hey all! It's been quite a long time since I have posted anything and quite a lot has happened. I lost most of my already small collection of CPs over the year due to negligence on my part (things just dry up so quickly in hot/dry weather, and my cat likes to drink all the water out of my reservoir trays). That being said I have added a couple plants to my collection and have finally set up a fairly basic terrarium for stuff that can't make it outside.
Currently the terrarium only houses a (an?) Utricularia alpina x endressii (I'm kind of a species snob so a part of me really wishes it weren't an artificial hybrid). Probably not the best plant to use as a guinea pig, but it has proven rather resilient.
without any further ado, here's my rather rudimentary set up.
image
It's only 10 gallons, but I do plan to eventually purchase a larger, definitely taller container. I use a pretty overpowered LED grow light that I set up (Im only running it at 50% power at the moment) but that should allow me to grow into a larger terrarium without having to set up a new light. At first I was running it at 65% and it pretty much killed most of the sphagnum moss at the surface of the net pot, leaves seemed to grow fine and even developed red-purple veins, but eventually they turned yellow (only one has died though). Since turning the light down to 50% the sphagnum on top has slowly started to come back, some of the leaves still developed the red-purple veins but nothing has turned yellow thus far.
Unfortunately, I suspect the temperature is a bit higher than what is ideal during the day. I lost my digital thermometer/hygrometer so I have no way of determining the exact temperature at the moment, but I would estimate it at reaching about 80 F during the day. However, I think the temps drop down to around 65 F at night.
Im currently looking into providing better airflow, but I'm not sure how to achieve that without reducing humidity in such a small setup. Right now I just keep the lid cracked around 2 inches and leave my room fan on. This seems to be working to prevent stagnation as the terrarium hasn't developed a foul smell or anything (it actually just smells like sphagnum).
Anyways, that's my little set up at the moment. If there is anything you would like to know about the set up be sure to ask. Advice would also be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for reading!
Currently the terrarium only houses a (an?) Utricularia alpina x endressii (I'm kind of a species snob so a part of me really wishes it weren't an artificial hybrid). Probably not the best plant to use as a guinea pig, but it has proven rather resilient.
without any further ado, here's my rather rudimentary set up.
image
It's only 10 gallons, but I do plan to eventually purchase a larger, definitely taller container. I use a pretty overpowered LED grow light that I set up (Im only running it at 50% power at the moment) but that should allow me to grow into a larger terrarium without having to set up a new light. At first I was running it at 65% and it pretty much killed most of the sphagnum moss at the surface of the net pot, leaves seemed to grow fine and even developed red-purple veins, but eventually they turned yellow (only one has died though). Since turning the light down to 50% the sphagnum on top has slowly started to come back, some of the leaves still developed the red-purple veins but nothing has turned yellow thus far.
Unfortunately, I suspect the temperature is a bit higher than what is ideal during the day. I lost my digital thermometer/hygrometer so I have no way of determining the exact temperature at the moment, but I would estimate it at reaching about 80 F during the day. However, I think the temps drop down to around 65 F at night.
Im currently looking into providing better airflow, but I'm not sure how to achieve that without reducing humidity in such a small setup. Right now I just keep the lid cracked around 2 inches and leave my room fan on. This seems to be working to prevent stagnation as the terrarium hasn't developed a foul smell or anything (it actually just smells like sphagnum).
Anyways, that's my little set up at the moment. If there is anything you would like to know about the set up be sure to ask. Advice would also be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for reading!
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