My first terrarium pics =)

[Drew]

made my first terrarium

check it out

basic 10 gallon

http://s790.photobucket.com/albums/y...2.jpg&newest=1

[carnivoure12]

Sarracenia and Venus flytraps belong outside in full sun...

[F R e N c H 3 z]

The water needs to be worked into the peat PRIOR to planting, otherwise the peat will not soak it up.

[petmantis]

I second French's comment....also the vft's are looking pretty bad, and neither the sarrs nor vft's should be in there like Carnivoure12 said...You should focus on keeping tropical plants in there, the adelaes are fine. Do you have a light on top of the terrarium?

[Chomp]

I'm not going to say anything other than it looks still looks nice.
Good job Drew! For a first, it's great!

[scottychaos]

In my opinion, VFT's and Sarracenia should never be grown indoors or especially in terrariums..
the climate inside a terrarium is just all-wrong for them..
the climate is fine for a few months...but VFTs and Sarrs need very different climates at different times of year..

Keeping VFTs and Sarrs in a terrarum is the same as trying to grow maple tree bonsai in a terrarium..
you can replicate June - August ok in a terrarium..sunny and warm..but what about the other 9 months of the year?

Maple trees need a gradually warming spring to come out of dormancy, a gradually warmer and sunnier summer, a gradually cooler and darker autumn, then a cold and dark winter to be fully dormant.

...cycle repeats...

so do VFTs and Sarracenia.
its not an option..its a necessity.

If you grow a maple tree indoors it will die within a year...the non-changing environment of a terrarium will also eventually kill a VFT.

VFTs need it warm and REALLY sunny in the summer..DIRECT sunlight..
where can you find that? outdoors in the summer!
Nature provides the perfect light for free..
then you need gradually decreasing photoperiod and gradually decreasing temps from summer into autumn..
where can you find that? outdoors..again nature does all the work for us.

The only tricky season for those of us in the Northern states is the winter..Spring, Summer and Autumn are a breeze..just keep the plants outdoors April - October.
but the plants need a COOL winter..the winter of South Carolina..
but winters in the northern states are too severe and will kill them if the plants are left outdoors..

If you have a cool basement or attic, or a garage that stays in the 40's (4-10C) all winter, thats fine
for dormancy..or ideally, if you live in the southern US where winters are mild, just leave your plants outside 24/7/365! but right now I lack any of those conditions..hence, they are going in the fridge!

http://gold.mylargescale.com/scottychaos/CP/page2.html

Scot

[Nickrober]

Wow, cutting all the leaves down to stubs! That seems radical but it works out for you. I'll be attempting fridge dormancy this year, I don't know if I've got it in me to cut all the leaves off though!

[Drew]

thx 4 all the tips there is a 6500 k grow light on top
and the vft's i bought there very young and where grown up at low's

they were the best ones there lol
had 2 save them they kept them in a plastic box inside with no sunlight or artificial sunlight

[Capensis]

A single 6500K light bulb won't do it...At all.

[scottychaos]

Wow, cutting all the leaves down to stubs! That seems radical but it works out for you. I'll be attempting fridge dormancy this year, I don't know if I've got it in me to cut all the leaves off though!

yeah, it does seem radical!
but it does work..
my reasons for cutting off all the leaves are:

1. the plants are in pitch-darkness and 35F for 3.5 months..definately not growing, so they dont need the leaves..

2. space..cutting off all the leaves makes smaller packages when they are all bagged up.

3. mold..less greenery in dark damp bags = less mold growth.

The only potential drawback to cutting it all off is that the plants cant start photosynthesis right away in the spring..they have to wait to grow new leaves, as opposed to getting a "head start" by using last year's leaves..but I honestly dont think that is an issue..because my plants are always healthy and happy all year..

My dormancy method requires some compromises, simply because of where I live..
ideally I would prefer to just leave my plants outdoors all winter and NOT have to cut off all the leaves..but I dont have those options here in Western NY..

Scot