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- Terrarium Gardening (http://www.orchidboard.com/community/terrarium-gardening/)

- - Terrarium growing experiments (http://www.orchidboard.com/community/terrarium-gardening/104323-terrarium-growing-experiments.html)

Oh, I love these. They look so green and healthy! Nice growing. My two favorites are the L. telipogoniflora with the orange flower -- such a pretty color and shape. And the L. astrophora with the brilliant purple flower.

I think that these pictures are clear and vivid. I'm able to zoom in and see the details. What are you using to take these photos?

that telipogo is just insane- i hope mine flowers one day

and i think the photos are great- i love how you photograph after watering so everything is shiny and happy looking

Those two are definitely my favortite!

These were taken with a camera phone (Mi A2). The camera is actually decent, it's just hard to get it to focus on the part of the plant I want.

I'm really looking forward to blooms from the two Trisetellas. I have never had Trisetellas before and they are both supposed to have very interesting blooms. I'm hopeful that I'll get something from T. andreetae, but T. hoeijeri is gonna take some time.

I think I probably ought to start fertilizing these. They are all growing so much, I don't know where they are getting nutrients from.

---------- Post added at 01:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:13 PM ----------

They look so much better after watering! It intensifies the rainforestiness.

T. andreetae is working on a big bloom!

It's got this first spike and 5 more.

https://i.imgur.com/qIjAOkG.jpg

I was finally able to move my orchid tank and all my terrarium growing stuff from my parents house in California to my place in Washington!

Everything is set back up after the trip:

https://i.imgur.com/PjiaJW0.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Adwgylw.jpg

I need to go through all the plants, photograph them, and see what condition they're all in.

The equipment I've been testing on the small tank continues to work extremely well, all the plants are thriving. So next steps for me will be to prepare a new version of the environmental control system for the big orchid tank. I want to have a small batch (10 maybe) of the sensors made so I don't have to cobble them together like I did the prototype. This will take me a while.

Until then, I have added one of the current versions of temperature and humidity sensors to the big orchid tank. This will start to show me how different the environment actually is with humidity control.

Unfortunately, I have no environmental data from the big orchid tank's last year in california. My parent's house is probably 5C warmer and 0-50% RH dryer than my place here, so the data I am currently recording from the big tank DOES NOT represent what the plants have been experiencing for the last year. Just from a quick inspection, it appears the plants were frequently drier than they'd like, I can see dried out aerial root tips on most of them.

Data from the two tanks can be viewed here:
IO - Adafruit

Tank 1 is the little test tank running the humidity controller and speed controlled fan.

Tank 0 is the big orchid tank with no humidity control, fans and misting are just on timers.

---------- Post added at 08:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:45 PM ----------

And here are pictures of the T. andreetae! The blooms are amazing, this plant is really exceeding expectations. 10/10 plant.

https://i.imgur.com/OzLPWyB.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/lBYg1Zy.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/qWgwpOT.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/N4jXcJh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/G4dEdlr.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NoniP8w.jpg

It's picture time! Before continuing to work on the environmental controls, I wanted to give some more detail on the issues I'm working through. I've started digging through the orchid terrarium to asses the condition of all the plants.

Pleurothallis grobyi:

I don't remember how big this one was when I got it, but it's huge now.
https://i.imgur.com/0e9Liog.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/VN5vViS.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/2SZpxLX.jpg

I'd consider this one to be pretty healthy. It has a bunch of dead spikes, so I guess it flowered sometime in the last year, but I missed it.

It's been sitting up at the top of the tank where there is more airflow. The lower sections of the tank don't get much flow because all the bromeliads are in the way (need to get them out). It's also right in front of a mister, so it gets a pretty good soaking at misting times.

The roots are not as healthy as I think they should be. There aren't many roots outside the sphagnum on the mount, and the roots in the sphagnum look like they've been wetter than they'd like.

Here you can see there aren't really any roots growing out of the mount. I suspect this is because the humidity was too low.
https://i.imgur.com/dsfQ2qi.jpg

And here the visible roots are mostly black/brown, with a few that are healthy and bright green.
https://i.imgur.com/SwW816o.jpg

---------- Post added at 05:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:36 PM ----------

Pleurothallis alenii:

This particular division was grown midway up the tank, so average/low airflow. It wasn't directly in the mist but gets a pretty decent watering by getting dripped on by the plants above.

https://i.imgur.com/jLeYtXD.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/y8F4Q0B.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/v103Rl0.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tu8NN9g.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/TDURTEQ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/W8wcymp.jpg

Again the foliage is doing pretty well. P. alenii is a constant bloomer for me. In the past this one has sent out long roots when I was diligent about keeping humidity up. Recently it's had the same issue as the others with burnt/dried root tips. The following picture show the dried tips very clearly. You can see a few healthy roots creeping around the mount.

https://i.imgur.com/dv58L76.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/zvDXWKn.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/xiQpmFt.jpg

You can see the blackened tips on roots that emerge from the sphagnum. These particular roots made it pretty far out. They may have grown out while humidity was high and died off when the weather changed.

I'd consider the roots and mount to be pretty healthy (maybe a little wet) other than the dried tips. The established moss combined with the cork mount seems to do well.

---------- Post added at 05:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:50 PM ----------

Pleurothallis eumecocaulon:

This one has been at the top of the tank, where it gets decent airflow. It is a bit further from the misters and doesn't always get thoroughly flushed and soaked (I think it should, ideally). From the leaf color I think this one may have been getting a bit more light than it would like.

https://i.imgur.com/3GSJV7g.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XG2XX6H.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/wsUheNx.jpg

Starting a bloom.

https://i.imgur.com/PENtsOb.jpg

It's a prolific rooter, the mount is almost covered. I think these roots are moderately healthy, pretty sure they aren't dead? But they aren't happy green either, and they definitely dry up as they grow away from the mount.

https://i.imgur.com/ZobaU0U.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/pRqCfsr.jpg

---------- Post added at 06:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:59 PM ----------

Stelis hirtzii:

This one is growing at the bottom of the tank. It gets soaked by drips from the plants above, and gets very little airflow.

https://i.imgur.com/Fx3E5c1.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/oJuvGjm.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/nrfuPxd.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/u8SWQaJ.jpg

It has been too wet. You can see many of the lower sections have died, and the mount is pretty grimy. No live moss over the sphagnum to help it breathe, and the wood mount is getting really soft.

https://i.imgur.com/TBPWLfP.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/e2a1HO0.jpg

In that last picture you can see some healthy aerial roots. Due to this plant's location in the tank, and the cover provided by its leaves, the humidity is probably higher around these roots than around most of the others.

First. Congrats on getting it all home and unscathed

Next. Well done. Some of these are specimen size for the plants and continuing to thrive. Please keep it coming.

Thanks DC!

I'll try to get pictures of more of the plants up this weekend.

My next step is to upgrade the little test tank to a full sized tank for the rack. I want to move all the orchids into the higher airflow, controlled humidity environment. Getting the next version of the electronics made will take some time, and I want all the plants to receive the best conditions possible while I work on that.

I also have access to my light meter again. Until now, I didn't know how the lights in the little tank compared to the big orchid tank. I had assumed they were weaker, but I was wrong!

With this meter: https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Meter-LX13...7558451&sr=8-3
I am measuring roughly 2000 lux at the level the orchids sit at in the little tank. This is roughly the same as what I measure at the top level of the big tank.

This is an interesting comparison to me because I have seen some of the plants in the big tank respond as though they are receiving too much light, but none of the plants in the little tank show those signs.