Need help with plants

Morning everyone,

Ok so I just bought a medium extra tall exo terra for my 1 year old male veiled chameleon Loki. He is in an 18x18x24 right now.

Anyways to my point lol....I have had major issues with live plants. I cant seem to keep them alive for more then a week...its very sad lol....I swear every time I go to home depot to get more the whole plant section screams in fear of being chosen for my plant version of "Saw" lol. Right now because its so stinken hot I only have a UVB light on in his cage and he has a mister that goes off every 2 hours. So far the only slight success I have had has been with a pothos and a hosta....and even those aren't fairing great. I hate that every 2 weeks I'm having to get more plants....and looking at his new terrarium its going to take ALOT to fill it and I cant afford to replace them this often.

Any suggestions?????? I need help from someone with a green thumb....cause apparently mine fell off.

Thank you!
 

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I'm more than new to chameleons (my new baby from Kammers is due tomorrow) but I keep a lot of dart frogs and plants in exo-terras, and a lot of houseplants in general.

The two main tricks to plants in vivariums are to have enough light, and to make sure they're well drained so the roots don't rot. I can't tell from your pic whether you've got the plants in pots, or if you've got them planted in the bottom of the exo. If it's the latter, you absolutely have to have a false bottom (with a way to drain it before it gets full) and a fairly fast draining substrate, or you'll have nothing but mud and rotted roots. The same rule pretty much applies to pots -- they have to have a drain (and the drain can't be sitting in standing water), and a fast draining substrate if they're going to be getting a lot of water. My main substrate for this application is four parts "Turface" (a calcined clay used for erosion control, usually $15 or so for a 50 lb bag at a landscaping or irrigation supply) to one part "ABG" (you can use Eco Earth as a good alternative). For a lot of plants, you could also probably get away with potting them in nothing but a high quality long fiber sphagnum moss (aka Orchid Moss, (not peat moss)).

You're also going to need more than just a UVB light probably. I've had good luck with the "Jungle Dawn" LEDs from lightyourreptiles in 24" exos (I use two of them in an 18" wide viv) and you might be able to add that without adding a lot of heat.

Anyway, I hope that helps a little. Also, this is just "plants in vivs in general" advice, not specifically chameleon safe applications; it looks like you need to be really careful about having exposed substrates around chams, but I'm sure some of the experienced chameleon keepers will comment on that.
 
Thanks for the reply!

The plants are potted, there is no substrate in Loki's tank because he will attempt to eat it I'm sure, as he is pretty curious when it comes to whatever I put into his terrarium. I only took his heat lamp out a week ago because we live in attic space and he was starting to claw around at the bottom of his viv and have his mouth open so I knew he was getting to hot.

So even before when I had heat and uvb going they were still dying...and I made sure that they didn't get soupy at the bottom....and he loves his live plants so id hate to go back to all plastic....
 
So even before when I had heat and uvb going they were still dying...and I made sure that they didn't get soupy at the bottom....and he loves his live plants so id hate to go back to all plastic....

It's not just soupiness at the bottom; water retentive soils (including most bagged potting soil) will hold water all through them... But if the roots were full and healthy, and not stringy and falling apart (or hard to even find), then that's not the problem.
 
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