Terrarium growing experiments

[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)!

[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.