[HN Gopher] The magical miniature worlds of terrariums
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The magical miniature worlds of terrariums
Author : throw0101a
Score : 54 points
Date : 2021-12-03 12:31 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
| eatbitseveryday wrote:
| SerpaDesign on YouTube has some fun videos all about this
| subject.
|
| https://youtube.com/c/SerpaDesign
| procinct wrote:
| Agreed, Tanner is amongst the best in the world when it comes
| to terrariums. The fact that he will often cut the glass
| himself for making the enclosure was seriously impressive to me
| when I first started watching.
| frosted-flakes wrote:
| I had the question of, how do the plants get C02 once they use it
| all up? Answer: they don't, or the terrarium is not sealed.
|
| > A closed terrarium is a closed ecosystem just on a much smaller
| scale [than earth]. The supply of carbon dioxide in the terrarium
| air is very small because of the limited volume of air.
| Therefore, unless the terrarium contains animals to provide
| carbon dioxide or microbes break down large amounts of organic
| matter in the soil and release carbon dioxide, the plants in a
| sealed terrarium cannot gain significant dry weight. They would
| basically refix the same carbon dioxide over and over. The carbon
| dioxide the plants release during cellular respiration would be
| refixed via photosynthesis, then respired, refixed, respired,
| refixed, etc.
|
| > Most terrariums are not completely sealed so carbon dioxide can
| enter and plants can gain dry matter via photosynthesis. The
| inventor of the terrarium, Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (1791-1868),
| supposedly had a "sealed terrarium" that survived four years but
| it is questionable if it was completely sealed because of the
| substantial plant growth he observed.
|
| http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/1999-08/935417556.Bt.r....
|
| Side-note: it's not often that a webpage from 1999 is the first
| search result when googling (I searched "terrariums where does
| the c02 come from" on DuckDuckGo).
| giantg2 wrote:
| I've always thought about making one. For now, I think my carboys
| are better used on beer and wine.
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| terrariums are great and super accessible, I use recycled glass
| jars and plants from my yard... even my failures turn into little
| self-perpetuating mold apocalypses
| lasfter wrote:
| Exactly! I figure you can't actually _fail_ in making a
| terrarium. You 're just growing mold instead of whatever you
| originally intended :)
| annetipasto wrote:
| Love this, but as a writer/interviewer, I'm a little thrown by
| this being part of the article framework:
|
| > Some may claim that this is simply a modern fad, a case of
| "hashtag horticulture" that lends itself to eye-catching posts.
| But terrariums have a long and fascinating history that predates
| social media by more than 150 years.
|
| > "People will often say it's been driven by social media..."
|
| OK, it's a century-old fad... I understand there COULD be an
| issue if someone jumps in because of ~aesthetic~ only to grow
| bored and toss their terrariums. But so what if someone discovers
| terrariums "as a fad"? Or if then they build a social following
| around it? They either actually enjoy it, which is great, or
| they're so committed to a performative image that it's lucky they
| latched onto plants in jars and not something more intense. Just
| a weird angle imo that doesn't deserve the few sentences it takes
| to address lol, just jump straight into the interesting stuff
| themodelplumber wrote:
| You are getting at a pretty fluid and open concept of
| authenticity...wish we all (gestures at everybody but also a
| bit at self at the end) felt so unencumbered, but it does kinda
| conflict with patterns that a lot of experts and would-be
| experts really treasure--for example the idea that there's a
| qualitatively better way to develop one's identity and
| interests. And the "it's a fad" perspective carries a lot of
| stodgy but kinda relevant baggage for people like them-us.
|
| That aspect of stepping into an exciting new role as part of a
| performance of what one sees in their feed, may be only part of
| a sort of ephemeral-passion-first route leading to more and
| deeper passion later, but a lot of times it is also a feed-
| candy-first thing in which the entire cultural or historical
| narrative of that hobby is effectively told to shove off.
| Carrying that narrative forward are a lot of people who have
| deep, relevant experience but who are effectively voiceless in
| comparison to feed-churn content creators.
|
| Plus there are a lot of deeply-qualified experts who look out
| onto that feed-world every day and wish for even just a few
| seconds of recognition for their own difficult-to-relate depth
| of interest, and instead they see shallow content, the
| /r/stupidfood of whatever it is they're good at.
|
| Just offering perspectives--
| meristohm wrote:
| Blindboy spins some yarn about terrarium history in " Custard
| Creams and the CIA". Here's the blurb: "Boiling Hot Take. An
| exploration that links Victorian Fern fanciers with Custard
| Creams and the CIA interrogation of houseplants."
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