Total beginner, need a few tips for self-sustaining terrarium build

[tmoney]

hey, good for you! i hope you are able to get a couple going. the world of terrarium growing is a huge one, and there are so many different types as you have prolly been reading about. open terrariums are cool, it seems to me that usually they are used typically for cacti and succulents. im guessing you don’t have many of those growing in your area, since you mentioned northern plants.

ive no idea about laminating wood to preserve it. interesting thought! im sure somebody out there has done it and posted pics on etsy or something, but try it out and see what happens....

[ysera]

Bit of an update guys, finished two terrariums:




Not sure why the moss in the bottom looks so grey... its actually really green irl.


Also, can you guys tell me which plant this is?


And which of those root systems are long enough for it to start growing? I finished a terrarium with these plants a few days ago and they already died I'm guessing I didn't give roots enough depth or something.

[Fishkeeper]

Looks a bit like an asparagus fern? Most of them should have had enough roots to be fine, they likely died of something else.

As a general rule, you don't want to put plants into terrariums if you don't know what they are. You don't know if they're going to do well, or if they're going to get too large.

[SADE2020]

Ohh 😯 turned really nice. I guess you have lots of fun setting up everything.

In case you collected the moss from the park, someone told me once here that they don't live long and it is true, after a few weeks or month they turn brown. However, the important part is to enjoying while it last.

[ysera]

Originally Posted by SADE2020

Ohh 😯 turned really nice. I guess you have lots of fun setting up everything.

In case you collected the moss from the park, someone told me once here that they don't live long and it is true, after a few weeks or month they turn brown. However, the important part is to enjoying while it last.

Collecting my moss from ~25km outside of the city

[tmoney]

right on dude, good for you! i dig the ladder ive been thinking about doing a little bench hut in one of my bonsai forests to model the little huts they have in the parks and trails here in germany. the style you did is similar to what i had in mind.

on that note, just be prepared to have to tear the whole thing out and start over. its sorta part of the game with these mossariums.

ill include a pic of one that i made for my girlfriend about a year and a half ago. i broke my rule and opened it about a month ago to cut the moss. it was super etoliated cause i put it somewhere whenwatering and totally forgot about it for about 3 months. ooops...so yeah, it deserved a haircut. now it’s in the kitchen where we can watch it, hahahahah

[ysera]

Originally Posted by tmoney

right on dude, good for you! i dig the ladder ive been thinking about doing a little bench hut in one of my bonsai forests to model the little huts they have in the parks and trails here in germany. the style you did is similar to what i had in mind.

on that note, just be prepared to have to tear the whole thing out and start over. its sorta part of the game with these mossariums.

ill include a pic of one that i made for my girlfriend about a year and a half ago. i broke my rule and opened it about a month ago to cut the moss. it was super etoliated cause i put it somewhere whenwatering and totally forgot about it for about 3 months. ooops...so yeah, it deserved a haircut. now it’s in the kitchen where we can watch it, hahahahah

Looks nice dude. Looking at my own stuff... man the pros make it look like its so easy to make a beautiful terrarium.. so much harder to make it beautiful than I had anticipated xD Not sure what I was expecting with my 1st try


Another question for the whole forum - How long does moss live? Google tells me indefinitely.. is that true? Like if I give moss great living conditions... do they actually never die?

[tmoney]

well, i don’t want to be the only one to reply to your questions! buuuut, yeah for the type of terrarium you are trying it is really really tough to get them to look good after awhile. either it will grow and mature and take on its own form, or it’ll die, hahahah. try not to compare to professional terrariums. once you get some knowledge of your botanicals and some experience building, then they will improve. a lot of the terrariums you see are fully or partially fake anyway, and just sold as decoration, so there’s that.

and yeah, my experience is that moss can live for a very long time. currently back in the states i have a couple mossariums that are about 10 years old, michigan collected wild mosses that should have a dormant cycle. but nope, they just stay green and do their thing. but again, those are only moss and no other herbaceous plants, so no yearly growth and die back sort of thing

[harpspiel]

Moss may live forever. A few caveats:

• Many wild collected mosses from temperate regions need a cold period to thrive. Sometimes they will grow well for a season before petering out, sometimes for a few years, and some mosses can handle constant tropical temperatures despite being temperate
• Mosses will continue to grow longer, with the green growing tip just on the top - without trimming, you'll often see a lot of brown dead tissue pressed against the glass as the moss gets thicker and thicker
• Terrariums often go through an initial mold cycle, and this can be pretty devastating to mosses unless you have a "clean up crew" - springtails and/or isopods to eat the mold. You can also spray the mold down with water, that helps a little.

Oh and the plant in your final pic looks like yarrow to me. It will get quite large and probably needs a cold dormant period.

[ysera]

Originally Posted by tmoney

well, i don’t want to be the only one to reply to your questions! buuuut, yeah for the type of terrarium you are trying it is really really tough to get them to look good after awhile. either it will grow and mature and take on its own form, or it’ll die, hahahah.

No worries on my end dude I'll grab any help I can get xD

And right now, I'm pivoting my art a little bit. Got some supercool looking stones (3-6 eur per kg) and a glass panel that I got supercheap (12 eur per 1m x 1m; 3mm thickness).
Going for some sort of rocky-moss type of live art since moss already looks supercool, easy to plant and maintain and I readily available everywhere around the forests here. Since I'm gonna mess around a lot, fail a lot - the building pieces need to be quite cheap for now.

Originally Posted by harpspiel

Moss may live forever. A few caveats:
[LIST][*]Many wild collected mosses from temperate regions need a cold period to thrive. Sometimes they will grow well for a season before petering out, sometimes for a few years, and some mosses can handle constant tropical temperatures despite being temperate[*]Mosses will continue to grow longer, with the green growing tip just on the top - without trimming, you'll often see a lot of brown dead tissue pressed against the glass as the moss gets thicker and thicker
.

Thanks, a lot of research to do on moss for sure.