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Maybe the moss or ferns can emit some substances making cacti coexistence with them, at least seedlings. You can try growing some there after other plants being established first.

Update; The former fishtank is pretty crowded now..Ferns and other humidity loving species seems to like the indoor ‘greenhouse’ . I bought a rather sad looking Monstera adansonii who have really grown a lot in only two weeks, she quickly sent out a lot of thick white roots and whit this speed of growing will soon overtake the tank.. There are also moss and lichen there, some of the former have grown a bit, lichen grows very slowly so I don’t know how well they will adapt. The moss and lichen comes from both the garden and the surroundings.

. What I didn’t thought about when collecting them, was the fact that they off course wasn’t ‘clean’ . So now there are a small Oxalis growing, grass and a lot of unidentified seedlings too. There is also a tiny fern growing, don’t know the species.

There are also a few epiphytic cacti or rather cuttings, none have rotted yet, instead they have grown a lot of roots from all segments. I mist the tank heavily once or twice a day and water the plants too. To my surprice no signs of mold or moldy smell.

It sounds lovely.
Couple tillandsias and mini siningias would love this environment too

Mrs.Green wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 5:03 pm To my surprice no signs of mold or moldy smell.

You will have introduced some bacteria and fungi and perhaps some microfauna with the dirt that will help keep it clean and sweet-smelling.

One Windowsill wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 7:15 pm [quote=Mrs.Green post_id=384179 time=<a href="tel:1615655035">1615655035</a> user_id=17196]
To my surprice no signs of mold or moldy smell.

You will have introduced some bacteria and fungi and perhaps some microfauna with the dirt that will help keep it clean and sweet-smelling.

Yes, I guess you’re right. Pretty sure that microfauna came along too, if I could have seen what’s going on there in a microscope, my guess is it would be pretty lively. An identical setting without adding anything from outdoors would have been interesting, would it still have been smelling good and no signs of mold..?

bbarv wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 6:26 pm It sounds lovely.
Couple tillandsias and mini siningias would love this environment too

Thank you Bbarv I spend a far amount of time looking at the tank Yes, I have thought about Tillandsias and as soon anyone come up for sale nearby, I will give it a try. I have not seen mini Sinningias for sale here but if any of them do, I would be tempted

I know this thread has been inactive for a while, but I found it while looking at posts using search "Indoor gardening". I am looking for posts concerning overwintering warmth (over 50F or 10C) requiring cacti indoors and artificial light. I'll be posting my questions in a new thread soon.

So, regarding mold and fungus growth. I know a lot of people with Paludariums and Terrariums use Springtails (subclass Collembola) as a cleanup crew and possible food for Poison Dart Frogs etc.

I have been growing a common aquarium plant in a mini terrarium in a muddy substrate using natural daylight from a western facing window for many years-10 maybe? It is from South East Asia, Cryptocoryne wendtii. https://tropica.com/en/plants/plantdeta ... (109)/4562 I don't know how the Springtails arrived, but they did. It took a while for me to know what they were, but now I am happy they are there. They will even walk on the surface tension of the water layer covering the mud. The jar has a plastic film seal. I open it from time to time to get air exchange.

Here is a photo of the Crypt. from 2018. You can see white elongated dots on the bottom of the jar. They are the Springtails, not reflections of light. I do get a growth of algae in a biofilm on the glass surface. I just wipe it down from time to time.

C.wendtii is an old acquaintance from the tropical fish hobby But the ones I have had have been growing in the fishtanks. . But I do know you can keep them in ‘wet’ terrariums. Springtails are very common in fishtanks too, as I guess you already know

Yeah, I had Springtails show up in a few of my tanks. Surface feeding fish take care of them in short order.

jerrytheplater wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 3:18 pm Yeah, I had Springtails show up in a few of my tanks. Surface feeding fish take care of them in short order.

I guess they will if there are enough of the surface feeders. A few killis in one of my tanks didn’t visible reduce the numbers of springtails.

Mollies go crazy over them.