Miniature orchids Terrarium - Orchid Board

Amyzes · #1 03-27-2015, 02:43 PM

I am working on an 18 X 18 X 24 terrarium where I am going to grow small trees to mount micro miniature orchids on. I want it to look like a very small scene from nature, so I am putting a lot of thought into the backdrop as well.
I have built it out so that the bottom looks eroded like a cliff by water would look. I've used stainless steel mesh, slate, and fish safe pond expanding foam. The idea is that once it is covered in moss it will look like a small cliff face.
I am going to have an auto misting system and timer, so I am wondering if I need hygrolon beneath the moss, or do you think the moss can fill in the gaps of the mesh?
I've collected a bunch of moss, that i stuck in the freezer to kill any bugs, next is to boil then bake it, blend it and paint it onto the backdrop.
Is there another cloth I might use instead of hygrolon? Mostly I want to give a base for the moss that won't rot.

BigGreenLeaf · #2 05-15-2015, 02:29 AM

Looks pretty cool. A good resource for you would be any of the dart frog forums around, As far as planning, laying everything out and getting some inspiration! Those guys are masters of the vivarium.

Are you worried at all about the stainless steel deteriorating and contaminating the tank with age?

As far as how to mount the moss a lot of people (again dart frog people) use coco bark thats mounted to the background of the tank or what are known are tree fern panels. Both of these provide a natural face onto which the moss can grow. However, since you are aiming for a cliff face, your best bet will probably be the hygrolon or to leave the moss in chunks and tie them onto the slate and rocks with gardening wire until they take. If you are using natural rocks though, keep in mind there is a thing out there called Moss Graffiti, where people literally make a slurry of water and moss particles and spray the mix straight onto walls and all sorts of surfaces; If the slate and rocks you've chosen are porous at all, I don't see why the moss wouldn't take with a bit of time (and avoiding washing the particles off!)

Good luck, please keep posting photos! I am very excited to see how the trees and orchids end up looking! What kind of (dwarf) trees are you going with? Something else you might want to consider is planting the tank with some isopods or springtails to deal with any decaying plant matter that might turn up.

Trollsvans · #3 05-15-2015, 03:40 AM

The moss can probably fill the gaps in the mesh. Take a few scrap pieces and make a small test panel to see if it rinses off with misting or at the slightest touch.
Personally, I favour EpiWeb (or similar) over Hygrolon: the moss sticks really well to the Epiweb, but is more prone to falling off from Hygrolon.
Might be a BDU* error of course.

If it doesn't work like you hoped for, get some pieces of epiweb and hot glue in place. You don't need that much thickness for just moss and mini plants, you could probably fillet a panel into three slices.

Is the back plate one of those flattened cork slabs?

Amyzes · #4 05-23-2015, 08:25 PM

Here is where I am now, with some moss on the back and 8 orchids mounted. I hung them in places for a while before mounting to make sure that they would be happy where I was thinking of putting them. From to to bottom and left to right:
Schoenorchis Seidenfadeni - at the top it gets less water than lower
Mediocalcar Decoratum - seems happy even though I have heard it's not a good terrarium orchid
Dockerilla Rigida (Dendrobium Rigidum) - also gets less water at the top and it's a young plant with roots that were growing when I mounted it.
Oberonia Japonica
Trichosalpinx Chamaelepanthes- a sad couple of vines left from when I got a mildew problem before I had this terrarium.
Psygmorchis Pusilla
Lepanthopsis Astrophora- three new spikes since adding him to the terrarium

Haraella Retrocalla

You can see the leaves of a few larger orchids that I am hanging from the sides so that I can be lazy and let the mist system water them

Amyzes · #5 05-23-2015, 08:36 PM

For some reason uploading the pics caused them to rotate- any advice?

RosieC · #6 05-24-2015, 10:01 AM

Sideways photos can be down to the make of camera/phone they were taken on.

When a photo is taken a marker is written to it as to which way round it should be shown (portrait or landscape) however the marker in the file is not completely standard between different camera manufacturers. Most notably iPhone/iPad seems to use a different system to others.

Operating systems like Windows 8 can recognise most of the markers (Windows 7 still showed some iPhone photos my sister sent me sideways, but the same photos show fine in Windows 8). However the forum does not recognize some of them, and that's the most likely reason for sideways pictures.

In the software you use to edit/manage your photos try rotating it, saving it, then rotating it back. If that's done on a PC it usually means when you load it to the forum it will be the right way round.

Amyzes · #7 05-24-2015, 02:05 PM

Thanks