Plants for a Hermann's Tortoise Enclosure

[Lewis12345]

Hi all,
My Hermann's Tortoise, Mr T, is about a year old and with the help of the members on this forum, seems to be doing great!! He lives in a tortoise table with a soil substrate (no sand) with terracotta plant pot saucers for water and food. Although he seems happy in his table, I don't think that it's all that interesting for him and I would like to add more elements and areas for him to explore. I thought that the best way to do this would be to add some plants, so I though up a few and would just like to know if they are safe and practical for the enclosure.
The plants I'm thinking of using are;
Echeveria
Spider plant
African violet
Campanula
And some large stones to stop him from trampling them!
Thanks for any help,
Lewis

 

[Rue]

I haven't had plants in mine yet...but I have access to some pesticide-free spider plants...I'm going to try those first...

 

[Lewis12345]

I feel a bit sad to see the tortoise with no access to actual plants, its the most basic thing in the wild

 

[Rue]

Well...I hope the pile of fresh leaves I put out every morning for breakfast makes up for it a bit!

For the permanent indoor enclosure (when we get there) - I'm thinking the rotating kitty litter pans planted with various species will be a handy way to manage things...

 

[Robber]

Spider plants are supposed to be an easy plant, but I cannot keep them alive for any length of time in my enclosures. They always gradually turn brown a few leaves at a time and eventually die altogether. I've tried moving them into more light/less light, more/less water, etc. It could be that my water is too hard. Pothos survive quite well in my redfoot enclosure(as long as they are kept out of reach), but I don't keep them with other species since they are supposedly not good for others to eat.

 

[JoesMum]

Spider plants are supposed to be an easy plant, but I cannot keep them alive for any length of time in my enclosures. They always gradually turn brown a few leaves at a time and eventually die altogether. I've tried moving them into more light/less light, more/less water, etc. It could be that my water is too hard. Pothos survive quite well in my redfoot enclosure(as long as they are kept out of reach), but I don't keep them with other species since they are supposedly not good for others to eat.

The trick with spider plants is to grow a big one in a pot and harvest baby plants off the runners in smaller pots and grown them on to put in the enclosure

 

[Sara G.]

Plus it could be that maybe the spider plants are getting overwatered?
The few babies I've popped in my Forsten's tank are doing great (and they've been trampled all over A LOT!).
So maybe try not to water them directly when they're in there. If the soil around them is moist then they should be fine.

 

[Yelloweyed]

I totally agree. I don't water my spider plants at all. I only have one directly under an LED full-spectrum light bulb and it has too many baby offshoots to count. Just make sure the enclosure humidity is set correctly and the soil is moist but not wet. The top layer may look dry but dig an inch down and see if it's moist.