungus https://i.imgur.com/Ei7FJMs.mp4 This was about a 1.5 years ago and without manual intervention those twigs look like this now:  You can see a couple of orange spots that are fungus colonies but other than that it's all cleaned itself up.
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Apr 15, 2024 17:26
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Mushroom update: Lots of new ones! 
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Apr 18, 2024 17:48
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buglord posted:What’s a good humidity level for these mossariums? My dad has jumped headfirst into this and wants to get scientific so he bought little humidity sensors and the terrarium we both built during my visit here is reading 99%. Going off nothing but a hunch, that feels a little high? 70-80% is ideal, more for a prolonged time is going to be an issue mostly for mold, and some of the acrocarpous mosses (most of the ones that grow upright - pincushion and star moss, for example) will end up going brown and eventually rot. Sheet, fern, hypnum moss and such generally thrive in super moist or wet conditions if the substrate itself isnt waterlogged - but again, this may cause issues with fungus and if he's planning on adding "regular" plants also that much might be too much for some of them. The humidity level is also going to vary over the day and over time as the environment settles a bit. If he wants to get real scientific about it he can look into aquatic mosses and a Walstad tank like HelloIAmYourHeart posted. Aquascaping is a lot of the same, just with the added technicalities of having to maintain a proper water environment - so lots of fun to be had with ph levels, temperatures, co² levels and all that stuff. Plus it's easy to get some shrimp and snails going in a fairly small tank already.
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Apr 23, 2024 23:44
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Dont buy more glass Dont buy more glass Dont buy more glass Dont b- ooh only €6 for 3? 
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Apr 26, 2024 10:03
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Sharing some pictures of sad terraria I found in a craft store Handful of pincushion moss dunked into a jar with a coffee plant and a piece of bark, €60  Handful of unidentifiable brown moss mush and another coffee plant, €50   mrfart posted:I really have to drive to that thrift store. No way I’m gonna find nice stuff like that here in the city. They usually only have very small jars. I highly recommend it, its right next to the Antwerpsesteenweg so its easy to reach by car. I go every week or two and theres always some interesting glass containers, and if you need glass lid options you're gonna find em there in every shape or size. Fishstick fucked around with this message at 11:12 on Apr 28, 2024 |
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Apr 28, 2024 11:05
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Sr's definitely got the eye for depth Those leafy plants will probably do well but i'm worried about the Tillandsia airplant to the left, if left on moist moss it's probably going to go brown and rot fairly quickly. Tillandsia do well in terrariums but they definitely cant be sitting on wet surfaces - if he has room he can directly superglue it to the bark (or some other piece of wood/rock/etc) with cyanoacrylate superglue. Be very sure about using specfically cyanoacrylate based superglue as that's plant/animal safe and can be used to directly glue plants. Also YMMV but in my experience that specific type of moss will go brown quickly in jars and I havent really figured out why - I've tried using it in a couple jars now and even in the best of conditions where other moss types thrive it just ends up wilting. I've never been able to properly identify them but they're the common "sidewalk" mosses, I think:  Sheet or hypnum moss will grow like crazy if you drape it over some bark though! buglord posted:Craigslist came in clutch with springtails today. bought some from a young nerdy guy out of the local university. The pet store back in my hometown was asking $25 for an incredibly tiny culture, and the guy I met was asking $8 but I threw in a few extra bucks for some charcoal on the side and for his patience with me. He has a whole grow opp in his dorm room and when I get more confident/set up in this, gonna buy some rolly pollys/isopods from him. A slice of potato and some more charcoal/hydropellets and you have your own springtail growing op too!
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Apr 29, 2024 09:57
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Nah springtails self-regulate over time. That gif I posted earlier with the massive swarm of springtails, that same jar now has a fraction of the population since there's much less active mold to eat now. Springtails themselves don't eat any moss or plants either unless you have a truly excessive population (ie: "I cant see the plants thru my springtails") so it's not really ever going to cause an issue. Isopods, though, is another story Fishstick fucked around with this message at 11:35 on Apr 29, 2024 |
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Apr 29, 2024 11:32
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Extra Long weekend thanks to Labor day tomorrow, so lots of time to make jars. Had this piece of mopani wood in my drawer for over a year now, waiting for the right moment. It already had a bunch of cavities and was almost hollow, so I drilled through it and stuffed it with wet sphagnum to act as a wick down to the bottom layer. Still lookin for a good lid though.  Bonus sneaky slug  PurpleXVI posted:I love stories. Tell us all the stories. How it started:  How it ended up:  Turns out at least some species of isopods are herbivores or omnivores instead of pure detritivores, and they love fresh moss and pepperomia. Also, they live for 3 years each and apparently when not eating, theyre laying eggs. I introduced a couple of centipedes to keep the population down and convinced a few to migrate back into the wild by use of a carrot slice in a plastic cup and have since replanted it, its the shroom jar I posted earlier. Doing much better now that there's not a constant plague of critters eating everything. Fishstick fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Apr 30, 2024 |
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Apr 30, 2024 22:34
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moana posted:Thanks thread, I got inspired to make a little terrarium with a turkey tail and bits of moss and sedum from the yard. Now my husband can't complain about me getting more houseplants because this isn't a plant, it's a terrarium. Totally different It's botanical art, damnit!
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May 3, 2024 21:44
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