Sophronitis coccinea

[Tindomul]

Wow, fantastic setup! Can I please see the specs and how you built it. I love the moss. The whole thing looks, wow.

Originally Posted by Duane McDowell

So... No one really asked, but I'm pretty pleased with my little growing setup. You can see Lepanthes niesseniae and Masdevallia mendozae blooming in some of the pics; there are several other less spectacular plants in bloom right now, too. The terrarium sits on top of my dresser - I spend maybe 10 minutes per day on maintenance and another 20 minutes just looking.
If you look at these, you'll see how I use wires to hold the plants up, how the fan is placed for cooling, how I use a piece of cloth to hide the uglier workings of the thing, and what it looks like in general. In looking at the pictures, two things become obvious to me. I'm overcrowded, and SOMEONE needs to clean the fertilizer spots off the glass!
If anyone wants a schematic of how the terrarium was built, I'm glad to share. It was inexpensive and pretty easy to do.

[Duane McDowell]

Originally Posted by Tindomul

Wow, fantastic setup! Can I please see the specs and how you built it. I love the moss. The whole thing looks, wow.

When I first built it, I laid out the bottom with a single layer of styrofoam, then I took several styrofoam balls (green florist's foam) and cut them in half. I attached them to the foam sheet with black silicone and bamboo skewers. The balls suggest hills in the tiny landscape - I think they're a nice touch....
Then I covered the whole mess with black silicone and sprinkled it with coir (as suggested by Black Jungle). What I've been noticing is that the styrofoam half-spheres are coming loose from the sheet. This wouldn't be a problem if I weren't constantly moving plants around. Since the wires that I have the mounts supported on are not stainless steel (I use stiff floral stem wire), they rust on the end that's in the foam, and they resist being pulled out. I'm not sure what I would change in future iterations, but I would probably use more bamboo skewers to keep the half-spheres in place.
I've occasionally had a few fungus gnats in the tank. We're big on non-toxic gardening, so I thought I'd try a holistic approach to the problem. I planted three Frasier Island Droseras (Carnivorous Frasier Island Sundew Plant -Drosera - eBay (item 370443256039 end time Nov-08-10 05:00:58 PST) but I'm sure you can find a better deal) right into the moss. They seem to have eliminated the fungus gnats in short order, and they add interest to the floor of the tank.

[Cewal]

It's gorgeous! Are your flowers mounted, and if so, how do you have them suspended?

[Duane McDowell]

Minda, most are mounted. I have only a few in pots. I put a layer of 2" styrofoam on the bottom of the tank. I use stiff floral stem wire to support the mounts from below rather than suspending them from above. The styrofoam is covered with coir and then live moss. Hope this helps!

[Cewal]

Duane, I love the way your setup looks. I hope you don't mind if I copy your idea when I do mine. What are the square things that your plants are mounted on, and what is coir? Thanks

[Duane McDowell]

I don't mind at all! About half of the mounts are tree fern that I've cut into blocks and then drilled out to make pots. The other half are Eco Web from First Ray's Orchids. I cut it to size and then cut a pocket in it so I can tuck the roots in with a little sphagnum. Then I close it with a little wire.
Coir is chopped coconut husks. It's a little like peat moss.

[Mikeg]

Beautiful!!!

[tcrane]

Duane, awesome looking set up. I love the live moss layer at the bottom. I'm assuming you mist a few times a day at least to keep that alive and thriving?

-Tristan

[Duane McDowell]

I water the orchids at least once per day, so the bottom of the tank is always moist. I'm trying to establish moss on the mounts, too. I put some live moss in the blender with dry sphagnum, coir and RO water. Then I swirled the mounts in it. Three weeks later, it looks like the moss is getting started...

[Tim]

Haha! I love it What a great little invention, plenty of air movement and moisture Very nice!