Green In Glass
DIY Nature!
Starting a system with an established plant.
April 13, 2014
Once I had made my first carboy (the one with ungerminated seeds), I couldn't shake the urge to make another one. I managed to score two carboys from a tag sale for twenty dollars. My first carboy cost $40 online with shipping. In this plant, I am using a "Lily of the Valley" plant that I was given at a memorial service for an old friend (you can see the plant in the bottom right of this picture).
I laid about three inches of the gravel substrate. I used a little more than my last build strictly for cosmetic reasons. Once that was laid, I began adding the soil. I used an organic potting type from Home Depot. It's a little hard to tell by this picture, but I put a funnel in the top to aide in getting the soil in the carboy. Otherwise, it'd take forever to fill!
Not much going on in this image, just showing the ratio of gravel to soil. I used a little more soil than last time as well as it settled more than I anticipated last time.
It was time to get the plant into the glass. Because it was already semi-established, it was a little trickier to get in than the seeds which you could more or less just throw in. I pondered different methods of delivery, and this is the best I could come up with.
I gently pushed the stems into the pipe, leaving the roots exposed. I gave them a slight twist in an attempt to centralize them more. I would then lower the plant into the carboy with the roots haning out the bottom of the pipe.
Note that before lowering the plant into the soil, I used a piece of the same PVC pipe to make a hole in which the plant could be placed. Getting the plant out of the pipe was pretty easy. I just took a wooden spoon, and pushed the plant out into the soil. I then used the same PVC pipe to scrape some soil back over the now exposed roots. I also sprinkled some more in on top of the roots to help seal the deal. I added just over three cups of water to the soil as Lily of the Valley likes shady/wet-ish environments.
All done for now. I will continue updating this page as time goes on :)