# How to make plants and/or moss grow on this styro background



## kenstyles (Sep 11, 2013)

Hi All,
I wanted to know how I can make plants and moss grow on the exo-terra background

like these

Exo Terra Rock Terrarium Background (18" x 12") - Backgrounds | Josh's Frogs

do I have to embed the plant roots into the foam somehow?


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

Well you basically have 3 options that I can think of right off hand...

1. Dig out holes and maybe insert small pots and plant plants there.

2. Cut the background into pieces where there is a seam in the rocks... basically the creases. Then stick those on the backglass just like they were but leave a centimeter or so gap between them, so you make a mosaic/puzzle type effect...then jam wet long fiber sphagnum moss into the gaps. Plants and moss will grow/root into that and it will look good eventually.

3. wrap it in in hygrolon and/or attach pieces of epiweb on it (from folius.net)

Number 2 will probably come out looking the best in the long run. 1, is probably a little easier then 2 but I think you'll like the results from 2 better. 3 would be a hassle I think and hard to do and make it look good.

You're basically not likely to get moss to actually grow on the styrofoam. Some plants may be able to root to it a bit, and if it is usually moist you'll eventually get a biofilm with some alge that may kinda stain it green in some places, but ya not going to grow plants right on the styrofoam most likely.


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## JMims (Jul 15, 2013)

I used a background like that for my first build, it didn't come out the way I liked so I used the same background but made some changes to make it look nicer and better to grow plants on.
Here's the link to the thread on here:
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/parts-construction/117729-first-vivarium.html


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