The Box

End of February, I found 3 types of moss (1 with lichen) that I found so fascinating that I decided to start a vivarium.

Mid-March, I got a plastic box & filled it with a drainage layer of sea-shells, a hemp mat layer, a layer of sand & succulent dirt, then added my moss.

I added a piece of wood pulled off of a tree trunk, but it was full of woodlice. I tried my best to get rid of them for a few days before my springtails & rollie pollies ordered online arrived, but didn’t succeed, so I spend awhile plucking them out whenever I could, before flooding The Box & soaking the log in steaming hot water to get rid of them all. The log appears to have developed what someone suggested could be trichoderma, which doesn’t seem to have cause any issues.

Until late April, I was still finding moss, lichen & other plants to add to the The Box, so it wasn’t so tragic if they didn’t all survive. I left it in front of a glass door where it got a lot of direct sunlight until plants started to get sunburnt. I sprayed it til it was soaked, waited for it to fog up, then left the lid off for long periods so the excess moisture could evaporate. The windows were often open when The Box was open & sometimes I’d open the door & insects would zoom right toward it cuz it had such a nice foresty smell. Sometimes there were mold outbreaks, but if it couldn’t balance itself, I’d step in and remove pieces.

Then I relocated to another region. I found a spot near the window where The Box wouldn’t get (much) direct sunlight, rearranged the plants based on light/moisture preferences, added a tiny dried lizard as a treat for the rollie pollies, which allowed me to catch the last evasive, unwanted woodlice & finally was able to leave everything in place, so things could settle in.

I could still leave the windows open for The Box to enjoy a lot of breeze time, but soon it got too hot. I had to switch to keeping the lid on, windows closed & AC on, which triggered some initial mold outbreaks, but by then my springtails were really thriving & able to handle it. Some black mold from the walls made its way between the plastic & hemp on the side of The Box, but I added some black charcoal to help them out. Now it has a thermometer inside, so I can set the AC to where The Box usually stays below 25 C.

Now I’m noticing the lichen in The Box isn’t thriving & they’re eating a lot of it, all my Venus navelwort (both inside & outside The Box) that was really thriving before has gone rotten, the fern has lost a few branches, the moss on tree bark with ivy across that was doing just fine for so long is now dying & the other moss is barely hanging on & doesn’t seem to have grown at all. Also, the rollie pollies finished with the lizard after a few days, but the springtails are still working on it weeks later!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen countless mushrooms popping up from the hemp mat, there’s springtails all over the place & I spotted the first baby rollie pollies – one of which was out in the open munching over the past couple days when I thought it’d be too hot & dry for them.

So, I’m seeing some good signs & some bad sign, hope this isn’t the tipping point of no return!