Cliff Jar Terrarium - Orchid Board

harpspiel · #1 05-23-2021, 03:40 PM

I initially envisioned this because my Microchilus tridax got stem rot in my jewel and begonia bowl. The vendor said that Microchilus likes less moisture than other jewels, and I’ve seen some pics of it growing very happily on lava rock. Currently I’m trying to rescue the one whose stem rotted, but I have another coming soon.

I also had two paphs, thaianum and ‘QF Mini’ (a thaianum hybrid) that just weren’t thriving. They are lithophytes that grow on limestone cliffs and like added calcium in their mix.

So far I have created a little lava rock cliff, and put the paphs in pockets at the top in ABG mixed with crushed coral for calcium. I’ll put the Microchilus in the bottom when it arrives.

I may also try Begonia hoehneana in this at some point, it is supposed to grow on “calcareous rocks” in the wild.

DirtyCoconuts · #2 05-23-2021, 05:20 PM

I like the look of what you have here from a design side. It’s pleasing.

I am wondering how a terrarium and a cliff can coexist? It’s always windy and exposed on a cliff. And a terrarium is typically neither

I am very interested to watch and follow this project.

harpspiel · #3 05-23-2021, 06:11 PM

I grew up on 17 rocky acres of forest in New York. The property was covered in beautiful cliffs and rock falls, some 50’ tall, but the trees were even taller so they were permanently shaded and covered in mosses and lichens, with wildflowers and ferns growing out of pockets of soil.

I can’t find any in situ pictures of Paphiopedilum thaianum, but given other in situ pictures of paphs on cliffs, I suspect it’s a similar environment - albeit warmer and higher humidity than New York.

Given my brutally low humidity here in the high desert, I’m experimenting with enclosures with different levels of ventilation to create humid microclimates. Clearly the Microchilus that rotted didn’t want to be at 80%+ all the time, and neither do these paphs, but I’m thinking 50-60% might be appropriate. The open-topped jar should create a slightly more humid microclimate, but I may need to rig a partial cover. I’ll be monitoring that in the next few weeks.

Leafmite · #4 05-24-2021, 03:27 PM

Best wishes with your experiment! Most of my plant-growing hobby tends to be an experiment since Ohio isn't conductive to those tropical plants I 'need' to grow.

estación seca · #5 05-25-2021, 02:56 AM

If you use a loosely-fitting glass dish as a cover you will have a little air circulation and you will have another surface on which to put a plant.

harpspiel · #6 05-25-2021, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by estación seca

If you use a loosely-fitting glass dish as a cover you will have a little air circulation and you will have another surface on which to put a plant.

That would keep it way too humid. My other enclosures with loosely fitted lids or lids with small vents stay at over 80%.

Since both my Microchilus and Paphs needed lower humidity and soil drying out between waterings, I created this tank to be drier for them. Without any lid, it’s proving to be too dry - 35-50% and I’m aiming for 50-60%. So that suggests I need a lid that is more hole than lid. For something that looks nice and clean I could buy acrylic cake discs, but they’re expensive and I haven’t tried to drill them before. As a really cheap stopgap, clear plastic party plates are really easy to drill, so that’s my next step.

General rule of thumb with enclosures: the more ventilation you have, the less stagnant the air is, but the faster humidity drops and the more you have to water (in my dry conditions, this could end up being more than once a day, which is too much maintenance for me). Less ventilation means consistently higher humidity, but then you need plants that tolerate stagnant air, or circulation fans. Most pleurothallids, for instance, need a setup with circulation fans to create an environment both humid enough and with enough air movement. Circulation fans also inhibit mold growth, if the enclosure is wet enough to cause that. And yes, every enclosure needs some amount of ventilation and air exchange, even if it’s just “lift the lid to check on them once a week”.

I currently have around 10 terrariums, orchidariums, and grow bins running with various levels of internal circulation, ventilation, misting schedules and different substrates. The highest maintenance is my paludarium, with high humidity, high circulation and high ventilation - where I keep most of my pleurothallids. The lowest maintenance is my begonia grow bin, where I’m rooting a bunch of leaves and trying to keep a Begonia darthvaderiana alive, which is completely sealed and has a substrate of LFS that I water occasionally when I check on the plants.

Most jewel orchids and Begonias are tolerant of more stagnant air than a lot of the epiphytic orchids, but in my jewel orchid bowl with a loosely fitted lid I rotted the stem on my Microchilus. The bowl was staying at 90%+ most of the day, except for a few hours a day where I would remove the lid to air it out and it would go down to 50%. This was too much humidity for the Microchilus tridax, not consistent enough humidity for the Begonia baik (dying leaf edges), and just fine for the rest of the jewels. So I pulled the Microchilus and drilled a bunch of holes in the plastic lid, and now the tank is perfect for the remaining plants at around 85%. It needs water added about once a week, and a few extra spritzes just on moss to encourage growth.

Both the jewel orchid bowl and this jar have lava rock as drainage (which wicks a decent amount of water) topped by ABG mix. ABG mix isn’t too well known by orchid growers but it’s very popular with dart frog vivariums, because it drains well, holds moisture, and lasts up to 8 years. It also provides a great moisture buffer in enclosed spaces - better than, say, gravel or LECA sitting in water. But in 80%+ humidity it will really never dry out so you can’t get the “water when top inch is dry” conditions that some terrestrial orchids want. The current experiment is mostly just seeing how long ABG takes to dry out in 50-60%, so I can get that perfect watering schedule for the paphs and Microchilus.

Leafmite · #7 05-25-2021, 12:27 PM

That is pretty cool.

harpspiel · #8 05-25-2021, 12:49 PM

Some more thought process, in case anyone is interested:

The two level design has a purpose, besides just adding visual interest. The higher level should dry out faster, so I can keep the Microchilus a little more consistently moist than the paphs. The vendor I bought the paphs from also said that they want a pretty dry winter, so in the winter I will mostly water the lower section and only occasionally water the upper section.

