The hardscape is fairly simple as it gets muted out with growth anyway. The cork was originally a 4' tube I ordered from Maryland Cork, I just cut it down the middle to try to make it look like 2 trees. Then I just took a few branches and cut holes in the cork and shoved them in. Between the cork is tree fern panels (from Black Jungle). The center wood are two separate pieces, one more 'netted' and a nice root on the bottom to hold it up. I thought it was a little flat (one-dimensional) so I added some small pieces with silicone on the bottom to make it look more like buttresses, then covered it with moss.
The moss I use is an aquatic type, similar to java moss but I find it grows slightly differently. My substrate is also very simple. The tanks have a drilled hole and bulkhead with PVC tubing and a valve that leads to a 5 gallon bucket for waste water. All the timers,
misting pump and RO water reservoir are also under the stands as well. The substrate is just Fluorite that I cover with a layer of shredded Magnolia leaves and then a small layer of whole leaves. The idea is to slowly build a soil as the leaves decompose. On occasion I'll add some new leaves as well. The wood I collected from the levees, so I have the Mississippi to thank for it all. I don't do any soaking or treatment other than let it sit outside until I choose what pieces I want. I wouldn't expect the cork sitting in water would cause any issues, perhaps just expanding a bit.
I should also mention that the background on the newer, 'smaller' one is a different process. For that one I glued in the faux rocks, and then placed my wood branches, and sprayed expanding foam (Great Stuff) to hold it all in place. That was then covered with a mix of coconut peat and concrete binder, but to make up for the boring texture I smashed up some more tree fern panel scraps and pushed that into the wet mix. This gave me more of the texture I was hoping for, and provides more area for plants to hang on to. I also constructed the 'tree' out of a few pieces of driftwood that I fastened together with silicone (and a few zip ties) which was all covered in plants and moss. Both terrariums took a while to soak in, so initially I had the
misting programmed for short sprayings a few times daily. Now I'm just doing 2 minutes in the morning. The closed-circuit fans run all day/night, barring 2 minutes before/after the
misting system runs.
I think that's all the details now.
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