55 gallon tropical nut house

[Scorpusvonpork]

Here is my big terrarium. It's housing P. Dictator babies in a sub terrarium and allows me to conduct plant experiments including attempting to grow shittake mushrooms in a designated swampy zone. It's full spectrum LED, plants seem to love it. Plants are planted in pots and then landscaped over to control growth. With a few exceptions like my Norfolk pine, the maple tree, and something I call the bongo tree for some reason. I also have moruga scorpion peppers growing and pine trees. Some jasmine, spaz grass, and umbrella plants act as a counter point to the jade tree and paint plants. The crickets are free range in here with designated feeding areas. Everything is planted in coca fibre with gravel crush up to four inches deep. Humidity is between 70-90 percent depending on various factors and the temperature is usually 76 to 82 degrees farehnheit. There's built in uv light for occasional fun night time observation. Because the eco system of the big tank influences the smaller one where the babies are growing up,I can go away for a couple days and not stress about the conditions. I fabricated a stainless steel screen for the Tupper ware lid to keep air flowing and to prevent crickets from eating my molting babies. The baby dictators live harmoniously together under a walnut shell with a cave door cut into it. All is well in their tropical hell.

 

[Scorpusvonpork]

 

[The Snark]

Looks very tasty.

I'd suggest removing the Pinus, if any are present. They are anti-social, the shed needles create a toxic soup in the soil beneath the tree and the sap can be downright deadly.

 

[Scorpusvonpork]

Looks very tasty.

I'd suggest removing the Pinus, if any are present. They are anti-social, the shed needles create a toxic soup in the soil beneath the tree and the sap can be downright deadly.

Like the Norfolk? That's orchid like. The other baby pines?

 

[The Snark]

I'm not sure about the Norfolk. It's a Pinale but not pinacea. @schmiggle might know more. If it leaks that sticky sap it's bad news. With pinacea, the needles poison, acidify and add something, to the soil as they compost, which inhibits just about all plants from growing except other pines. They also have a symbiotic relationship with a fungi which is involved in this.

 

[viper69]

A botany friend of mine told me that plant w/the pink green leaves, its pink spots acts as "sunscreen". When there's too much sun, the pink increases on the leaves, too little it decreases in total area. I've never been able to confirm it though.

 

[schmiggle]

Don't know much about Araucaria chemistry, I think the leaves lower soil pH a bit and I also believe they have a resin that could be a problem. However, most of the other bits are lovely. The only thing I would worry about other than the pine is that shiitake actually don't like swampy conditions. They'll grow much better in wood with about the same amount of moisture as a live tree. They only need lots of moisture when they fruit, i.e. produce full-sized mushrooms. I learned this lesson the hard way with oyster mushrooms, in which the mycelia mysteriously weren't growing when I kept the cardboard they were on damp, and then when I left them alone for a few weeks in frustration and the cardboard dried out, I came back to find the mycelia had overtaken all of it.