Most terrarium beginners ask these questions: Do I need to prune the plants in my terrarium?
Do the plants in terrariums grow at all? And when do I need to trim the plants in my terrarium? This post will help you find answers to these questions and I will guide you through the steps of pruning the plants in your terrarium. I will also talk about health issues that your plants can have.
Do terrarium plants grow?
As you know, terrarium is a small confined space and plants are forced to grow in this closed ecosystem. Yes, the plants that you place in terrariums still grow, but much slower because they have limited amount of sunlight and air.
Everyone creating terrariums has plans to keep them for a long time, mainly as decorations and plants to look after. With time, plants grow and you need to prune terrarium plants to keep the initial design. Pruning also keeps the plants healthy. The maintenance of the terrarium also includes cleaning the glass of the container.
little problems…
If you have different types of plants in one terrarium, one of them can grow faster than the other and take its space. Some plants can also grow more and kill the other plant by invading its space and preventing any sunlight from reaching the affected plant. Overgrowth can also cause plants to ruin the design by coming out of their confined spaces.
Another problem is if plants become too big, their leaves constantly touch the side glass, which is often wet from condensation. If the leaves and other parts stay wet, the chance of mold infection becomes quite high. Mold also spreads, and that causes infection to other plants in the terrarium.
Don’t be scared to prune your own terrarium plants. You should cut the leaves, vines or branches when they grow bigger than they should. It also applies if plants start covering up other plants and restricting any sunlight to the whole terrarium.
How to prune the plants?
For cutting leaves and vines I would recommend getting pruning shears like these or any other scissors with a long tip. If any leaves or vines fall while pruning, use long tip tweezers to get them from the bottom of the terrarium container.
Never leave them on the soil! For small leaves, you can use your fingers to pinch them from the stem. Then, also remove any cuttings with tweezers if they fall to the bottom.
How often should you prune the terrarium?
Even though plants grow at different speeds, you should aim for one-year plant life in terrarium. After a year, you should remove the old plants and exchange them with new ones. Make sure to prune the roots of new plants before planting them in your terrarium.
Air plants tolerate root trimming very well, as they are not main organs which provide them with all the nutrients. And then, after around 2-3 years, you should change the soil and the whole design of the terrarium.
Different plants in your terrarium may need their own ways of trimming/pruning. Let’s discuss when and how to trim plants in the terrarium.
How to prune terrarium succulents:
Succulents tend to grow slowly and often only during the summer or winter – and then they tend to stay the same size during other seasons. Generally, you should trim the succulents’ leaves when they become dry and brown. Also, if the leaves are crispy (burnt), you should cut them and place the plant to a spot with less direct sunlight. Too much sunlight burns the leaves and stem.
All types of succulents start to look bushy if you don’t trim for long time. Even small types, need occasional pruning. You can prune your succulents not only to care of their health.
Also, you should trim your succulents if they grow out of their terrarium space, or if you wish to design it differently. For pruning succulents, you should use only sharp tools, such as knives, scissors or even pruning hand saw.
Important tips!
If you don’t use sharp cutting tool, you can damage its ‘meaty’ flesh. The essential part is to sterilize your tool – this way you will minimize any chances of fungus spreading to your plants. Also, cutting grown stems is helpful if you wish to plant new succulents from cuttings – they reproduce well if you place them into the fresh soil.
Start pruning a succulent by trimming unhealthy stems, and then trim stems that don’t look attractive. You can dry the cuttings for a day or so, and then place them into the soil for the new growth.
Also, don’t be worried to cut the top stems and behead the plants – there will new growth from the cut ends. Remember to wear gloves while pruning succulents – as spines can cause skin irritation. If your succulent grows mostly in summer, pruning in autumn/winter can extremely slow down its growth until the next year!
You also should remove any dust from your succulents. If you don’t water them from top, succulents often get spider webs and dust on their ‘heads’. With cactuses, use soft brushes for dusting, so that you don’t damage the spines.
Pruning of terrarium air plants
Air plants are also often called tillandsias. Tillandsias also require occasional grooming. These plants create ‘pups’, their offspring or offsets, and most of them grow at the bottom of the plant, under the leaves. Most tillandsias age and lose their colors, and spotting brown leaves on the plant is natural.
You should trim these leaves or snip them off. Make sure to check for any pups before doing that. If you notice a pup behind the old leaves, wait few weeks for it to grow before you remove those leaves. You can also trim the leaves at an angle or remove an old blossom which doesn’t look nice in your design.
Health of terrarium plants
To keep the plants healthy inside the terrarium, you need to care for them occasionally. One of the procedures is cleaning a glass container. Make sure to remove all the dust and excess water from the sides of the container.
Otherwise, leaning plants touch the glass, which is often wet from condensation. Too much water and moisture in the terrarium causes formation of mold. The problem is, mold is infectious and can easily spread and contaminate other healthy plants.
If you find any plant within the terrarium contaminated with fungus, remove it immediately. If only the leaves are contaminated, cut them off.
Make sure to regularly check the soil as well – you should replace it if contaminated with mold. If half of the terrarium is infected with fungus, you must start over again. Throw away infected plants and soil, and wash all design elements and container with hot soapy water. Then, use new materials to make a new terrarium.
Another possible problem is infection with insects. Bugs are very likely to lay their eggs in perfect humid conditions within the soil. If you find any bugs in the soil, make sure to treat the contaminated spot and remove the affected plants.
In case if half of the landscape is contaminated, remove the plants and use insecticide, which destroys the body cells of an insect. I would highly recommend going for an insecticide made from natural, plant-based ingredients.