Total beginner, need a few tips for self-sustaining terrarium build

[tmoney]

howdy....

so i am new at the whole automated orchid terrarium thing and only have had mine going for a couple months now and it’s still very much in progress. but, i have been making local collected closed moss terrariums for a long time and have several that have been closed and thriving for several years. so i am not sure, but it sounds like you are more interested in a local/mossarium rather than an Orchid terrarium per se.

but for local collections, sticking with mosses has been the only success i have had. wild plants that i have used all either die straight away (which means the end of the terrarium), or get so big they take over the jar in a couple weeks. i have never used springtails or purchased isopods, but your success rate would improve with those. i am very careful to remove any dead plant material, as again, any decomp initially in my jars means they will not establish. related, i now remove any grasses or other herbaceous weeds that sprout after closing because they will die at the end of summer and then the terrarium is also dead.

for soils you will just have to try a few and see what is good in your area. i would recommend having a bottom of small rocks or leca for your reservoir, overlain by a layer of activated carbon, on top of that put a very fine layer of your collected soils. the more sand and easier draining the better. as i made more of them i have been pushing my soil levels to the extremes low end, just cause to me i like the look better than a jar half filled with dirt.

ive included a photo of the last 2 i made back in february. now i am trying to collect as many varieties of moss as i can find...some do great, but as you can see from the photo, some don’t do good at all. same day planted, one is thriving, one is dead. time to make another mossarium!!