Advice on layout of foam terrarium insert ?

[Turtle81]

Hi,
So i Have an exo terra 450mm x 450mm that i am turning into a home for my mini-cattleyas, i'm still in the design stage and need some advice regarding the airflow around the pots.

To start with i'll explain what i'm making as best i can, i am using foam and grout as they do on Lizard-landscapes in their how to make a rainforest waterfall section ( i recomend having a quick look at that sight as it will help make more sense off what i am trying to describe) to make a fake rock area to hide my pots. I know they are designed for reptiles but i thought it would also work well for holding my orchids in a neat and easy to care for way that looks quite good ! I would not be putting in any water feature just using the same construction method.

I have attached two drawings that i quickly made one of a top view and the other of a side cut through view as I thought that would be easier to understand than using words.





My question is : when the pots are sitting in the foam "holder" is it going to matter that there is no airflow around the bottom of the pot? i will have a fan in the top so the leaves will have air flow but im worried that having them inclosed like that will increase the humidity a lot around the roots. My other option is to leave underneat the fake foam rock area hollow and put a single bar in the base of each pot holder for the pot to sit on to allow some airflow (although it would not have much air movement underneath the structure unless i put a 2nd fan down there).

Any thoughts and advice would be great, even if its about another problem you can see happening that i have not though about yet

[isurus79]

Are the pots going to be pretty air tight in their holders, or will there be some wiggle room? If there is wiggle room and a fan coming from above, that will probably be fine. Also, where will the water go that flows through the pots? Stagnant water in the holders will definitely kill your plants, so there needs to be drainage.

That lizard landscapes site is pretty cool too. It seems like you could make some really interesting landscapes with it, whether natural looking or otherwise.

[Turtle81]

Thanks for pointing that out about the drainage isurus79 i knew i would miss something simple like drainage !!

I was hoping to have a fairly close fit for the pots but not tight, but thinking about the drainage it would most prob make sence to make them open bottom solving both drainage and airflow problems.

Thanks again