Terrarium growing experiments

[DirtyCoconuts]

On that note. You can cheat the day night difference by going hotter during the day since that is easier than getting cooler

When I was getting mine dialed in I had the light on the top of the tank, lifted off 1/4” and now it’s off almost 1”

I was getting almost 25*(F) swing but it was too hot at the hottest. I could have left it there a while to acclimate the plants and see if they were okay touching the 90s but i did not think it was needed.
I have it scaled back now for only about 12* swing

[MJG]

My terrarium is unfortunately in wait mode. It was shipped to me in June, and on delivery day the freight company called me to say it was broken. It's been over 6 weeks since then. I'm still waiting for the replacement to ship. So here I sit with all the parts and my plans -- and plants-- but I'm not able to start playing with the settings. Which means that I don't yet know what the temps and humidity will be.

I've heard about the hacks people have made with wine coolers. Your link to the orchid karma website shows a really practical solution with the air conditioner hack. I also know of someone who has installed an evaporative cooler in his terrarium (his terrarium is big). The water for the cooler comes from a tank or directly from an RO system, so it is automated. He manages the temperature shifts by using fluorescent lights for light and heat by day and uses the evaporative cooler by night. He's not able to get an adequate temperature shift if he uses LEDs, so he sticks with fluorescents.

We've also talked about peltier coolers on this board but the consensus is that they won't get the job done.

Most of the solutions discussed so far are not going to work very elegantly in my sunroom. (By "elegantly" I meant aesthetically pleasing to my husband.) I am having a cabinet built to hold all of the tanks and equipment. The terrarium will sit on top with an upper canopy to hide the lights and sprinklers. It's supposed to look like a piece of furniture with none of the functional guts showing.The constraints I've created limit my options.

The reef cooler idea is intriguing. I will look into that!

Anyway, like you, I will just have to do some testing once it's set up to see what I'm dealing with. As winter moves in the best option might be to just crank the thermostat down in the sunroom before I go to bed at night. If I stumble across any bright ideas I will post them.

[buffalo]

So very informative. Very interested in the advantages of air flow.

[estación seca]

It depends on the plants grown and the light, but my observation here is that plenty of people struggle to get enough light to the plants at the bottom of the terrarium. They are trying to get the light closer to the terrarium, not farther away. LED lights have made the light/heat balance issue much less difficult than it was formerly.

[MJG]

Originally Posted by estación seca

It depends on the plants grown and the light, but my observation here is that plenty of people struggle to get enough light to the plants at the bottom of the terrarium. They are trying to get the light closer to the terrarium, not farther away. LED lights have made the light/heat balance issue much less difficult than it was formerly.

ES, agreed. I'm not sure I understand your context about moving lights further away as opposed to closer... Unless you're talking about DC's post. In his case I think it's a small terrarium, so I'm guessing he doesn't have issues with getting enough light to the bottom. He was playing with the heat differential if I understood correctly.

[Draikan]

Got some better pictures of new plants.

Platystele apoloae


Lepanthes telipogoniflora
-So small it's hard to take pictures of


Lepanthes mariposa
-probably dead

Trisetella hoeijeri
-Holding on to those last two leaves!


Lepanthopsis astrophora
-Has a new leaf growing!


Trisetella andreettae


Stelis guianensis var Maria
-probably dead

Lepanthes dictydion
-Has 3 new leaves growing, see the second picture!




Pleurothallis niveoglobula
-Actually has a bloom started, see the middlemost leaf of the second image (it's still really small)!

[MJG]

Draikan, these are great. I especially love the leaves on the little lepanthes dictydion. Hope these all do well for you!

[DirtyCoconuts]

Originally Posted by MJG

ES, agreed. I'm not sure I understand your context about moving lights further away as opposed to closer... Unless you're talking about DC's post. In his case I think it's a small terrarium, so I'm guessing he doesn't have issues with getting enough light to the bottom. He was playing with the heat differential if I understood correctly.

If this is accurate then MJG is correct. My tank is less than 24” tall and the light at the bottom is fine. I just was talking about how much the heat from the light effected my temps not the light strength. I know my Macodes petola is not looking for more light lol


Also, plur. niveoglobula Is one of my favorite plants. It will bloom constantly once it is more established. Little fairies above each leaf!

[Draikan]

Watered this morning and gave all the plants a really close inspection. I'm seeing some really great growth, I think it's attributable to the high humidity and airflow. But maybe I'm biased haha.

P. niveoglobula has 4 blooms coming out, and they are growing fast. Apparently this one is a prolific bloomer.

T. andreettae is pushing out two new leaves at once!

P. apoloae hasn't done too much, despite having the fewest dropped leaves from shipping. I do see a couple healthy looking aerial root tips.

L. astrophora has one new leaf, a few roots, a flower spike, and a keiki! This is a huge amount of new growth all at once. Root tips and flower spike are particularly green and healthy looking.

Now I'm just trying to decide what I should do next. I have a few upgrades in mind, but not sure yet what I should try first.

1. I am still watering by hand with tap water, and using tap water for the humidity control. I'd like to switch this over to RO before I get water deposits on equipment or in the plant mounts. I'm already using a pump and tank, so I should be able to add an in-line RO filter.
2. The little tank has no drain, and I don't have automated watering. I'd like to get back to automatic misting. This will let me experiment with much more frequent (daily or twice daily) watering now that I have the airflow required to deal with this much water.
3. I should start fertilizing. I have always just used dyna-grow foliage pro for everything. I'm wondering about trying k-lite, but don't want to make too many big changes at once.
4. I have no idea what the quality of the lights on the little tank are. They are probably super dim, but the plants seem ok for now.

I should probably clean up the workbench, then start on adding a RO filter.

[DirtyCoconuts]

You have identified one of the things that I struggle with. Do you keep the plumbing in the tank or out

The issues on both are clear and it is a matter of weighing the cost to benefit ratio

I made the all internal choice. I did it wrong bc I can swap anything in the future if and when it breaks lol BUT I don’t worry about drains or leaks or anything on that side of the spectrum bc all my water stays in the tank.

This stuff is such a balancing act