Okay, I've never made a terrarium before, so please do not take this as a tutorial. I figured I'd share how I made these and as I succeed or fail, we can both learn! I think I already made a bit of a mistake, but I'll get to that later. First off, I did do a Google search for "how to moss terrarium" and read up a bit, so I wasn't shooting in the dark. So, I went out and got these supplies:
I got the apothecary jars at Ross, the small stones, potting mix and the spray bottle at The Home Depot and the activated charcoal at PetSmart. From my limited research, some recommend Spanish Moss also, but the "sheet moss" (I'm not sure what kind it was...it just said sheet moss) seemed really thick and with water added, I thought too thick.
So, I layered about 5-6 tbs of rock in each jar, then 1 tbs of activated charcoal, then 4-6 tbs of potting soil. I then added the moss and lichen (carefully keeping them from touching the side of the jar as much as possible to prevent browning) and sprayed a bit with water. I may have added to much rock because the moss and lichen won't need much drainage, but I like the look!
Now, the mistake I may have made is that the specimens I collected were on tree branches, raked over and dislodged from the ground accidentally and scraped from the side of the house and concrete; therefore, they didn't have soil already attached and will have to make that connection themselves...and it's possible that it won't happen. I would have been better off with my first ones to make sure that they already had soil attached so that they would find an easier time thriving. The second one has a bit of brown on it in one spot, but I know that it doesn't mean it's going to croak. Anyway, I'll see how they do and if they don't make it, I will buy some nursery stock!
I'll keep you posted...
Happy Friday!
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