How to Make an Open Terrarium

1. Introduction: Hey, I'm Sam, and today I'm going to be walking you through how to create your own open terrarium like this one here. The first thing that we're gonna be talking about in this class is the difference between open and closed Terrariums So you can have a better understanding of which terrarium is gonna work best for you. After that, I'll be giving you a demonstration and walking you through step-by-step, how to build your own. After the demonstration, I'll be going over how to maintain your terrarium and keep all of your plants nice and healthy. And then finally, we will talk about your class project. So let's get things started by talking about the difference between an open and a close to Terrarium. 2. Open vs Closed Terrariums: So on the left here you'll see a close to Terrarium, and on the right is an open terrarium. So with a close terrarium, as the name implies, it's completely closed. A close frame creates a much more moist human environment for plants. So when you're selecting plants for close to terrarium, you wanna make sure you go with plants that prefer that type of climate. So you'll see here I have a silver laced fern and I have Cryptanthus or an Earth Star bromeliad growing here. And these type of plants would do better in this terrarium versus an open terrarium. As for lighting with a close terrarium You want to keep them in indirect light because it's holding onto a lot of humidity and moisture. If you place it in direct light, you could end up burning your plants leaves. And as you can see here with this open terrarium, as the name implies, it's open. So the plants always have access to fresh air. This terrarium isn't holding on to moisture and humidity. Like the closed one would. So this makes it a better option for plants to prefer a more arid environment like cacti and succulents. So if you wanted to make a terrarium using those type of plants, then you'd want to go with an open terrarium. With an open terrarium, you have the freedom to place your plant wherever you like and wherever is best suited for your plant. Because it's not holding on to a lot of moisture. It's perfectly fine to keep it indirect light if that is what's best for your plants, there may not appear to be a very big difference between the two terrariums to us. But for plants, each to terrarium is creating a completely different growing environment. So the plants that you're gonna be able to use in one, you won't necessarily be able to use in the other. So if you were looking to grow plants like ferns, bromeliads, and plants more suited to a warm, humid environment. Then you'll want to check out my class on how to create a close terrarium instead. But if you have decided that an open terrarium is right for you, then we can get started by taking a look at the materials that you'll be needing in order to complete this project. 3. Materials Required: So there's a few things that we're going to be needing in order to make our own terrariums. The first thing that we're going to need obviously, is an open container like this one here. When you're choosing a container, you can go with one that's either glass, plastic, or acrylic. The size of container that you decide to use will depend on how much space you have, how many plants you plan on putting in your terrarium, and how big the plants are that you're starting with. The next thing that you're gonna be needing is some plants. As I mentioned, you want to use plants that like a bit more of an arid environment for an open terrarium. So succulents and cacti would be really well suited for this type of terrarium. And I have some haworthia here that I propagated and some echeveria that I'm gonna be using for my plants. The next thing that you'll be needing is some rocks or pebbles do put in the bottom of your container. Seeing as there's no drainage holes in the bottoms of the containers that would be using. We're going to need some other way to create drainage so we don't have our plants sitting in water. And lastly, you'll be needing some soil. Now the type of soil that you decide to use will depend on the plants you decide to use. So if you're using cacti or succulents, you can go with a cacti or succulent mix. I, whoever, I'm just going to be using regular potting soil. Because even with succulents, I tend to underwater them. So having regular potting mix, it holds on to a lot more water or I can go a bit longer without watering them, without them having any negative effects. So once you have all of your materials together, we can get started on making our terrariums, let's head over to the demonstration, where I'll show you step-by-step how to complete this project. 