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Newbe's Terrarium

tuballkain

Prince Ruffus Magnium
This is my first CP project and first CPs. A Sarracenia hybrid, Cobra lily, Venus Fly Trap, Cape Sundew, Purple Pitcher x2, and a Sarracenia.

Built this little thing myself, I think I should redo this so the water is flowing and I hate the brown moss :-( make it so dark and dead looking.

It's 18" x 36" x 22" , 4x 5000k 1600 lumens CFL bulbs (and a black light for at night), big CPU fan near lights. The plants are sitting in plastic containers screwed to box. They are still in the pots I bought them in just covered with that ugly moss.

Would appreciate any comments or suggestion I don't want to kill my new homies :-D

Thnx for checkin' it out.

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Nice setup! Is the moss sphagnum moss or just decorative moss? I like how you made a slope with it. If it is sphagnum moss and you have enough of it, maybe you could even try growing some plants in it if you wet it first.

Just a suggestion: if you have a suitable environment, I would recommend growing the Sarracenia outside, because they like full sun and will grow better in it. It would also save you the trouble of having to move them somewhere else in the winter.
 
thanks Tanukimo! The moss is sphagnum. Would it be possible to grow it right in the moss with out flowing water?

Do you mean just try the Sarracenia outside or the Sarracenia and the Hybrid?
 
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thanks Tanukimo! The moss is sphagnum. Would it be possible to grow it right in the moss with out flowing water?

Do you mean just try the Sarracenia outside or the Sarracenia and the Hybrid?

I meant both of them. Full sun will really bring out their color because they really need a lot of sun.

You don't need to have water flowing over the sphagnum to grow plants in it; as long as it is kept wet plants should be able to grow in it. For example, terrestrial Utricularia would probably do well in it, even if you didn't have a pot. Many people use sphagnum to cover up pots in terrariums to make it look more natural.

And I noticed that you have a cobra plant in the terrarium. Keep in mind that it needs to have its roots cool because in its natural habitat cool water is usually flowing over its roots. It also doesn't really like having its roots standing in water, though, so it can be a difficult plant to grow. The rest of the plants shouldn't be too difficult to grow.

Good luck with your terrarium!
 
Hey! First off, welcome to the forum! Tanukimo meant every single pitcher plant in the terrarium. Purple pitcher plants, the hybrid, the other one. They're all Sarracenias, just different species. And he's right. If you live pretty much anywhere in the continental US, they should definitely be outside throughout spring, summer, and much of autumn. They all require a dormancy period over the winter too so sticking them in a terrarium under lights year round won't be too great for them. Plus, if you stick them all outside (preferably in a peat moss/ perlite mix with the individual pots sitting in a tray of distilled water) you'll be able to see the pitchers catch bugs, which IMO is one of the best parts about growing Sarracenia!

Edit: One thing I'd highly recommend you get is a copy of The Savage Garden by Peter D'Amato. It's pretty much the carnivorous plant grower's bible. Many of the members here have it and I know it certainly saved me from killing a bunch of plants when I began collecting.
 
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Ok, any suggestions on good plants to go in terrarium to take the Sarracenias place? :blush:

Putting the Sarracenias outside will be kind of fun, i built a pond last year and I have a great idea for adding them to it :-O
 
Ok, any suggestions on good plants to go in terrarium to take the Sarracenias place? :blush:

Putting the Sarracenias outside will be kind of fun, i built a pond last year and I have a great idea for adding them to it :-O

Maybe you could get some easier Nepenthes species, such as Nepenthes sanguinea or ventricosa. There are also several easy tropical Drosera, such as aliciae, spatulata, nidiformis, and madagascariensis although they wouldn't grow very tall.
 
Made a few changes and got a Nepenthes and some green moss for now. It really isn't even close to that dark it's just the pic.

My black light for at night isn't bright enough though :-( I'll figure something out with that though.

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My black light for at night isn't bright enough though :-( I'll figure something out with that though.

The plants probably shouldn't be getting any light at night. If they were actually growing in the wild, they wouldn't be getting any at all. I have my lights set to a timer so they go off at night and come back on in the morning, but you could obviously deal with that manually too. So I wouldn't worry too much about upping the lights at night.

You probably should at some point also take those last two sarracenias and the venus flytrap out of the terrarium and put them outside with the two you already moved, if and when you have the soil/pots to do so.

If you want to grow drosera outside, you could also go with rotundifolia, filiformis, or binata. They're easy to grow and will catch a lot (especially filiformis) outdoors.
 
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I just wanted the black to see in at night. Do you think that will harm or inhibit plants?
 
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I just wanted the black to see in at night. Do you think that will harm or inhibit plants?

It's fine if you turn on the light to see the plants at night, as long as you aren't leaving it on the whole night.
 
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