Black Rock Frondoso - a glassless terrarium

Do-it-yourself projects such as greenhouse or shadehouse builds and related topics.
cshepard
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Black Rock Frondoso - a glassless terrarium

Post by cshepard »

Why Black Rock? I live in Canada but snowbird down in Arizona where we keep a place at The Black Rock RV Resort. The area is rife with (surprise) black rocks!! Many of which I have brought back with me to landscape the Frondoso with.

Why Frondoso? I have searched the entire internet for pictures of a project like the one I am contemplating and other than dish gardens (which this is not) or cactus planted in a fish tank (which this is not) there seems to be none. I am inventing a new thing, so I get to call it what I will. Frondoso means lush vegetation in Spanish.

Why a glassless terrarium? My vision is of a cactus and succulent oasis/diorama/fantasy desert scene which needs to be selfcontained, but without the high humidity of a traditional terrarium. I am using glass as a base to hold the substrate and rockwork but no walls.

The guinea pigs, I mean future residents of the Frondoso:

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I am starting the build with a glass "tray" with a drilled drainage hole. It could have been made of anything including a pre-existing plastic tub, but I wanted a specific size to fit my space, to have it look good, and I have a convenient custom aquarium builder nearby.

35"x20"x6"

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I will be updating this thread as I progess with the build, as a sort of journal. I hope you will follow along and offer helpful comments and insights along the way!

Cheers!,
Ci
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Tiggy
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Re: Black Rock Frondoso - a glassless terrarium

Post by Tiggy »

Mmmm. Interesting. Do you have it where it can get natural light? It should look nice when completed. I don't know if the one drainage hole is going to be sufficient though. Interested to see what the more expert members think. On looking at the plants, you will probably find that they will soon out-grow their space and some of them will require different conditions . When someone bought me a bowl with various plants in a few years ago, it looked very attractive but I removed them and gave them their own pots for this reason.

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cshepard
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Re: Black Rock Frondoso - a glassless terrarium

Post by cshepard »

The glass tray will be mounted on a rolling cart that I am building, and can move to different windows, as well as outside in the warmer, sunnier weather. There will also be a light fixture suspended above which I'll post about later.

I've put in a false bottom raised 1/2" above the drain hole:

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and lined this with window screen. Water will drain through the screening into the void beneath, and then down the drain hole to a bucket under the cart:

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There is a gap between the false bottom and the sides that I will fill with more decorative gravel, which I may top dress with as well, so it will seem like the whole thing is gravel rather than substrate. The bottom is supported from sagging with cut pieces of pvc, and my rock work will likewise be supported at different levels.

Image
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Tiggy
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Re: Black Rock Frondoso - a glassless terrarium

Post by Tiggy »

You have certainly well thought about the "cons" of your project Ci, and have come up with very logical solutions =D> I think the only snag now will be choosing plants that have similar requirements regarding light. I have outside shelters for a lot of mine now and they stay there permanently (don't have much choice really as they are planted in the ground), but I left most of them in pots for the first year to see how everything went, and I still do the same now with the new ones. This way if I see that they need more sun, shade etc., plus how they resist to the low temps. I can move them until I find the best spot, after which I plant them in. I'm looking forward to seeing your finished "Frondoso" Ci sounds like it will be quite artistic.

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cshepard
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Re: Black Rock Frondoso - a glassless terrarium

Post by cshepard »

Thanks for your words of wisdom, Susi. Here in Coastal British Columbia, Canada we have mild winters (rarely below freezing), fairly short warm summers and long cloudy and rainy Autumn and Spring. Too much heat and sun will certainly not be a problem, and I can only do what I can do to give them artificial light in the rainy seasons.
Most of my collection of larger cactus live outside year round - on a sunny deck in Summer, under a covered porch in winter. The Frondoso will get better lighting over all than the outdoors cacti. Also in winter I have a dormant period of 2-3 months while we are away and don't heat the house. The species that can survive these conditions will, and those that don't thrive I will give to my mother-in-law who fusses over her plants way more than I ... : )
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Tiggy
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Re: Black Rock Frondoso - a glassless terrarium

Post by Tiggy »

Great! Looking forward to your updates. It's nice to see how everyone affronts their individual problems with regards to their climate conditions. :D

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cshepard
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Re: Black Rock Frondoso - a glassless terrarium

Post by cshepard »

Building the rolling stand for the tank:

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Good wintertime project!

