90% to minimum functionality! The remaining 10% will be connecting the menu control system I mentioned before and attaching the humidity sensor. Ran out of wires and USPS lost the set I bought so gonna have to wait a little longer before that will get done.
However, general planting is complete and I will try to give a brief explanation of my reasoning for the plant placement. First, here is the full front view:
The goal of this project is to allow each plant to grow as naturally as possible. This means that many will be mounted and receive daily automated watering and relatively quick drying. Since this terrarium houses species from a wide range of environments, I split the orchidarium roughly into quarters with increasingly better drainage (and thus a drier area) as one goes from right to left and bottom to top.
In the top-left (dry, bright), we have orchids like Brassavola nodosa, a couple Tolumnias, and eventually some rupicolous laelias. There are also some cattleyas that appreciate the light too that I placed closer to the bottom of this quadrant to accommodate better their growth habit.
In the top-middle to top-right (wet, bright), we have Leptotes bicolor and eventually some Sophronitis that will appreciate the light and good drainage due to the vertical wall. The wetness will come from rockwool and moss attached to the wall. The Dendrobium Nano Chip also seems to enjoy brighter light, and being higher up allows better appreciation of its flowers since they tend to "nod". I reserved the area to the right of the Nano Chip to plants that tend to have more of a pendant growth habit, such as Aerangis modesta and Paphinia neudeckeri. It is a little bright for these plants which like shade more, but future plants that will be mounted on the cork bark above them will eventually provide some diffuse shading.
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There is currently nothing in the bottom-right (in fact I haven't even finished the foam part for it...), but since it is the closest to the fogger I built into the wall, it will eventually house lower light plants that like higher humidity such as smaller Dracula species. Still deciding on what to eventually do though.
Towards the bottom half of the middle portion where the "leg" of the tree is (bright, wet), I reserved some deeper pockets for future phragmipediums. I also mounted the Dendrobium Hibiki onto the "leg" as the extra height will help appreciate the flowers that will grow on the canes. As for the rest of the bottom in the valley (shady, wet) I saved specifically for things like Masdevallias, D. cuthbersonii hybrids that better tolerate heat, and perhaps some jewels in the future.
Finally, I reserved the bottom-left (shady, dry-ish) for paphs. After seeing in situ photos of paphs on slippertalk, I really wanted to try to somewhat replicate their tendency to grow in the nooks of limestone cliffs. To that end, I used the larger charcoal chunks to create a similar terrain, lined the bottom with rockwool, and filled it with LECA to essentially create a shallow semi-hydro pot. So far I have Paphiopedilum delenatii and bellatulum, and planning to add barbigerum in the future. As mentioned previously, I will remove the dripwall on the left side of the enclosure for a month or two in the winter to replicate the drier winter many of these plants naturally go through. The bottom lined with rockwool will still provide a small reserve of moisture for the paphs as the watering decreases, as leaf litter and humus deep in those rock crevices will do in the wild. There will still be daily mistings to replicate morning/evening dew though, so it won't be completely dry. Trying to also grow some temperate moss here as well, as they won't mind the drying.
Also just a quick pic at the fans I installed on the ceiling. I programmed these to run more often with increasing humidity. Note - I HIGHLY recommend the bequiet! Pure Wings fans (the black one in the picture). They are indeed very quiet, don't drone, and fairly cheap (92mm for $10). The Noctua Redux I got is not bad either, but it does drone a bit and is a bit more expensive than the bequiet!. Will be adding a third to the right side. There are also enough holes in the canopy such that I will just use a tiny 40mm fan I have for the exhaust.
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