Brilliant! You have created your terrarium, so how do you care for it?
We have been creating terrariums for years and have learned many tips and tricks along the ways and want to share them with you so that you have a healthy and lush terrariums for many years.
Where To Position Your Terrarium
The first thing to do is to decide where is a good spot in your space that your terrarium will receive the proper light to grow and be happy.
Most terrariums enjoy bright, indirect light because they have houseplants in them. They're in a glass container, so if they are in full sunlight they will heat up far too much and also get scorched and will die off very quickly, especially terrariums with moss. We have seen moss terrariums completely turn yellow in less than a day!
The best place is an area that receives bright indirect light. This can be in an spot that is positioned away from a window that does get direct sun, but the terrarium won't get any direct sunrays on it so it will still receive a nice bit of light to keep it happy. It is always best to keep terrariums away from windowsills.
Terrarium Humidity
It is important to keep an eye on your terrarium humidity levels. If you don't see any condensation formed on the glass for a couple of week, this could mean that there isn't enough water in your terrarium to form it.
The plants and soil could be quite dry, check for wilting leaves, or leaves with brown, crispy edges and also dry soil. Sudden leaf drop may also happen. If you have some in your terrarium, check your moss, it could be dry and crispy.
That means it's time for a water top up with a water mister. It s always best practice to spray your terrarium and not pour water in as it's far too easy to overwater this way!
The best way to check this is by looking at the amount of condensation on the glass. This will let you know how much is in the air in the enclosed terrarium. On hot days it should be fogged up. This means the humidity is high.
A freshly misted terrarium
Terrarium Watering
This is definitely one of the most questions we get asked! How do I know if I have overwatered my terrarium?
Overwatering is probably the most common terrarium problem. It is very easy to do because there's nowhere for the water to escape to, it just puddles at the bottom of the drainage layer and it there's too much, it can even go above that layer and soak into the barrier layer of moss and the terrarium soil.
If the terrarium soil is kept constantly wet, this means that the plants roots are always wet too, and this will lead to root rot for most terrarium plants.
What are signs of overwatering?
There are many ways to tell if a terrarium is overwatered. These include:
- Dark looking, wet soil.
- A lot of tiny flies known as fungus gnats appear.
- very high levels of condensation - condensation covering the majority of the glass a lot of the time.
- A lot of mould starting to appear.
- Plants dying down and turning mushy.
If any of these symptoms appear, then it is overwatered. The best thing that you can do at this stage is to leave to top of the terrarium open and let as much water evaporate as possible. Always remove any dead plants and foliage. If your fresh moss is very wet, you can also take this out and give it a quick squeeze.
*TOP TIP. We have had some success using kitchen paper towels and putting them inside our terrariums to absorb extra moisture.
Mould Issues
Mould can appear if a terrarium is overwatered or too humid.
A Rabbit's Foot Fern attacked by mould.
There are many types of mould that can appear in a terrarium.
If the mould is centralised around one plant, remove the plant from the terrarium and also some of the surrounding moss and decorative sand, gravel or stones.
If there is only a small bit of mould, it does go away on its own a lot of the time as it is part of the decomposition cycle. Leaves tend to get a bit of mould feeding on them as they decompose, especially in humid situations, which a terrarium has plenty of!
When you have mould, it is best to take the lid off your terrarium and let in some fresh air. This will decrease the humidity and dry out the wet soil.
*TOP TOP. When we spot mould appearing, we use cotton ear buds to quickly remove it from our terrariums.
By far, they best way to combat mould is to keep springtails in your terrarium, the ultimate clean up crew!
Keep an eye on your terrarium for leaves falling. If you remove them immediately there is less change of mould popping up in your terrarium.
Plants Gone Wild
As your terrarium grows and flourishes, your plants might start to get too large for your terrarium.
Of course you do want them to grow, but not so big that they are taking over all of the space and blocking your view of your terrarium design.
You don't want the plants to get too big and block light getting to other plants. If the plants get too big, the leaves can also start to stick to side of the terrarium and get damaged by too much moisture from the condensation on the glass. This will cause those leaves to rot and this cause mould issues.
When this starts happening, it's time for a trim! Trim back larger leaves right to the base of the stem using tweezers to hold the leaf and a clean pair of scissors to snip at the base. It is fine to give them a good trim as they will start to reshoot pretty quickly. Our Terrarium Tools come in handy for this job.
Sometimes, a plant will just grow too large for a terrarium and will need to be fully removed. This is fine, take out the plant and pot it up, refresh the terrarium with some quality terrarium soil and add some new plants!
You can also take cuttings of certain plants and use them in a new terrarium. We find that Fittonias are very good for this. They root very easily.
Some terrariums might not need a trim as they adapt to their new environment. We have a sealed terrarium in the studio that hasn't been opened in nearly 5 years and it isn't overgrown, it just naturally sheds larger leaves and is very happy!
Glass Cleaning
It is important to keep your glass clean so that enough light can get into your plants. Plus, it's nicer anyways because you want to be able to see into your terrarium and enjoy what you have created!
This can be easily done with a damp cloth when you notice any streaks or dirt from decaying leaves appearing, or dust on the outside of the glass. Do not use glass cleaner, a damp cloth is enough or if you want to get a good cleaning supplies bundle, have a look a our Terrarium Cleaning Kit. It includes lots of different cleaning cloths and tools that are perfect for terrariums.
Of course, you do not need to wipe off any condensation on the inside - unless you have overwatered your terrarium and are trying to remove excess moisture.
Hopefully this guide will help your terrarium thrive!