Soil
Sun 2/26/2006 11:17 PM
Well, you have to be a little careful getting advice about growing plants in a vivarium from a traditional gardener. First, I don't know of any container gardener that actually means "soil" when they say soil. Potting soil, as used in the garden trade, rarely contains actual soil. This has led to a lot of confusion because potting soil is high in organic matter so it breaks down over time. This is why some people claim that soils goes bad and has to be replaced every few years. Real soil is a mixture of sand, silt, and clay sized mineral particles. That said, as I mentioned before, there are trade-offs between using soil and other substrates. The biggest thing you have to consider is that soil, and soiless potting mix, can have a huge potential to retain water. That's great if you are growing plants in pots but in a vivarium, it can mean that the substrate is wet all of the time which many plants hate. There are still a lot of plants that will grow in it and many of the most popular foliage plants aren't picky about wet feet but it's something to be aware of. I think I also mentioned that plants that get lots of light tend to be more tolerant of wet feet than the same species grown in dim light. That means compact fluorescent lights or similar high intensity lighting.
To be honest, I've tried all kinds of planting mixes and with compact fluorescent lights, plants have grown equally well in all of them. Some of the mixes I've tried are traditional potting mix; custom mixes of coco fiber, fir bark, peat and compost; just compost; gravel; non-clumping kitty litter, LECA, and potter's clay and soil mix. Like I said, with good lighting a wide variety of plants have grown well in all of these substrates. My favorite is the potter's clay which I described a couple months ago. It is Redart clay mixed and rolled out about a quarter inch thick onto a sheet of burlap and then left to dry. After it was dry, I folded the burlap over the top and broke up the dried clay into pea gravel sized chunks with a mallet. Then I mixed in unsterilized soil from a chytrid free natural area at about 1 part soil to 4 parts clay to inoculate the substrate with mycorrhizal fungi and soil arthropods. The reason I like this substrate is because of the look. It looks like nice red, clay-based tropical soil. No matter what substrate you choose, make sure it has a good drainage layer underneath.
Brent
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