My little rescue box turtle (1 year old) lives in a 29 gallon vivarium. I am having trouble growing plants in direct peat moss, the substrate turtles love. I need to strive for high (80%+) humidity with the low light conditions without keeping the peat soggy. Tough challenge. The Gro Light bulb was barely enough light for the plants and dried out the peat really fast. Now there is a UVB bulb to help Sheldon absorb the calcium that she needs to grow. Do plants thrive in UVB light? I have had trouble with Arrowhead Plant, Creeping Charlie, Mother In Law Tongue, Spider Plant and a host of others I have tried. What is now growing is in a pot of soil and buried into the peat. It is doing fairly well but not as good as it should be. Hints, suggestions? I want to make a nice environment for this little turtle.

A quick google search for plants for vivariums yielded this website. They suggest, among other things, ferns and begonias. There's quite a bit of good information, although this site is talking about frogs, not turtles : http://www.dendroworks.co.uk/i...

http://www.dendroboard.com/for...
See if any info hear helps.
http://www.turtleforum.com/for...
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/t...
http://animals.pawnation.com/p...
It looks like begonias are toxic to Box Turtles.

Thanks, guys. I am real fan of Turtle_Tails website. I have learned a lot from them since rescuing this hatchling. Unfortunately, most of the plants recommended are so large or Sheldon gets certain types of leaves caught inside her shell keeping her from moving. It is amazing how little a 30" wide aquarium will hold. I have planted so many thing that take low light and low water as the substrate cannot be overly wet, either. I am an avid gardener but this is stumping me why I cannot grow stuff indoors. I have Gro Light and a UVB light. You'd think that would help? Nope. I am going to dig up some Peace Lily next. It has been quite the experiment getting things to grow indoors.

Begonias are poisonous to turtles? Wow, would never have thought of that! Poor little guy; pay no attention to me! Hope you can find something suitable! Maybe you'll just have to surround your vivarium with external plants to sort of hang over it.

Many plants used in aquariums can be grown submersed or emmersed. The Planted Tank forum is a fantastic resource for lighting, plant info, etc. here is a link to the riparium, terrarium sub forum. I am sure there are people there that can help. One thought I have is, could you put the plants in very small pots, then sink them into the peat?

http://www.plantedtank.net/for...

I put in pots of fern, fig leaf ivy, and a cane begonia shoot I had been rooting when it broke off my plant. Sheldon always comes out to inspect what Mom has done to her habitatbut she never says much one way of the other. The Cane begonia is tall and only for looks. There is no way little Sheldon could reach any of it's leaves. She doesn't eat many plants anyway. Who would when your Person feeds you nummy food all the time?

I love turtles. I have a couple planted aquariums now, which I always wanted, but no turtles. Had those little ones as a kid, poor things, but I did take good care of them.

My little Sheldon is a Three Toed Box Turtle, a terrapin, actually who likes being in water but lives on land. I found her as a hatchling while mulching my yard last year. The heavy rains we had had unearthed her, maybe sooner than she would have on her own? I was going to set her free once she got healthy again. But since she was paraplegic I had to do some studying very quickly to learn how to care for her. I was told she would have died had I not brought her in as Fire Ants love turtles that are stuck on their backs. (ew!) Sheldon will live in her indoor vivarium for 2 more years when she can finally flip herself over and box her head inside her shell/carapace. After that I will build her a habitat outside where she will outlive me. I am trying to mimic the things she will see outside so she can learn to crawl over ricks and twigs and hide under plants and maybeb set free? IDK? She sure like her neck rubs and responds to her name. She might be a tad bit domesticated by now. The rocks and twigs are easy. Keeping plants green in her 90* 70% humidity vivarium has been my challenge.

That is such a great thing you did for her!

All done. Sheldon scurried around to see the changes mom made and then went back to her hiding places. What do you think?