You have either received a terrarium in the mail or you are venturing to creating you own, Congratulations! They are a beautiful mix of indoor gardening and home decor, with which you are able to create a small ecosystem that you can appreciate in your home. A practice that started in Victorian times, terrariums are incredibly easy to maintain, they add that extra humidity that sometimes is needed and they can really make some plants thrive. Even though they are low maintenance, you still need to consider some details to get your plant creation happy and healthy for many months or even years. The following are tips to make your terrarium thrive, especially if you are using it to grow String of Hearts or Turtles.

They Need Less light

One of the perks of a terrarium is that they do not need so much light like regular plants, this is because the glass container can create a magnifying glass effect and in combination with high intensity light could potentially ruin the plants by drying them or burning them. So diffused light is a must. I try to keep mine in between taller plants so it resembles a bit if they were living in the wild with that high humidity and plant shade.

Trimming your Plant

Your plant will eventually start getting larger, but the best thing to do to keep the plant longer in your terrarium, is to trim it or prune it. Then the plant continues growing healthy and you get some nice propagations.

Watering

Terrariums can usually go longer with less water since it keeps lots of humidity. It is preferable to use a spray bottle just for misting when the moss becomes a bit too dry. Also wipe down the jar in watering days to keep the light coming through.

Do you Keep the Terrarium Open or Closed?

For growing plants like string of hearts and turtles, the jar needs to be kept closed for almost the entire week and let it air out one day a week for a few hours (I leave mine open for about 3 hours ). This will help with air circulation and reduce the chances of growing mold or rot. If your jar is accumulating too much condensation very quickly, you should open it for a bit until that condensation reduces and do not mist until it has dried a bit.

String of Turtles are one of the plants that I have seen thrive using the terrarium method. Sometimes I just use moss and I add soil and other elements to keep the humidity long lasting. This one is open to let it air out and dry the foliage.

Variegated String of Hearts, growing in this jar for a few weeks it has already developed roots.

Videos about Terrariums below

Light