---
title: Bird's nest fern in a terrarium | Glass Jar Garden
description: Bird's nest fern (dwarf) (Asplenium nidus): Glossy strap leaves in an open rosette. Loves humid air, hates soggy soil. Needs light 2,000 to 8,000 lux,...
url: https://glassjar.garden/guide/plants/asplenium-nidus-dwarf/
---

Plants

# Bird's nest fern (dwarf)
Asplenium nidus

Easy · Fine in a closed jar

Glossy strap leaves in an open rosette. Loves humid air, hates soggy soil.

## What the simulation uses

- Light: 2,000 to 8,000 lux (The brightness it grows well in.)

- Humidity: 60 to 90 % RH (Air moisture it is happy in; below the lower end it dries out.)

- Temperature: 16 to 24 °C (Comfortable range; outside it growth slows.)

- Dies at: below 4 or above 32 °C (Days beyond these temperatures kill it.)

- Soil pH: 5 to 6 pH (Soil acidity it prefers.)

- Grows up: 0.65 cm/month (How fast it gains height in good conditions.)

- Spreads: 0.65 cm/month (How fast its edge creeps outwards.)

- Copes with wet: fair (How well it stands soggy soil; poor means rot comes quickly.)

- Copes with still air: good (Sealed jars have still air; poor means grey mould finds it.)

- Copes with shade: good (How well it holds on in dim light.)

- Copes with drying: poor (How well it survives the jar drying out.)

- Water use: 0.06 ml/cm²/day (Water drawn up from its roots per cm² of leaves in room air; a sealed jar cuts this to a fraction and returns it down the glass.)

- Leaf drop: 2 %/month (Share of its leaves it sheds each month as litter for the cleanup crew.)

- Soft leaves: no (Soft new growth that hungry isopods will nibble.)

- Full size: 27.5 cm tall, 27.5 cm wide (Its size when grown, before the lid stops it.)

## Care

- Day length: 12 to 14 h

- Substrate: Moist

## What kills it

- drying out
- water pooled in crown
- cold below 10 C
- chemical insecticides

## Description
In the wild this fern grows fronds a metre long, so pick a dwarf form or a young plant for a big jar. It cannot cope with drying out. Water the soil around it, never into the centre, where trapped water causes rot.

Also called dwarf bird's nest fern, Asplenium nidus 'Crispy Wave', Asplenium 'Victoria'.

Estimated, where sources were thin: dwarf cultivar size; growth rates.

## Sources

- [plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/asplenium-nidus](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/asplenium-nidus/)
- [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asplenium_nidus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asplenium_nidus)

[Grow it in a jar](https://glassjar.garden/?guide=plants/asplenium-nidus-dwarf)

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