A Gardeners Forum
Posted By: kanuck girl a new terrariums - September 18th, 2006 at 06:08 AM
I am trying to start a terrarium.I am having trouble getting started. Do I put anything on the very very bottom. Like plastic, or something?
Posted By: afgreyparrot Re: a new terrariums - September 18th, 2006 at 06:26 AM
Here's some info Bill has here on terrariums.

Creating and Maintaining Terrariums
Posted By: kanuck girl Re: a new terrariums - September 18th, 2006 at 06:31 AM
My case sits on a stand.I am worried about the spots where the bolds come through into the terrarium.Do I put a layer of something before the rocks?
Posted By: daysea Re: a new terrariums - November 13th, 2006 at 12:48 AM
i wanted to start one too.. the kind that maintain themselves. is there a limit on how small a jar or container should be? i save a lot of jars, from baby food, to spaghetti sauce , to pickles.. old sugar jars, etc. if i do use the smaller ones any idea what plants to use?
Posted By: tkhooper Re: a new terrariums - November 13th, 2006 at 03:11 AM
you want plants that are shallow rooted and that grow very slowly. I'd start with moss for your ground cover. Then you have to take plants out as they outgrow the space provided.

I hear you have to be pretty good with chopsticks if you want to do one in a jar.
Posted By: Coleus Kid Re: a new terrariums - March 6th, 2007 at 10:19 PM
I have two small Terrariums. I have hens and chicks and rainbow bush in them.
Posted By: teacher37 Re: a new terrariums - March 9th, 2007 at 09:04 PM
I started a terrarium in a big apothecary jar. The one problem I seem to keep having is some sort of fungus growing on the plants and within days they are dead. I am going to give it one more try. Everything was new-soil, jar, everything. So I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I'll figure it out. You do need to make sure you have a good amount of gravel at the bottom, this will help with drainage. I'm going to try putting some screen over the gravel before I put soil down, maybe that will help.
Posted By: webwise Re: a new terrariums - March 10th, 2007 at 12:39 PM
Hi teacher. Try sodium metabisulfite (sodium pyrosulfite) solution for washing out your jars before starting. Full details are on Wikipedia. Won't hurt the gravel to give it a rinse either. (By the way it is used in beer making for sterilizing and it's never done me any harm lala , but be careful if you are asthmatic and always rinse in plain water after sterilizing.)
Posted By: teacher37 Re: a new terrariums - March 11th, 2007 at 04:21 AM
I will definitely try that. I am bound and determined that I'm going to get at least one terrarium up and running. I've always had pretty good luck with plants, so it's really irritating me that I can't get this to work. mad ...which makes me want to get it to work even more...I WILL get it to work. Thanks for the advice. thumbup
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