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Small terrarium - need even smaller plants!

Posted by lalique (My Page) on
Fri, Oct 3, 08 at 14:17

Hello,

I am upgrading aquariums and plan to turn my 3 gallon aquarium into a terrarium. The tank has no openings once the top is on, so it's a perfectly moist enviroment for tropical plants. Currently, I have a very young polka-dot plant that I'll keep in the tank until it outgrows it. However, I'm also on the lookout for plants that won't outgrow the tank, or at least not for a very long time. I'm not finding much info on non-flowering (which I truthfully prefer) plants that remain small. Does anyone here have any suggestions? P.S., this tank is a hotbox, which is why I'm taking it down, so warm-weather plants would be perfect. Thank you for any feedback.


Follow-Up Postings:

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RE: Small terrarium - need even smaller plants!

Moss is good; Ivy can easily be trimmed to keep it small. By "hotbox," do you mean a heated tank? If so, you may want to consider turning off the heating mechanism, as most plants probably won't need it. I believe certain other species of Fittonia will stay smaller than your polka-dot plant, if you wanted to look into that.
-Jmcat


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RE: Small terrarium - need even smaller plants!

Hello and thanks for your response.

No, this tank doesn't come with a heater, but it constantly stays around 77+degrees no matter what the room temp is, which is why I refer to it as a hotbox. I was under the impression that fittonia actually grew larger than the polka-dots, but I will look into smaller varieties of those, as well. I suppose I can find moss by just walking outside, and ivy is pretty easy to find, as well. Thanks for the tips :)


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RE: Small terrarium - need even smaller plants!

Hi
keeping plants in scale is one of the most difficult parts of terrariums the other is temps. I maintain my shadehouse as a "terrarium" 12x25 feet and everything still outgrows it .lol
What you need are "tropical" plants so be sure to use tropical mosses as temperates will waste away without a cool down.
Among the best are gesneriads, selaginellas. Which love the heat and can be kept rather small. Sinningias will flower under two inches in diameter. Some others are tropical sundews though they clump but easily removed. gary


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RE: Small terrarium - need even smaller plants!

One more question,

Since I seem to be having trouble finding generiads, selaginellas, or sinningias, (aside from african violets) can anyone recommend a place where I can buy seed(lings) of these plants? TIA.


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RE: Small terrarium - need even smaller plants!

Try the violet barn


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