Question about air circulation terrarium
 

I had a Macodes Petola, but it died. Apparantely I over-watered it, it started rotting.

But as I understand they like humidity. Now I've seen a lot of pictures online on Jewel orchids kept in terrariums. It looks really nice. However, I was wondering once the lid goes on in order to keep it humid. But there's no air circulation, right? So how do you keep it from not getting mould?

I've also seen the fancy ones like BiOrb Air on youtube, and I understand that these come with a built-in fan. But they're crazy expensive.

I suppose the cheaper more affordable terrariums do not have a fan?

These are low light plants, growing on the forest floor in leaf litter. The jewel orchids do better on the surface of a barely moist medium, like creeping across lightly damp sphagnum moss. They don't like having stems and roots buried too deeply. They are surprisingly succulent if humidity is high. My experience has been they don't need any air circulation if you grow them in a terrarium. I have grown them in sealed jars.

I might suggest trying again. A small used aquarium with a piece of glass for a lid wouid work, or a large jar. Epoxy a handle on the glass. Use a thin layer of long fiber sphagnum moss. Don't get it soaking wet, just damp. Unpot your orchid and nestle it into the sphagnum. The sphagnum should stay just moist.

i grow them very happily in SH


E.S. sealed jars??? i would love to know a love more about this whole thing...can you make a thread please or just PM me?

Just put a little pot on the inside of the lid, and screw down the inverted jar onto it. Or get a large cylindric vase, and top with a glass saucer. Great in a bathroom near a window or skylight. When I'm home from work I'll take a photo.

Please do! That sounds way too cool not to try!

most people seem to keep forgetting that seedlings are initially grown in completely sealed glass jars for months before they are deflasked...

The secret to no mould is not having anything that can go mouldy.

Of course this is not possible in a terrarium but keeping everything clean and sterile does go a long way.

Also if I examine my pots the environment inside each of my plastic pots is far more humid than any terrarium, I would even consider each of my plastic pots to be a mini terrarium of their own sort with a bit of air coming in from the bottom and top of the pot.

There is no fan inside my plastic pots and I don't find overly wet conditions causes rotten roots. What causes rotten roots is overly wet condition in a decaying substrate, If a root is damaged (which happens easily all the time) and it comes in contact with rotting substrate the root will start to rot, with ventilation or without is irrelevant, it will happen but it does tend to happen more in winter when the plant stops drinking and the substrate stays wet too long (and thus starts to go bad).

Thanks... it's very interesting. Helpful information.:Tup:

---------- Post added at 04:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:27 AM ----------

Thanks. Yes, I'm learning... so this is helpful :)

The idea behind air movement in the general environment is not to create a breeze, but to prevent pockets of stagnant air, whether that be around the plants or within the medium - hence the reason to use "open" media that allow that free air movement.

In an enclosed terrarium, where the humidity tend to remain high, it can air in drying the leaves, as well, elimination "incubators" for pathogens.

Bio active substrate is a pretty good idea for terrariums it seems

Takes a lot of the guess work out of the margins as long as you are within the range, a good cleanup crew will help with a lot of the nastiness.