Planting Soil & Avoiding Mold || Fern & Syngonium Terrariums

In today’s plant video, terrarium Tuesday I’m lightly going over terrarium substrate basics as well as combating mold in terrariums. Really more like, how to avoid mold in terrariums and on mold on plants in general. I’m technically using a soil-less substrate, but I refer to it as soil and substrate interchangeably throughout the video. Terrariums work best with a light and fluffy planting substrate that retains moisture as well as allows for gas exchange. Oxygen is crucial for root development as it plays an important role in the nitrogen cycle within the soil. Nitrifying aerobic and anerobic bacteria break down different forms of organic matter and release ammonia and nitrogen compounds which then feeds beneficial fungus around and, in the roots, essentially causing root growth and aiding in the uptake of nutrients. If this would be something that people would like a video on, let me know in the comments. I planted these up very simply, some moss and a super dwarf syngonium in one and a pink syngonium with various ferns in the other. I wanted to have two different types of terrariums here to demonstrate basic low maintenance terrariums versus higher maintenance terrarium. Low maintenance or easy terrariums have less plants, and plants that stay smaller. The larger the terrarium, likely the easier it will be to keep growing. There are tons of houseplants and tropical plants that work wonderfully in terrariums, I hope to incorporate some bromeliads, orchids, and some variegated plants into future projects. Some of the best plants that are easy to find include ficus (ficus pumila), peperomias, dwarf ferns, live moss, small bromeliads such as the cryptanthus, synogiums etc.