Would people be interested in a curated bioactive terrarium kit?
I'm currently visiting my hometown and have a variety of plants, botanicals and other materials that grow naturally on our property. I have personally collected or propagated most of these through the years, using them for various hobbies and projects. However, I'll be moving away soon for studies, and I'd love for these established colonies and materials to go to good use with other hobbyists rather than just leaving them behind. We don't use pesticides or insecticides here, so I'd be putting together kits from materials I already know and work with myself, rather than outsourcing from possibly contaminated sources.
The idea would basically be to put together a curated kit containing the bioactive substrate, multiple colonies of clean-up crew, dried botanicals, miniature wildflower plants and suitably sized rocks for the drainage layer.
That's pretty much the basic building blocks you'd need to get a bioactive setup going. I know how much of a hassle it is trying to source all of these things separately. Especially for urban hobbyists. Cause I've been there.
Obviously I wouldn't be able to ship a glass jar, so you'd need to find your own container. You can use anything ranging from an old pickle jar to a fish bowl or old aquariums.
The cleanup crew / fauna:
Isopod and springtail colonies
Millipede colonies (4 species of various sizes)
Aquatic microfauna like seed shrimps /ostrapods, copepods, nymphs and snails
Terrestrial snails
Humus-rich bioactive substrate created with a base of leaf mold compost, aged cow dung compost and organic amendments
Dried botanicals:
Dried lotus seed pods
Dried jackfruit and mulberry leaves
Dried wood bark
Dried hardwood pieces (and some in active decay for the invertebrates)
Dried Gomphrena and Mexican sunflower seed heads
Other assorted botanicals and leaf litter depending on seasonal availability
Live plants:
Terrarium plants: Live moss, miniature wildflowers, groundcover plants, clover and rain lily bulbs.
Wetland plants: Cryptocoryne, dwarf papyrus, water bamboo, brahmi (coin plant), Rotala and Ludwigia for boggy terrariums and paludariums.
Aquatic plants: Azolla, duckweed, guppy grass, elodia for paludariums and ripariums.
Climbing plant cuttings: betel leaf, epipremnum, syngonium and creeping fig.
For large open terrariums: Assorted alocasia, colocasia, umbrella palm and dwarf cana lily. I've attached pictures of a few components.
The exact assortment would depend on the size of container and whether it's meant for a closed/semi-closed terrarium or a more open bioactive enclosure. Some of the larger plants/fauna would only be included where appropriate and according to location. Ofcourse all plants will need to be acclimated in containers over the course of a week before dispatch.
The setup:
There are already plenty of detailed guides on building and maintaining terrariums over at r/terrariums and on YouTube, with entire channels dedicated to the hobby. So i won't go much into the process itself. Do your research first. The idea is simply to make it easier to get started, particularly when it comes to sourcing the bioactive components and botanicals.
A brief guide: There's no one way to build a terrarium. You can keep tweaking it until you're happy or you can just let it do its thing. Once assembled, the terrarium has to be placed in bright indirect light. A shaded window sil or balcony. A table also works if it's next to a bright window. Just don't place it it direct sunlight. That'll literally cook it. Sealed systems retain water a little too well, so only occasional misting is required which could be in months, years or decades depending on the setup once its stable. For open or semi-closed terrariums, regular misting will be mandatory unless you live in temperate/colder/wetter parts of the country. Eitherways, overwatering will collapse the system. So less is more water-wise. It's all about the humidity.
Depending on the setup, a balanced terrarium can sustain itself for a very long time with little maintenance. I've always loved designing and creating self-sustaining ecosystems. It's the closest thing to terraforming we've got.
The appeal for me personally, is watching the ecosystem establish itself. It's not about making it look pretty, cause nature has plans of its own. You just put together the building blocks of life, then sit back and watch the whole thing figure itself out.
The plants spread to fill the space, one species overtaking another while the moss spreads to unexpected corners. Weeds sprout from the microscopic seeds that were hibernating in the substrate. The invertebrates settle in and then explode in population. You'll spot strange new critters and wonder where they've been hiding. Fungi will break down whatever lost the battle in the endless cycle of growth and decay. You can also see the water cycle as it condenses on the glass surface each morning.
The population of the fauna often keeps fluctuating but eventually, the system finds some equilibrium. A delicate balance gets created where the life cycle sustains itself without external inputs. It's fascinating watching the cycle unfold, looking into a terrarium months later and seeing the ways it has grown.
I'm curious if people would be interested in something like this.
A few questions if you've read so far:
Would you actually buy something like this if it was available?
Would you rather have everything bundled together, or pick and choose to get individual components separately?
For people who've made bioactive setups before, which component of the setup was the biggest pain sourcing-wise?
And honestly what would you expect something like this to cost? Say for like a standard 2 or 5 litre pickle jar
I'd appreciate any feedback!