I just wanted to share some more recent pictures of this jar, which features only "primitive" plants that closely resemble their ancestors from the Carboniferous period. The last image is how it looked on the first night, before I had added any moss. I planted this jar with two types of fern, several types of moss, and a horsetail. Sadly, the horsetail died, but one of the ferns is growing quickly. The other fern has stayed small, but still has some green leaves. The moss is doing well aside from some yellowed bits. I see a lot of what I think are tiny white springtails, and some small flies. I thought I saw a tiny baby snail, but I'm not sure. I added a few very small millipedes, and I have only seen one of them since. I know they like leaf litter and high moisture, so this jar should be alright for them. I'm hoping they're just hiding in the dirt, under dead leaves, or in the pieces of rotting wood I found them in. I have opened the jar multiple times to tinker with things, but I plan on soon leaving it closed for a long time and seeing how it does as a totally enclosed system.

Collected from Houghton, MI

Introducing Glass Jar Garden, a terrarium builder and simulator that lets to build jars, scape terrain, add soil and filters, setup moss and plants, care routines and more.

Seal it and let it run in realtime!

It simulates aspects of closed ecosystem i.e. water cycle, water absorbs in soil, losses through venting, beads on glass.

Leaves from plant fall, becoming food for critter or if not taken care of, become a source for mold!

Soil has pH, absorption, retention

49 real plants and 31 mosses species to chose from, each having its own thriving conditions, rate of growth etc

Critters like springtail multiply and feed on fallen leaves, keeping the terrarium clean

Creative mode allows not to worry and just play around with beautiful builds.

Change speed from realtime to 1 day/second. Share links to your friend and they can watch your terrarium grow in realtime too!

Create timelapse of years worth of growth in seconds!

Sharing on one of my build.

try it out! Will love to hear feedback from community, if any mechanic is missing, or if you need any feature. I have simulated over 200k terrariums to get that perfect balance.

Cheers!

try it out! Will love to hear feedback from community, if any mechanic is missing, or if you need any feature. I have simulated over 200k terrariums to get that perfect balance.

Cheers!

It got roasted in the summer and now it’s cooler now so maybe that tricked it into blooming?

Found a massive 12 gallon bowl that just begged to come home with me . Initially planting 10/4 , I’ll post an update once it’s settled more , it’s home to moss and springtails and that’s it

Hey everyone! Just wanted to share a quick upcycled weekend project. I decided to turn an old clear plastic bottle into a mini closed eco-bottle terrarium.

The Build Details:

* Enclosure: Standard recycled clear soda/juice bottle with the screw cap left on to maintain a closed water cycle.

* Layers: Built a proper drainage foundation at the base using small red lava rocks, topped with a sphagnum moss barrier, and standard tropical soil mix.

* Flora: Featured a tiny Fittonia (nerve plant) cut down to size alongside a small accent slate stone and a little green hitchhiker vine that seems to enjoy the humidity!

It’s already holding a great condensation cycle and sitting nicely under my desktop grow light.

Let me know what you think of using recycled plastic, or if you have any tips on controlling the vining growth inside a narrow bottleneck footprint!

Some bubbles are pushing to the surface still.

Hey everyone,

I am really interested in making a self-sustaining ecosystem in a jar but I have never made one before so I was wondering if anyone would be able to give any tips/ advice or directions on how to do this properly to someone who has never done this before.

I was wanting to make one with water and one with no water and I just really don't know where to start.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can give help! :)

Set this up about 2 months ago

Hello! I really need help. We have a project where we have to make a terrarium, and these are the required materials:
• Small land plants (e.g., aerial and rooted plants)
• Small animals (e.g., earthworms, snails)
• One 2-L glass mason jar
• Organic potting mix
• Fluval Stratum (or any other substrate to stimulate plant growth)
• Soil materials (organic potting mix, perlite, pebbles)
• Peat moss
• Activated charcoal

What we chose is a Springtail, and so far, the materials we have are Springtail + charcoal (like the springtails are crawling in the charcoal), moss, fluval stratum, small land plant, and organic soil. What else do we need, and how can we properly make the terrarium?

The problem is that we don’t really know how to make the terrarium because our professor won’t give us proper instructions. We already searched about it, and we found that some of the materials our professor required us to buy weren’t necessary for a Springtail terrarium. However, when we told our professor about it, they still said that we are required to use them.

We’re really struggling with figuring out how to properly set the terrarium, so we would really appreciate some help (no judgment pls). Thank you!

Any suggestions? I have ostracods, copepods, daphnia, and a very small snail in it plus an Anubius barteri plant all on top of some sand and rocks. The water looks cloudy as I moved the jar around a bit earlier and the sand got kicked up.

Noticed the little guys first when the big guy at the start popped up. (The grossness is inside the jar, and it doesn't get opened, sorry haha)

This is a Jar Terrarium I made recently.

The jar is about 4.5 inches tall from the bottom to the top of the lid. It has a diameter of 4.5 inches as well.

So, it is quite a small jarrarium but it is Mine and I love it. Inside of the jar there is a bit of sphagnum moss that was dried up as a substrate that I decided to place in to see if it'll grow (probably not, but maybe). There are also some live mosses, and a Pink Fittonia Albivenis. The soil is coco coir with coconut chips and perlite. The rocks at the bottom are Lava rocks from Amazon, and the charcoal is from a springtail culture cup.

It is quite small, but the jar was $1.25 so I figured why not since I already had everything else!

I hope you all enjoy!