20/05/2015

Orchid terrarium

3 comments :
 


That's it, I've officially lost all control. Yesterday I just wandered into a hardware/gardening store and left with yet another new plant! But I had planned buying it earlier, so it doesn't count, right? (It still does.)
On the way home

The plant exactly is peperomia deppeana. I already mentioned wanting it in the Houseplant-plans -post so I could plant it in the orchid terrarium, since it also requires airy soil and humidity like phalaenopsis does. So after getting peperomia home, I started to scape the terrarium!




I had a bit of orchid potting mix I got from my mom and it was basically mulch, leca and a bit of soil. I wanted some height differences to make it more interesting, so I dumped an empty egg carton there, next to the bowl full of water (to provide humidity). Then I covered the bottom in the potting mix. I also repotted the peperomia in a mix of regular potting soil and orchid potting mix. Hopefully it'll be airy enough! I left the plant in the plastic pot from and put it in the corner next to the egg carton.


Then begun the hardest part: mounting my miniature phalaenopsis. I got these pieces of bark from a forest near my parent's house, along with some moss. I removed the phal from the pot and cut some of the dried up roots. It had clearly been in the pot for quite long, since most of the roots were curled up in the bottom! Well, what else can you except from an IKEA plant... I was so scared of damaging the good roots that m hands shook the whole time. But I put some moss on the curve of the bark and then just adjusted the phal on top of it so that about half of it roots go to the other side and half to the other. Then I tied some yarn around it so it won't fall down when I lift it to the tank. All well so far!

The other stem of flowers had already dried up, the other one is still doing fine
I had some pieces of bark and moss left so I arranged them to the tank in a way that actually pleases me quite much! I still have to get a cover glass to trap the humidity more, but so far so good!



 What do you guys think? Have you made any kind of terrarium (succulent, cacti, orchid) lately?

3 comments :

  1. Ohhh I love this! IA few questions: Is it a repurposed fish tank and what kind of light and voltage are you using? Is it opened or closed? I'm thinking of doing something like this to put in the TV room in the basement. Since the basement has very little natural light, the light in the tank will have to be IT. Thanks for Sharing :)

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    Replies
    1. Hi Barbara and thanks for stopping by! It's an old fish tank, about 10 gallons. The light fixture is an old aquarium light, Sylvania Aquastar. It's a fluorescent tube, T5, and I would guess 18 watts. It's 10000K which means the light is rather blue and I'm not really sure yet if it's the best choice, but there is a wide range of T5 grow lights available so I can change it in the future! At the moment it's open because the tank didn't come with a cover glass. I'm planning on buying one though, because the humidity tends to escape from there now.

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  2. Do you have any form of heater in the tank?

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