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Plus glued a funnel to the bottom of the tank - I'll put a hose on this to direct water to a decorative container on the bottom shelf:

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cshepard
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Re: Black Rock Frondoso - a glassless terrarium

Post by cshepard »

Since this display will be a focal point in my living room I chose a light fixture with some fancy options.

The Current Sattelite Plus Pro is a freshwater aquarium plant light - LED @ 45 watts, 310 lumens and 100+ par at 12".
Features include customizable colour spectrum, built in 24 hr. timer, sunrise, sunset, moonlight, cloudy day settings, lightning storms etc.! I like the fact that with a touch of a button on the remote, I can tone down the light when we are in the room whatching TV or whatnot.

http://current-usa.com/aquarium-led-lig ... e-led-pro/

Once I get everything set up, I may add a second fixture and run them side by side, for better coverage on my 20” wide tank.
cshepard
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Re: Black Rock Frondoso - a glassless terrarium

Post by cshepard »

There will be three planting levels - a faux river wash, the main level at the top edge of the glass tray and a top-of-the-mesa level. I'm giving extra support of the rocks so they are not just sitting on and compacting the substrate.

Image

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kristian_Fossmo
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Re: Black Rock Frondoso - a glassless terrarium

Post by kristian_Fossmo »

I like it!
"When the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again."
William Beebe, 1906
cshepard
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Re: Black Rock Frondoso - a glassless terrarium

Post by cshepard »

In order for the upper levels to contain substrate without it pouring out (since they are above the glass walls) I made enclosures of grating, rock pieces and expanding pond and waterfall foam.

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The foam is easy to carve away once it is dry, and it even resembles lava rock as it has bubbles.
A little brownish touch up paint and one upper mesa area is complete

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I also foamed together some red and yellow jasper I had collected to form the sides of the dry wash area.

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I siliconed some gravel into the gaps. Not sure if I like the effect or not - I'll see if they blend in once they are in place with substrate and top dressing. All of the mesembs and lithops will be planted in the "wash".

Image
cshepard
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Re: Black Rock Frondoso - a glassless terrarium

Post by cshepard »

Getting a little further with the rockwork:

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And decided on a substrate mix of 4pts granite large grit (3-4mm), 4pts Qualisorb (calcined DE), 1 pt baked clay and laterite litter with two handfulls of osmocote.

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kristian_Fossmo
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Re: Black Rock Frondoso - a glassless terrarium

Post by kristian_Fossmo »

cshepard wrote:
I siliconed some gravel into the gaps. Not sure if I like the effect or not - I'll see if they blend in once they are in place with substrate and top dressing. All of the mesembs and lithops will be planted in the "wash".

Image

The gravel looks out of place because its rounded, those stones are rounded by flowing water, if you would choose some more edgy gravel it would look more natural. Try to smash up some of the big stones to smaller pieces and use them instead, then you get more uniformity.
"When the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again."
William Beebe, 1906
cshepard
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Re: Black Rock Frondoso - a glassless terrarium

Post by cshepard »

kristian_Fossmo wrote:

The gravel looks out of place because its rounded, those stones are rounded by flowing water, if you would choose some more edgy gravel it would look more natural. Try to smash up some of the big stones to smaller pieces and use them instead, then you get more uniformity.
[/quote]


I agree, but I've used silicone and when I went to scrape off one area it proved difficult to get all the trace bits... so it looked even worse. Today I worked on filling in the substrate and it's less noticeable. See what you think.

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And a close up:

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Next I'll be working on the light fixture canopy.
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kristian_Fossmo
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Re: Black Rock Frondoso - a glassless terrarium

Post by kristian_Fossmo »

Less obvious when in place :). I would just try to put some of the media from the back section in the same place, you do not need to silicone it, just lay it there if you can, to smooth things out...
"When the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again."
William Beebe, 1906
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