Health & Care · Cold-Blooded Crew
Planted Terrariums
Lighting, Substrates, and Flora for Enclosure Gardens
Plants that live are the difference between an enclosure and an ecosystem. 20 modules on soil physics and cation exchange, hydroball drainage and false bottoms, the geotextile barrier, the ABG soil mix and arid and woodland versions, PAR and real grow lights instead of heat bulbs, 6500K and 3000K spectrums, humidity versus airflow with tiny fans, misting and drip walls, canopy epiphytes and vines, understory ferns and jewel orchids, stripping nursery soil and quarantining plants, three-tier planting, cork and manzanita hardscape and moss walls, leaf litter nutrient loops, pruning, pest control without poison, monthly plant audits, and rescuing a soured soil bed.
About this course
A terrarium with dead plants is a tank with decorations; a terrarium with living plants makes its own humidity, cleans its own air, and eats its own waste. This course teaches the gardening half of exotic keeping. You'll learn why compacted soil suffocates roots and what cation exchange capacity means for feeding, how to build a hydroball or egg-crate drainage basement with an access pipe to check the water table, why a geotextile barrier keeps soil out of the drain, how to mix the Atlanta Botanical Garden soil formula and its woodland and arid cousins without fertilizers or pesticides, why heat bulbs don't grow plants and what PAR, lumens, and 6500K versus 3000K actually mean, how to hold humidity high while a tiny USB fan on a timer stops mold, how misting systems, rainbars, and drip walls reach roots instead of leaves, which orchids, air plants, vines, and bromeliads live in the canopy and which ferns, jewel orchids, and mosses carpet the floor, why every nursery plant gets its soil stripped, roots rinsed, and thirty days of quarantine, how three-tier planting works, how to anchor cork and manzanita and smear a moss wall into life, how leaf litter and frass feed the plants for free, when to prune a vine that's taking over, how to beat pests with dryness, airflow, and predatory mites instead of poison, what yellow leaves and black stems are telling you, and how to scoop out a sour, sulfur-smelling patch of soil and start it again.
What you'll learn
- Soil physics: aeration, cation exchange, retention versus drainage
- Drainage basements, geotextile barriers, and custom tropical, woodland, and arid mixes
- PAR, lumens, 6500K and 3000K LEDs, and placing plants by light footprint
- Humidity with airflow: vents, tiny fans, misting systems, rainbars, drip walls
- Canopy and understory plants, plant quarantine, three-tier planting, hardscape, moss walls
- Nutrient loops, pruning, pesticide-free pest control, plant audits, and soil resets
Who this is for
Keepers of frogs, geckos, chameleons, snakes, and anything else in a humid enclosure who keep killing pothos, and bioactive builders who want the botany to match the biology.
Course outline (20 modules)
Quiz & Certificate
Knowledge quiz
After completing all lessons, take a short quiz to test your understanding.
Go to quiz →Completion certificate
Pass the quiz and earn a shareable certificate of completion.
View certificate →Frequently asked questions
Ready to get started?
$9.99 · Lifetime access · 20 lessons