Hi The concept is usually called "paludarium " Riparium" or if you throw in an animal an "Aquatic vivarium lol One of the BIG problems of WL in these setups is size there are several species of east african wL that can be held under a foot in diameter .. Another problem is light .There are all kinds of artificial light sources though that will do the trick. many other kinds of aquatic, amphibious types of plants to choose from If you want to see examples of the concept moved to a work of art Google "Dutch Vivariums" Take note of the size of these beauties though Acyually more of a "mini' greenhouse.lol I'm not familiar with Blue Lotus " what type is this?? All the lotus I'm aware of get gigantic. lol gary

No it shouldnt You see a terrarium is a catch 22 in my opinion, thats why I no longer use them. The tray method is 100% with me, but when you pump up the humidity you then always have a risk of fungus. If the water in the trays goes stagnant then ofcause this also leads to rot. I think in your setup where the plant has such a nice living enviroment with lots of light and measured humidity, that watering it by hand would be fine. You could even put a layer of PERLITE in the water trays to absord the excess water, this water will evaporate from the perlite giving extra humidity as its needed and will ofcause clean the water (when it condenses it should be like a solar distill) I think your new method is 100% Cheers Sheldon

I would not put the top on it at all, as too high of humidity is not good for plants, and you probably don't want to put it where it gets sunlight at all as it will raise the temperature too much and cook them. Definitely don't put the top on AND place it where it gets sunlight. That would certainly make it too hot in there. I have a terrarium but I use cool flourescent lighting to give it the light that it needs. Mine is a tropical terrarium, and I have a hygrometer and thermometer to measure temp and humidity to keep that where it needs to be. I don't know anything about the plants that you mentioned. If they need very high humidity then you may need the top, but you will most likely have to worry about mold growing without good air circulation and a high humidity level. I'm sorry I couldn't be more help.

A note on this (partly as a question as I'm not certain) - I believe soil organic material is measured on a dry weight basis, but I'm guessing most of us would intuitively estimate the amount of compost and peat on a volume basis, or at best rough weight. Since OM is both lighter (lots of air inside) and often contains quite a bit of water, either will overestimate quite significantly the OM compared to what a proper soil test would give. Perhaps someone has a correction factor, but as an educated guess, that might mean the OM is 20-25% (restated in dry weight terms), possibly even lower. That still might be higher than the typical recommended levels but probably not significant (esp if that OM will decompose quickly). My personal opinion is that it would be a waste of time and effort to redo the bed entirely, just mulch and water carefully and see how it works out.