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Monday, May 11, 2009

Solutions for an overwatered terrarium



"Help! My terrarium is soaked! What do I do?"

Terrariums can easily become over watered and damp conditions can lead to rotting, molding and worse. Signs of over watering include: water pooling up in the gravel layer, condensation forming on all sides of terrarium and not dissipating and rotting foliage.

Here are some quick and easy solutions for an over watered terrarium:


- Use an electric hair drier to blow warm air into the terrarium. If the terrarium has a narrow opening a funnel might be helpful.

- Tear a thin strip of paper towel and dangle it onto the terrarium soil surface, leaving a tail hanging out of the terrarium. The paper will act as a wick and absorb some of the water. Make sure you pull it out before it falls apart!

- If your terrarium has a removable lid - take it off for a while!



And as always- maintaining a correct water level is always easier than trying to remove water from your terrarium. When in doubt- don't water.

A well established terrarium rarely needs more than a spritz of distilled water every few weeks. Try to water only when there is zero condensation on the sides of the terrarium.

7 comments:

  1. Good tips.
    I find it very hard not to over-water - everything!

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  2. Your blog is fantastic!! I am LOVING it. Such great info... thank you for stopping over at mine and leaving a comment so that I could find you. I will be visiting often.
    Perhaps you can help... my large moss terrarium, the one in the photos of the May Faire on my blog, has grown a spider-web like mould. What should I do? I hadn't even watered it yet?? What should I do? The smaller ones are just fine.

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  3. Magic onions- that spiderweb- like mold is awful and will spread through your whole terrarium. I recommend immediately taking out any of the moss or plants that have it growing on them as I have yet to find a solution to fix it. Often it just grows on the plants and doesn't seem to contaminate the soil so if you remove the plants you can plant new ones later. :)

    Check out my post on this topic:
    http://www.thefernandmossery.com/2009/03/prevention-and-dealing-with-pests.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you so much for the tips. I used a bunch of paper towels to soak the water out of my bowl and now have a fan blowing cool air into it in hope of gentle but rapid evaporation!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi I hope you get this...My terrarium is horribly over watered...I spent a good hour using paper towels to soak up excess water, but I think it's too late-most of the moss is withered and there is only a little bit of good growth...is there anything I can do to save the moss or is it too late?

    ReplyDelete

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