6 MUST KNOW Terrarium Tips For Beginners!

In this video I'll be giving you six of the best tips to help you make and keep a healthy terrarium. Make sure you watch to the end as you're not going to want to miss any of these tips. The first tip is to use a drainage layer where necessary. Also known as a false bottom, this layer provides a place for excess water to sit. If excess water was to sit in the substrate it will quickly stagnate and cause the terrarium to die. I recommend using a drainage layer in any terrarium over 500 milliliters. In small terrariums such as this one it's very easy to control the amount of water in the substrate, making a drainage layer unnecessary. I've made a separate video about this which you can check out after this one, but if you're ever unsure add a drainage layer. Back to drainage. When it comes to what you can use my go-to material is leaker. It's lightweight and very porous, this makes it perfect for drainage. You can also use something like pea gravel which is a cheaper alternative and still works just fine. And if you're on a budget you could even find rocks from outside, just make sure they're not too large. This next tip is an important one. It's to use a quality terrarium substrate. Also known as the soil mix, this is the lifeline of your terrarium's health so it's important you get it right. Here's the mix I use. One part cocoa fiber, two parts sphagnum moss, a quarter part orchid bark, a quarter part charcoal and a quarter part worm castings. All these components come together to make the perfect terrarium substrate. It's resistant to compression, drains well, holds humidity and provides nutrients for the plants. I'll put some links to all the components in the description so you can make this mix yourself. But if not, most ready-made terrarium substrates from garden centers and plant shops tend to work great. Tip number three. Use plants that are suitable for terrarium conditions. Unfortunately not every plant enjoys life in a terrarium. Plants such as this Fotonia and this Peperomia work great in terrariums and they thrive in the high humidity. Some more great choices are plants like this asparagus fern and this Peperomia verticolata that has these stunning detailed leaves. When choosing plants for your terrarium it's also good to consider how big and how fast they're going to grow. This asparagus fern and this Boston fern will obviously not be suitable for small terrariums as they will quickly outgrow it which is certainly not ideal. A quick bonus tip for terrarium plants before I move on is to use these smoothie cups to store and grow them. This will acclimate them to terrarium conditions before you even introduce them to your terrarium and the result is much happier and healthier plants. If you're finding this video useful so far be sure to give it a like. This next tip is probably one of the most important ones but let's see if you can guess what it is. Can you tell the difference from the one on the right and the one on the left other than the fact that the one on the left is certainly not alive? If you guessed over watering then you're correct. As you can see the substrate is fully saturated with water and looks wet whereas in this terrarium it doesn't look wet at all and is just damp. It goes without saying that the one on the right is what we want. To avoid over watering it's a good idea to use something like a small spray bottle or a pipette. This allows you to more precisely control the amount of water going inside a terrarium. For example if I was to water this terrarium I would open it up and give it a couple light sprays. That's it. When watering it's much better to underwater than over water. Look at the substrate and the moss they should be damp and not wet or soggy. Before moving on to the next tip let me quickly tell you about my terrarium ebook. It's packed full of useful information from the best moss and plants to use, covering the different types of microfauna and even how to fix an over watered terrarium. It contains pretty much everything you need to know about terrarium making and is perfect for beginners. I'll leave it at the top of the description and in the pinned comment if you're interested in checking it out. Now let's get back to the tips. Tip number five is terrarium lighting. As I'm sure you're aware moss and plants need light to grow so it's important we position our terrariums in a place that has adequate light. As you can see this terrarium display light is a perfect choice and you can display a nice arrangement of terrariums underneath it. Another great way to light a terrarium is in indirect sunlight. This is a more budget friendly way of lighting a terrarium. Just make sure you keep it out of direct sunlight. The intensified light through the glass will cook the moss and plants inside. This is the dragonstone terrarium that I made on the channel a few months ago and I've been applying this next tip to it which is one of the reasons why I think it's doing so well. Every couple weeks I open up the terrarium and leave the lid off for five to ten minutes. This lets some fresh air inside the terrarium and provides a good opportunity for me to check up on its general health. If any maintenance is required I'll do so accordingly. This isn't 100% necessary and you can still have a terrarium thrive without opening it every now and then but doing so gives you more chance of success and less chance of things like mold outbreaks occurring which is extremely common in newly set up terrariums. I hope you found these six tips useful and apply them to your own terrariums. Now if you want to learn how to make a terrarium from scratch go watch this video.