Journal Vertical Garden Projects

[hydrophyte]

Vertical Garden Projects

I've been working on a few wall-mount vertical projects. While these are not aquariums, some of them incorporate aquatic Cyanobacteria as living biocrusts or phytoplankton in a water medium.

This clay panel living wall display in a 11.5" X 4" X 21" case has been in development for about nine months. The upper portion is more subject to drying, but has grown a nice textured biocrust of Anabaena and Tolypothrix Cyanobacteria. The lower area holds moisture better and grows a green turf of Mosses, a Liverwort, a few Ferns and Peperomia. The setup requires near-daily hand watering, but is otherwise very easy-care.



With time, the clay surface develops more and more texture and visual interest.



Here's an early build photo. The clay is pressed into an industrial scrub pad, which holds it holds it all together while also checking shrinkage cracks.

 

[Laoshan]

This is brilliant!

 

[hydrophyte]

This is brilliant!

Thanks for checking it out!

Here's another one I have in the development. This panel is a good deal larger (15" X 26") and with six additional new species including both Cyanobacteria and terrestrial Green Algae. I'm working on the wall-mount frame enclosure and in the meantime have had this set up in a clear plastic tub with LED strip. This photo is from a couple weeks ago and shows growth at Day 45.




It has some more growing to do. I think I will just leave this one with the biocrust organisms and with no plants. I'll see how it goes. This edit shows where I "planted" each of the six species.



The Chloroccum and Coleochaete failed to establish, but the other four have grown well. The Mougeotia may not persist as well as the others with the panel exposed to ambient humidity; it is a more fully aquatic species that only grows terrestrially in very moist situations.

I attach a few more pictures to show detail.

 

[hydrophyte]

Here is one of my wall-mount phytoplankton highlights/area lights, currently growing a Dunaliella salina live culture. The electronics including microcontroller, relay, 7-segment clock and air pump are all on the same piece of extruded aluminum track that holds the enclosure. The whole thing is 48" tall. I really like it.

 

[Laoshan]

The combination of DIY and creativity is very inspiring to me. I do have many questions, but I will contain myself for now.

On the clay panels:

• What clay did you use? A type of pottery clay?
• Aren't you bothered by the smell of cyanobacteria? Or is this not an issue because the setup is relatively dry?

On the phytoplankton lamp:

• Did you build the bioreactor part (the container) yourself or can this be purchased?
• Do you use the phytoplankton, like for feeding Daphnia, or do you keep it just for the looks?

Thanks for sharing!

Tom

 

[hydrophyte]

The combination of DIY and creativity is very inspiring to me. I do have many questions, but I will contain myself for now.

On the clay panels:

• What clay did you use? A type of pottery clay?
• Aren't you bothered by the smell of cyanobacteria? Or is this not an issue because the setup is relatively dry?

On the phytoplankton lamp:

• Did you build the bioreactor part (the container) yourself or can this be purchased?
• Do you use the phytoplankton, like for feeding Daphnia, or do you keep it just for the looks?

Thanks for sharing!

Tom

Thanks very much.

The clay is just regular natural red art clay of the kind often used for ceramics. I can buy a big sack for just $11US or so.

These Cyanobacteria are among the kinds that grow in many terrestrial habitats. They are ubiquitous in the environment and you can find them wherever there are moist substrates or surfaces. You probably have some growing on the roof and siding of your dwelling. For the most part they are not the same species that sometimes bloom problematically in aquatic ecosystems. Aside from a subtle earthy aroma, I can't detect much odor at all from that panel.

Many kinds of Cyanobacteria can produce toxins—most notorious of these are the species that can grow as thick aquatic blooms—but I don't think the hazard with this display is any greater than for a potentially toxic potted plant, such as a Cycad. I'm not going to eat pieces of the clay. I would however caution to keep the panel hung up and away from curious pets and children.

I built the Phytoplankton enclosure with a clear plastic tube and a cap that I cut out on the router. I also built the electronics enclosures and wired everything together.

The Phytoplankton is strictly decorative area lighting/nightlight.

 

[hydrophyte]

Couple more pics...

These are some other phytoplankton nightlights in vertical tubes. First and second sets show two different LED configurations.

The green tubes are filled with Nannochloropsis oculata live culture. This phytoplankton works nice like this because it is very easy to grow and the individual plantain cells usually stay suspended, so they require no air bubbling or other stirring.

The amber hue is a tea made with Oak leaves. This is not a living liquid medium of course, but it does cast a nice warm natural glow.

 

[hydrophyte]

Quick update for the clay panel in the yellow frame. The Peperomia has grown quite a lot over the winter...

 

[hydrophyte]

Wow this took forever, but I finally got this thing all assembled, filled up and hung on the wall...

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Moonwort Studio

Coulee Region, 1983

Day 1

Edaphotron: watertight enclosure, electronic gas sensor, microcontroller, bonsai gravel, plant parts, soil invertebrates and soil microflora.

38cm X 8cm X 58cm

Through the action of soil bacteria, fungi and invertebrate animals, the plant leaves will decompose to form soil organic matter slowly combining with weathered clay gravel, thus modeling soil development in nature.

