With the increasing population and industrialization, conserving biodiversity has turned into a necessity. And, so is the necessity to bring forward new methods for building a sustainable ecosystem to combat the evil aspects of climatic changes. That’s where bottle gardens come into existence.
For people like us who live in a world with tiny living
spaces and a busy lifestyle, bottle gardens are the best substitute to satisfy
our inner gardener soul. A bottle garden is a container like a terrarium in
which life-size plants are grown.
usually consist of a plastic or glass bottle with a narrow
neck and a small opening, with plants growing inside them that can have no or
little connection with the outside environment, and can be contained
indefinitely inside the bottle if properly illuminated.
History
Historically, they were used to transport plants from their
native countries to other countries where ordinarily they would not be able to
survive in the new conditions.
As time progressed, they became more widely available to the
public and this allowed house plants to be protectively grown under glass or
plastic even though they were surrounded by unfavourable conditions. The first
terrarium was developed by botanist Nathaniel Bag Shaw Ward in 1842.
How Bottle Plants Work:
Bottle gardens work in such a way that their sealed space
creates an entirely self-sufficient ecosystem in which plants can survive by
using photosynthesis to recycle nutrients. The only external input needed to
keep the plant going is light since this provides it with the energy it needs
to create its food and continue to grow.
Light is absorbed by
proteins containing chlorophyll (a green pigment) of leaves. Some of that light
energy is stored in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The rest is used
to remove electrons from the water being absorbed from the soil through the
plant's roots.
These electrons then become 'free' - and are used in chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide into carbohydrates, releasing oxygen. But the ecosystem also uses cellular respiration to break down decaying material shed by the plant.
In this part of the process, bacteria inside the
soil of the bottle garden absorbs the plant's waste oxygen and releases carbon
dioxide that is often reused by the growing plant.
Mostly the reaction takes place at night. Because the bottle
garden is a closed environment that means its water cycle is also a
self-contained process. The water in the bottle gets taken up by plants’ roots,
is released into the air during transpiration, and condenses down into the
potting mixture, where the cycle begins again.
Photosynthesis creates oxygen and puts more moisture in the
air. The moisture built up inside the bottle was released back on the plant.
And, the dropped leaves rot at the bottom of the bottle, creating the CO2 also
needed for photosynthesis and nutrients which it absorbs through its roots.
Make Your Bottle Garden:
They are very easy to set up and then look after going
forward, you can grow many different plants that would ordinarily be quite
difficult in the home.
1. The bottle or a terrarium to be used should be thoroughly
washed as a dirty exterior or interior can cut off the light needed for
survival. Recycling soda bottles or other glass wastes by using them as bottle
gardens can be a good form of waste management.
2. Filling up the bottle garden is done in such a way that there are two layers within the base of the container. The first layer should be a very porous material such as gravels, pebbles or sand, you can also add a thin layer of activated charcoal at this point if you want.
The second layer is
the growing medium such as soil compost. It needs to be quite a thick layer.
3. Although bottle gardens allow you to grow most kinds of
plants, it is often advised to avoid flowering plants. Your chosen plants need
to be reasonably slow growing so as not to take over the others, they will all
need similar light and water requirements.
4. This is the hardest part. You will need to revert to long-handled
spoons, long chopsticks or something similar, to enable you to dig out a small
trench and then to help you lower the plants into the newly created hole.
5. The final thing to do in terms of the preparation is to
water by slightly rotating or letting the water run down the slides.
6. With the requirements, watering and fertilizing is done
to gain better results.
Conclusion:
Bottle garden is extensively used as a form of decoration,
or as a substitute garden in areas with little space. Being easy to create and
maintain, bottle gardens are also used in schools as an economic way to study
miniature eco-systems.
They can also be used as a control mechanism. Bottle gardens
have also been used for vegetable production in dryland areas, allowing water
to be conserved. This process is one reason why NASA was interested in taking
plants into space.
‘Plants operate as very good scrubbers, taking out
pollutants in the air so that a space station can effectively become
self-sustaining. ‘This is a great example of just how pioneering plants are and
how they will persist if given the opportunity.
Written By - Chavi Goel
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