How to Set up your terrarium kit
If you are here because you bought or received one of our terrarium kits – thank you! We hope you love it and find this guide super easy to follow. If you don’t have one of our kits they are available in our shop.
What you need
In this article we will focus on the most basic and super easy terrarium which looks amazing and can be created by anybody at home. You will not need any professional tools and you can have your terrarium made and ready to go in 15 – 30 minutes.
To start make sure that you have:
- Glass Container
- Terrarium Potting Mix
- Live Moss
- Plant(s)
- Stones, wood, crystals and any other decorations you like (optional)
Instructions
- Wipe clean your glassware
- Add soil to the bottom of the terrarium
- Moisten the soil lightly with a water spray
- Plan out where you want to put your plants and moss in the terrarium
- Remove your plant or plants from the nursery pot and check how the size will fit. If it is too big you may choose to split the plant up.
- Carefully add your plants and moss to the terrarium. Make little gaps to push in your plants then fill back in with soil.
- To lay in the moss simply place it on the soil and press lightly so it nestles into the soil.
- Spray the moss until you can see the water soaking through the moss and into the soil
- Pop the lid back on the top of the terrarium.
- Well done! You have made a terrarium!
Video Guide
Aftercare
Keep your terrarium in a warm spot in bright indirect light and keep the soil slightly moist all the time. You will not need to water it very often if the terrarium will be kept closed.
After some time, you will probably notice condensation of water on the walls. That is natural and totally normal for the terrarium if it occurs in the morning or afternoon. The sunlight will create condensation during the day, but if you notice condensation occurring also during night time then inside our small ecosystem there is too much water. You can remove excess water from with a cloth or keep the terrarium open for some time until the water level reduces.
Troubleshooting
Every terrarium needs some time to adjust, keep an eye on this for the first 6-8 weeks.
It is normal to remove damaged leaves or make small adjustments during this process.
If you add wood, then you may notice mould after some time in high humidity and warm environment it is nothing strange. Because we created very simple terrarium which is not bioactive then we should clean it by ourselves.
Take the wood, clean and clean it in water. You can also add some food grade Hydrogen Peroxide 3% to the water which helps with deep cleaning of wood. Dry out and put back, keep eye on this and if necessary repeat the process.
If you would like to avoid having to maintain the terrarium yourself, you can add springtails and isopods which will consume the mould and keep the terarium eco system healthy. This is called a Bio-active terrarium.
