#the white stuff at the top of the cork bark pile is not mold it's just residue from a bungled attempt to superglue it for stability

[valeriehalla]

my beloved terrarium i've been working on!! the jar itself is an $8 cookie jar from WinCo, and the lighting is a cheap USB grow light that i modded to remove the stand and route the cable through the center so that it could fit inside the mouth of the jar.

the substrate is a hand-mixed blend of coconut coir, worm castings and vermiculite with some aquarium pebbles and perlites strewn loosely around. for plants, we've got:

creeping fig (ficus repens)

pilea glaucophylla

pilea microphylla

some selaginella kraussiana that seemed like it wasn't going to grow but then started growing like crazy in the understory once enough other plants had grown around it for shade

a bit of mood moss cannibalized from a novelty mini-terrarium

the cork bark hardscaping is also home to a happy community of isopods who serve as my live-in janitors!! other microfauna include two different species of springtails, a few tiny snails that snuck in somehow, and predatory mites that keep the springtail population in check.

#photos #plants #the white stuff at the top of the cork bark pile is not mold it's just residue from a bungled attempt to superglue it for stability #(superglue is nontoxic for plants and animals)