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ingemar_la

Orchids in terrariums: potted or planted?

ingemar_la
16 years ago

Hi. I've been looking at the gallery and images of orchids in terrariums and it seems that most people keep their orchids potted. Does anyone here actually plant their orchids into the terrarium landscape? Is there a reason not to?

I want to grow ferns, mosses and paphs and create a little landscape with them not just stack plants in a "miniature greenhouse". I've started assembling the landscape and wrapped the roots with sphagnum and held the root ball together lightly with some rubber bands. I set the sphagnum root balls on top of the polyester mesh (dividing the gravel/charcoal from coir soil) then fill in with bark. The ferns and mosses are planted into the coir.

I have a small CPU fan running and temps at 80F when the lights are on (8hrs) with humidity at 60-70%.

Thanks for the input.

Comments (8)

  • scott361
    16 years ago

    Virtually all of these are orchids.
    (With the exception of the water plants.)


    Most have been growing like this for several years.
    They're all planted or mounted to something blended in to the suroundings.
    The original pots were thrown away years ago, so all I have is a pile of tags and have to guess what is where!:~)
    I would say that Paphs would be more difficult and are far larger.
    I've a bunch of other Pleurothalids that I'd love to put in here, but they get far to big.
    Perhaps when I get something much larger, I'll give it a go.
    Scott

  • paul_
    16 years ago

    Your Scaphs look great, Scott! I've been really disappointed with mine (Scaph grande and swertifolium) -- they just won't bloom and I know they're getting enough light. Don't think the temps are too high [usually in the 70's] and they stay moist. The grande has had a number of leaves -- mainly older yellow and die off. Swerti. did throw a spike but then abort at the growing tip. Quite aggravating. I do have them in pots but the mesh types so the roots have a great deal of freedom to do what they want.

    Sorry to hijack your thread, Ingemar. Most of mine are mounted or in pots. In my case, this is because I like to enter mine in shows. Pots make it possible to remove a plant with less trauma.

  • scott361
    16 years ago

    Thanks!:~)
    But...
    There's only one Scaph there.
    The swertifolium but, I've others around here somewhere.
    It blooms on and off, sequentially.
    The last few tries have been aborted, so I'm not sure what's going on!
    The others are a mix of Trisetella, Lepanthes and Stelis species.
    The bottom photo are of several different Masdevallia species.
    (Four, I think.)

  • the_analyst
    15 years ago

    Scott, that is a beautfiul terrarium. How large is it?

    Sarah

  • paul_
    15 years ago

    But...
    There's only one Scaph there.

    sorry, dude. I hadn't paused long enough to give them a thorough inspection! At a glance, the masdies looked like the Scaph (about same color, had 'tails' ....)

    :D

  • scott361
    15 years ago

    Sorry for the long delay!
    I haven't been around much.

    Sarah
    It's 100 gallons, but the water is only about half full.
    The rest is rock formations, plants, mosses and pools that dump into the main system.
    Generally known as a Paludarium.
    I've wanted one since I read an article in TFH, many years ago.
    I finally built this one about four or five years ago and love it.

    I was just teasin' you, Paul!

    Scott

  • buyorsell888
    15 years ago

    Scott, it is awesome, how about more pics?

  • scott361
    15 years ago

    Thanks for the complement!
    An awful lot of research and thought went into it before construction even started.
    Once I got goin', it was easy.

    Although I haven't taken any recent photos, I do have many uploaded at Flickr.
    He's a link directly to the set.

    Scott

    Here is a link that might be useful: My paludarium photos

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