 

[hydrophyte]

I built another new design. This is a sconce/nightlight with a plastic flask in a cedar base and a hypersaline brine medium growing Dunaliella salina. Along with the wall-mount hardware I also secured a gooseneck LED into the back of the base providing both the illumination for photosynthesis and light passing through the culture as a diffuse natural green glow.

 

[tiger15]

My local fish store has set up a wall garden on top of a planted aquarium. I believe the aquarium and the garden circulation systems are integrated in such a way that water in the aquarium is pumped up to the wall garden and dripped back to the tank. Plants in the wall garden appear to be mostly tropical forest plants and aquarium plants are mostly low light epiphytes. Lighting comes from overhead spot lights shining on both the wall and the tank. It is very well done and I've been watching its evolution since its start up about a year ago. Next time when I visit the store, I will inspect the circulation system to figure out how it is done and take a few pics to show here.

 

[hydrophyte]

Here's an update for the edaphotron.

Day 32

This seems to be coming along very nicely. It went through a rather ugly moldy phase with mold spores and mycelia all over the clear front panel, but that all melted away again. Compare with the day #1 photo (last image below) and you can see the dried leaves and other materials fell a couple of inches with decomposition. I added a few orange Maple (Acer) leaves today to refresh the supply of organic matter.

 

[Fiollent]

Wow, your wall-mount vertical projects sound fascinating! The way you've incorporated aquatic Cyanobacteria into a living biocrust is truly innovative. It's impressive how you've managed to create such a diverse ecosystem within a confined space. The blend of Anabaena and Tolypothrix Cyanobacteria along with mosses, liverwort, ferns, and Peperomia seems like a beautiful, balanced setup.I came across this interesting article on mklibrary.com about building metal raised garden beds (https://www.mklibrary.com/how-to-build-metal-raised-garden-bed/). Although it's not directly related to your project, it might provide inspiration or ideas on different approaches to vertical gardening or structuring your display.

 

[G H Nelson]

Don't know how I missed this journal.....very cool. 😎👍

 

[hydrophyte]

While I have the pictures handy here is an update for the Winogradsky's hung up on the wall in the gallery space.

The cylinder setup is really nicely featured with bright red Pink Sulfur Bacteria. There is also an area with Cyanobacteria up near the top. The framed piece is more subdued with black sulfate reduction, Green Sulfur Bacteria and amber Diatoms, but I think this looks nice with the faux antique picture frame.

 

[hydrophyte]

I've made a new wall sconce style setup for decorative phytoplankton and a few other options. It usually takes more troubleshooting, but the parts for this design all came together pretty easy. Here it is with a Dunaliella salina culture in brine medium...



And here it is with the natural amber glow of an Oak leaf tea...



However I currently have it holding a new Winogradsky column, shown here at day 15...



I collected the material for this Winogradsky while Grouse hunting up north on county land. The hunting wasn't especially great, but I saw such amazing things there in the glacial moraine landscape including this hidden glacial kettle beaver pond...

View attachment 213502



The small stream draining the pond was filled with bright orange ochre, a sign of the iron-oxidizing Bacteria living there in the upper reaches...



With a source of iron inside, these same Bacteria can create vibrant ochre inside of the Winogradsky column as well. Time will tell if I get to observe any here...



Just a short distance away from the Beaver pond I found another small kettle with another sign of the iron reduction-oxidation process, with a stunning swamp rainbow iridescence covering its still water...



I've seen swamp rainbow before, but never as colorful as this...



What an amazing world we live in!

 

[tiger15]

My local fish store has set up a wall garden on top of a planted aquarium. I believe the aquarium and the garden circulation systems are integrated in such a way that water in the aquarium is pumped up to the wall garden and dripped back to the tank. Plants in the wall garden appear to be mostly tropical forest plants and aquarium plants are mostly low light epiphytes. Lighting comes from overhead spot lights shining on both the wall and the tank. It is very well done and I've been watching its evolution since its start up about a year ago. Next time when I visit the store, I will inspect the circulation system to figure out how it is done and take a few pics to show here.

Here are pics of my lfs set up of a vertical garden on top of a planted tank. The set up is rather simple, using a timer to pump tank water to irrigate the garden once daily. The tank is back lighted with changing color, not my taste as I prefer more natural look.

Another pic is a mono culture (dwarf Jade) vertical garden I found in the Johannesburg airport. I don’t see any automatic watering system, so apparently it is watered by hand, but infrequently since Jade is a drought tolerant succulent perfect for vertical garden set up.

 

[hydrophyte]

This thing's coming along pretty nice. The organic material sank a couple more inches with continued decomposition, so I refreshed with some Corn husks and more Oak leaves. I also added a layer of tree roots, and charcoal pieces to the underground area.

I've observed good reproduction Porcellionides pruinosus isopods with numerous new juveniles walking around. There are additionally hundreds of Collembola sp. Springtails, but when the lights are on they mostly hide.


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Coulee Region, 1983

Day 65

Edaphotron: watertight enclosure, electronic gas sensor, microcontroller, bonsai gravel, plant parts, soil invertebrates and soil microflora.

 

[LondonDragon]

Love that last one! slice of nature for sure! 🙂 great work as always

 

[Gill]

Sorry to go off topic, but i am liking your gothic horror vibe we see peeks of. And chance of some more of that.