Time to upgrade

[Jevin]

Well quick update, I had some of the ground cover plants die in a heat wave. On a positive note, I got the cage today from Cornel's World, time to start adapting it! Chandler is also shedding with the stuck shed finally coming off! So far I've roughly marked where the bulkheads for the MistKing nozzles will be going in the new cage.

 

[dinomom]

lol well it has plenty of room to grow!

My Cephalotus follicularis came! View attachment 302726

How's that ceph doing? They can be very fussy-needs extremely high light, ie up in the canopy would be the only way. and cannot tolerate wet feet at all-keep it out of the way of the mister. Best is to top water every 3-4 days and don't try to repot. If you need any help let me know, I want to see it live!

 

[Jevin]

@dinomom I'm honestly not sure, it didn't arrive in the greatest shape, but there is a few specks of green, so I'm hoping it's doing well.

 

[Jevin]

So sad update, I also lost the cephalotus, I'll try again next summer, for now I'll get the build ready and probably setup an enclosure for the cephalotus. Today I'm starting to place the pots and doing the first part of the foam.

 

[dinomom]

So sad update, I also lost the cephalotus, I'll try again next summer, for now I'll get the build ready and probably setup an enclosure for the cephalotus. Today I'm starting to place the pots and doing the first part of the foam. View attachment 306510

So sorry but not surprising as they are so tricky. Mine are literally about 3 inches from hi output lights-but they like it cool, too. If you want a CP that works well in there, butterworts-I have some butterworts that are very happy and continuously blooming (and much cheaper LOL).

Your build is going to be awesome!

 

[Sonny13]

So sad update, I also lost the cephalotus, I'll try again next summer, for now I'll get the build ready and probably setup an enclosure for the cephalotus. Today I'm starting to place the pots and doing the first part of the foam. View attachment 306510

I’m very intrigued for what I’m seeing so far, going to be a great build
Really curious about the enclosure itself.

 

[Jevin]

Well first bit of foam is done, it's the right type of foam, but the different colors are because black is hard to come by and $5 more per can,so natural color of three safe brands is what I have lol. Anyone know of a paint or adhesive I could use to darken it or attach moss and coco fiber to?

Progress so far:

 

[Jevin]

I was up late and burning the midnight oil!

So an update for the 29th, I worked on it a bit more and decided to change some things a bit from my initial idea because I didn't want to make it look super bulky. I'm not quite sure if I'll nail it for coherency overall. I think I might also switch where certain plants are once I get to the point of planting.

Anyways, today I finished:

-most of the foam around the three central pots
-added a faux branch on the lower back wall
-positioned where the three branches will be
-additional plant placement
-cork board placement when cage is ready to provide clean up crew hide/highway upwards.

I still plan on using a fake vine or two, but mostly hidden from view to provide some additional walkways in addition to the Pothos vines and branches. The middle set of vents is actually clear all the way around, but it has a channel pointing downwards. I took some pictures by lantern light to show the progress made so far.

 

[Jevin]

So obviously working on it again today. I stood it up for a quick picture and to mount a pot. Now to go get some more pots and some dirt.

 

[Beman]

So obviously working on it again today. I stood it up for a quick picture and to mount a pot. Now to go get some more pots and some dirt.
View attachment 306672

Are you doing silicone and coco fiber to all the foam? Looks neat.

 

[Jevin]

Are you doing silicone and coco fiber to all the foam? Looks neat.

Yes I will be. I think I'll keep the areas of the walls that are exposed white.

 

[Beman]

Yes I will be. I think I'll keep the areas of the walls that are exposed white.

That will be a nice contrast of color too. Also the white walls help the light bounce down to the lower plants.

 

[Jevin]

Got up at a relatively good time and started working on the new enclosure. I managed to get the majority of the foam put in and now I just have to wait for it to finish curing. To be honest this is also my first time using expanding foam, but I'm happy with the overall shape. Next will be to carve and shape it.

 

[Jevin]

I will admit, I started off hoping to keep a symmetrical design. As I started to build I started to like an asymmetrical build better. I'm thinking of carving down the upper right area to make it look sort of like a huge branch. Also bought another plant to add variety to the enclosure.

 

[Jevin]

Today is a day of waiting. I made a little progress in preparing for later stages, but mainly just waiting for the foam to be dry.

 

[Jevin]

Well quick update and I decided to do a bit of carving to the foam and start separating certain chunks of the foam onto their own panels so I can still disassemble the cage if need be.

 

[Jevin]

Well today officially marks the last of the foam I'll be doing hopefully. I positioned the last fake vine holder and filled in some cavities that had been created. Now to let both the foam and coco fiber dry so I can carve and sculpt before sealing and covering the foam with a silicon base layer followed by coco fiber or sphagnum moss depending on position.

 

[Jevin]

Made some progress today and also ran into a few hiccups. I'll have to do a bit of small fills where some of the pots go. The one pot also interfered with the ability of the foam to dry but it's now exposed and drying. Most of the sculpting is done for now I think.

 

[Jevin]

I did a thing. Also found some cavities I'll have to deal with tomorrow and some cleanup of surfaces as well as some small cracks to fill. I thought it would be best to hide the seams by keeping them close to plants.

 

[Jevin]

I still plan on cutting the hole for the drain for the substrate bin, and the holes for mounting the MistKing nozzles. I have finished filling in the cavities and doing the last few touch ups with the foam. Everything is marked up, just a matter of cutting and drilling.

You could say this build is in pieces.