I've been experimenting with levels to control moisture lately in terrariums. One of the techniques I've used a few times is a dip in the drainage layer where I have a small "bog" area. If the terrarium isn't glass, this gives a good visual of water level and when I need to top up, as well as allowing for a much wetter section than the rest of the tank. This seems to be working very well in a tiny glass bowl I have set up with carnivorous plants - Utricularia and a liverwort in the wet bog, pygmy sundews higher up where the sphagnum mix stays moist but not wet, and a pinguicula raised on a lava rock that dries out more than the rest of the tank.

DirtyCoconuts · #9 05-25-2021, 01:14 PM

Please show us the other tanks

I have a cloud forest and a closed cloche those are my two experiments. Hits and misses to be sure.

harpspiel · #10 05-25-2021, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

Please show us the other tanks

I have a cloud forest and a closed cloche those are my two experiments. Hits and misses to be sure.

Sure! I'm generally not a fan of cloches for orchids, they're so stagnant and I'm not very comfortable drilling holes in glass. But with some strategically placed holes (think some on the bottom on one side, and some near the top on the opposite side to encourage cross-ventilation) I think they could work well.

Edit: I remember now, you had a really large one with a fan. Hope it’s going well.

Paludarium
This has all the bells and whistles (misting system, fogging system, fans, lights, sump, waterfall, etc.)

Jewel bowl
Extremely low-tech, just gets indirect sunlight and a little water once or twice a week.

Those are certainly my most stable, prettiest tanks.

Spyra branch in a tiny lamp
Spyra is similar to Hygrolon, fabric with holes for roots that wicks moisture pretty well. This setup is about a year old but there was a Physan incident so it's only about half a year of growth. I keep water in the base, but I rarely air it out or do anything else with it, so the only things that will grow are moss, Peperomia emarginella, and a mini Bucephalandra.

MONDI grow bins
These are my catch-all bins. The bottom one is used for quarantine of new cuttings to get roots started and to make sure they haven't come with pests before I put them in other tanks. The top one is mostly mini ferns, but I also use it for cuttings out of my paludarium. They are MONDI mini greenhouses with vented covers, and they get natural light blocked by a white linen cloth (what I had laying around to approximate a shade cloth). Both have LECA drainage with either ABG or LFS on top. The bottom one works great for cuttings, since I never have to top-water and risk water on leaves - I just pour enough water in to get the LECA wet, and it soaks up into the sphagnum.

Closet grow bins
I just set these up, in my bedroom closet to try to keep some of my fussy Begonias under 80F. I have one for Bucephalandras and one for Begonias. The Begonia leaves are all single leaf cuttings I got recently, that all stayed in the MONDI bin until they had some good roots and were just moved into this bin. They get only artificial light from a 12" under cabinet LED light. Currently neither bin has ventilation, but I'll be drilling holes and putting screens into at least the Bucephalandra bin. The Bucephalandras are in Fluval Stratum, which is an aquatic soil that is highly recommended for growing emersed/marginal plants. The Begonias are in a layer of long fiber sphagnum which discourages mold, and at least darthvaderiana wants very high humidity and very little air movement so I'm not sure if I'll install ventilation, but I'm keeping an eye on it. I'm also not sure how I like the LFS without a drainage layer, but it was recommended in the video I watched so I'll see how it goes.

Orchid Overflow
This is a 12x12x18 Exo Terra with a fan that runs about 6 hours a day, and a Jungle Dawn LED light. At the moment I have to water some of the mounted orchids daily, so I'm still dialing in the perfect amount of ventilation and circulation to reduce watering without getting mold or fungus.

Egg jar
Temporary quarantine home for the Domingoa that I just traded for on here, while I make sure it's pest free. I'm trying to air it out daily, but I don't think it will be happy for long with that little air flow.

Sundew bowl
This is just a week old and is currently having a little mold that should subside with time. 3 species of pygmy sundews, a Pinguicula and a Utricularia along with a few mosses/liverworts and an aquatic grass. It's lava rock drainage, window screen, then topped with a mix of LFS, coco coir and perlite. As long as the Utricularia in the low spot stays wet, the sphagnum wicks enough water to keep the sundews just lightly moist.

Fairy tower
This is also about a week old, and is not intended to be enclosed permanently, but at the moment I have a bubble wrap cover that I rigged to keep humidity up while the Ficus thunbergii establishes itself. It has a mini African violet on the left side, and some Utricularia in the low section. The intention is that if I water enough to keep the Utricularia always wet in the drainage layer, that will be just the right amount of water for the African violet and Ficus. Lava rock drainage layer with a window screen and then ABG, but there's a dip in the drainage layer for the Utricularia.

Future cylinder tank
This is in the works for Bucephalandra and filmy ferns. It's a Spyra branch in a base of Fluval Stratum. There will always be enough water in the base for the Spyra to wick and stay moist, and I've been testing that the Spyra can wick water the full 14" height of the branch. This will start out fully closed, since filmy ferns need 95%+ constant humidity and very little air movement. I have a tiny fan that I might add if I get significant mold.

A lot of these have been inspired by Another World Terraria, specifically his grow bin setups, and also lots of advice from Dendroboard. It might be useful to know that ABG contains charcoal - a lot of terrarium setups recommend a full layer of charcoal, but having it mixed in with the soil seems effective. I would also like almost all of these to have springtails, I just need to buy some more or culture them myself. Currently only the paludarium and possibly the jewel bowl have springtails.

I use R/O for everything, filtered by a cheap little under sink R/O system designed for pets.