# Plants safe for P.irminia . G.porteri



## JohnWhite (Dec 11, 2015)

I was wondering what plants are safe for these species.  I'm going to try a planted vivarrium 

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## cold blood (Dec 17, 2015)

The only plants you can keep with a rosea are maybe cacti....any other plants would be withered and dead.   They like bone dry, just the added humidity from a live plant will make the spider quite unhappy.

I also wouldn't want to be doing consistent (or even occasional) plant maintenance in an irminia enclosure....they're both defensive and exceedingly fast.

Reactions: Like 1 | Helpful 1


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## AndrewBiddar (Dec 24, 2015)

Ive actually recently seen "AIR" plants, they look very neat only need a sprits of water when i feed them and they are thriving and attached too wood these Air plants are awesome.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## poisoned (Jan 4, 2016)

Pothos is a good choice for P. irminia or any other non-desert tarantula. If you keep it semi-humid in there, you don't even need to water it.


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## The Snark (Jan 4, 2016)

Not sure of the needs of the animals but epiphytes, air plants, are very demanding environment wise. They require a certain amount of humidity to derive nutrients from the air. When their roots dry beyond a certain point it retards their growth and eventually weakens or even kills the plant.
Epiphytes will also colonize, creating their own high humidity environment, especially in a contained environment like a terrarium. IE they may be healthy in a colony but separate the individual plants they can become stressed if the humidity isn't high enough.
Probably the best air plant in an low humidity environment is the orchid turned into an epiphyte. Extremely hardy and just goes dormant when the humidity drops too low.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## tjstrayer (Jan 4, 2016)

AndrewBiddar said:


> Ive actually recently seen "AIR" plants, they look very neat only need a sprits of water when i feed them and they are thriving and attached too wood these Air plants are awesome.


I have been looking to add real plants to our enclosures as well and recently chatted with the local mall vendor of "air plants". He informed me that they are used in vivariums; however, they cannot be touching any soil.  He said the plant would be dead within 3 weeks otherwise.  They are ok to use if attached to wood or nested on top of gravel... just absolutely NO SOIL as the extra  moisture will kill them.


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## The Snark (Jan 4, 2016)

tjstrayer said:


> just absolutely NO SOIL as the extra moisture will kill them.


Yes. Nearly all true epiphytes are extremely susceptible to root rot. Not only that, the bioactive layer of soil in the process of breaking down bio material produces a vast spectrum of bacterium, many of which produce toxins that outright kill epiphytes. Epiphytes use the natural antibiotic, free air circulation, to protect themselves.


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## loganhopeless (Jan 15, 2016)

When in doubt, pothos. I've had the same plant in with my T. stirmi for the last 3 years.


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## ratluvr76 (Jan 16, 2016)

loganhopeless said:


> When in doubt, pothos. I've had the same plant in with my T. stirmi for the last 3 years.


pothos are fine for moisture loving species, like T. stirmi. Pothos though, I don't think, would do well with any species in the Grammostola genus. Grammosola's need bone dry substrate and pothos are a moisture loving plant. It doesn't take rocket science to see the problem there. As far as P. irminia goes, I'm not really sure if irminia like it that humid. They like a bit more humidity then Grammostola for sure but I'm not sure if it's enough between the needs of the irmina and the needs of the pothos. Hopefully someone with more experience with this will chime in.


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## Introvertebrate (Jan 16, 2016)

You could plant the pothos in a shallow pot and bury the pot in the bone dry substrate.  Just water the soil in the pot now and then, and keep the rest of the substrate dry.


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## TarantulasWorld (Feb 26, 2016)

Believe it or not, I've had great success with aloe and cacti. They can both handle wet or dry enclosures perfectly.


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## Introvertebrate (Feb 27, 2016)

TarantulasWorld said:


> Believe it or not, I've had great success with aloe and cacti. They can both handle wet or dry enclosures perfectly.


So the T's know enough to stay away from the spines?


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## Aline (Oct 5, 2020)

What kind of cacti could go in a Grammostola enclosure? Anyone had success in housing live plants with rosehairs?


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## Albireo Wulfbooper (Oct 6, 2020)

Introvertebrate said:


> So the T's know enough to stay away from the spines?


Some cacti have soft spines that can't hurt. Presumably you'd want to choose one of those.

Reactions: Thanks 1


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## Aline (Oct 14, 2020)

Albireo Wulfbooper said:


> Some cacti have soft spines that can't hurt. Presumably you'd want to choose one of those.


Do you know the name of the species? Or are they common enough that If I walk into a garden store will they know what I need? I really don't know much about plants! Thanks


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## schmiggle (Oct 15, 2020)

Aline said:


> Do you know the name of the species? Or are they common enough that If I walk into a garden store will they know what I need? I really don't know much about plants! Thanks


Lophophora diffusa (L. williamsi is peyote, safe for tarantulas but illegal in the US), Astrophytum asterias, A. myriostigma. There's lots more, but I don't know any suitable ones off the top of my head.

Reactions: Like 1 | Thanks 1


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## Albireo Wulfbooper (Oct 15, 2020)

Aline said:


> Do you know the name of the species? Or are they common enough that If I walk into a garden store will they know what I need? I really don't know much about plants! Thanks


I'm 98% useless with plants, I just know my roommates keep a billion cacti and some of them don't have sharp spines.


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## Ian14 (Nov 20, 2020)

Air plants are no good for arid species. They need high humidity.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## KaroKoenig (Nov 20, 2020)

Aline said:


> Or are they common enough that If I walk into a garden store


Any decent garden store should have a ton of small potted succulents that don't even have any spines. They work just fine. Wash them, replant them into new soil to get rid of fertilizers and pesticides. With a porteri, I would put them in the terrarium with pot. Otherwise, she might well dig it out.

Reactions: Like 2


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