4. Demonstration: So to start with, we're going to take our larger pebbles here and add them to our container. So you wanna make sure you add about an inch of rocks to the bottom. Now if you do have a really deep container, you could add more to help raise it up a bit. So now that I've added in my larger rocks, I'm gonna go ahead and add in the small ones next. So I've just added in a really thin layer just enough to cover the larger rocks. And this pea gravel will just help prevent the soil from filtering down into our larger rocks. So we'll have good drainage. So next we're going to add in our soil. As I mentioned in the materials lesson, the type of soil that you use is going to depend on what kind of plants you're going to be putting in your terrarium, as I showed you before. I'm going to be using some haworthia and echeveria. So if you are using succulents, you could use some succulent soil. But for me, because I tend to underwater my plants, I'm gonna be using just regular potting mix. How much soil you add is going to depend on the type of plants used and how deep their roots are going to be. So now that I've added my soil, I'm going to start adding in my plants. I'm going to start off by adding this little haworthia here. And I'm just going to add them to the back. As you pull forward your soil to make a little, well for your plants, just be careful that you don't pulled back too far and end up scraping back your rock layer. So there is one plant in so far. And then next I'm going to add in a couple of my echiverias, going to add in this area here, c is the root here, all really small because I took this as a cutting from the Rosette . So it's going to have lots of room to grow. Don't need to plant it to Deeply. Next, I'm going to take this little one here and place it up front. I'm going to plant this little one at the back here. So now that all my plants are in place. I'm going to add some water. So now that I have everything watered in, I'm just going to take some of my leftover large pebbles and place them around my plants just for a little bit of decoration. Perfect. So now that my pebbles are in place, I'm just going to give it a couple more sprays of water just to help kinda rinse any little bits of soil off of my plants and my rocks. So there's the final result. My plants are all planted. I put around the rocks for some decoration. So now that we have our terrariums made, let's take a look at how to properly maintain them. 5. Terrarium Maintenance: Alright, so now let's talk about maintenance. Now, the exact maintenance requirements for your tritium is going to depend on the type of plants that you've used. So make sure you know how much water and sunlight your plant is specifically going to need. We're going to be giving you some basic guidelines here. But really you want to make sure you know exactly how much water and sunlight your individual plants are going to need. Let's start off though by talking about properly watering your tritium. So when it comes to watering your merriam, I recommend going with a spray bottle. This way you can add water gradually. You really want to try to just have the water contained to the soil. You don't want it to spill into the rocks too much. Uh, rocks are kind of like a safety net, kind of like this container here underneath the pot. If we were to water a plant too much, then it would come out the sides here and I will prevent it from spilling onto a table. And that's sort of what are rocks are going to be doing for us here? If we do happen to water too much, then they're going to provide some drainage and help prevent our soil from being saturated. But ideally, we don't want to have water pooling in the bottom here. Are going to be using plants other than cacti or succulents in your open cerium, then you may be able to get away with having a bit more water in the bottom. But in order to get rid of that excess water, you're going to have to wait for it to eventually evaporate. So that could end up taking awhile. So just as a general rule, I, to keep water from pooling in your rock section. Another good general rule here is to give your soils and time to dry in-between watering. And if you're growing succulents like I am here, they're really going to appreciate that time in-between to dry out a little bit. Next thing I want to talk about is lighting. Now, again, it's good to know your plants specific requirements. So for cacti and succulents, they're gonna want a lot of light because I chose succulents for my cerium. I'm going to be keeping it in an area with full sun, as I mentioned before, with an open tritium, you can place it in any type of lighting. So you'll want to place your tritium in an area where it's going to get enough light depending on the type of plant that you've chosen. So those are some basic guidelines to keep in mind while you're taking care of your cerium. Next, let's take a look at your class project. 6. Class Project: So seeing as the purpose of this class was to learn how to make your own open tellurium for your class project. I want you to take a picture of all of the materials grouped together that you're going to be using in order to make your own project. And then a second picture showing your cerium all put together. Once you have those two pictures, you can take them and upload them under this video in the project section. So everybody can see your Merriam's And I can offer you any feedback in the project section, you'll also find a link to a website that has a few different recommendations for plants he could use and an open cerium if you'd like to take a look at that. If you do have any questions along the way, always Message me in the discussion section and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. If you would like to stay up-to-date on my latest videos, you can hit the Follow button and you'll be notified anytime I post a new class. I hope you found this class really helpful and I look forward to seeing your projects.