A bottle garden is a type of closed terrarium in which plants are grown. They usually consist of a plastic bottle or glass bottle with a narrow neck and a small opening. Plants are grown inside the bottle with little or no exposure to the outside environment and can be contained indefinitely inside the bottle if properly sun light.
Uses
Bottle gardens are commonly used as a form of decoration, or as a substitute garden in areas with little space, such as
patios or
Tower block.
Being easy to create and maintain, bottle gardens are also used in schools as an economical way to study miniature eco-systems within the confines of a classroom. They can also be used as a control mechanism, enabling the internal environment of the bottle to be effectively controlled and isolated from outside stimuli. Bottle gardens have also been used for
vegetable production in
dryland areas and areas with a shortage of water, allowing water to be conserved for other uses.
Operation
A bottle garden has the essential requirements of soil, water, and light for the survival of plants and other organisms that are housed in it, as well as a reservoir of water, as water is trapped inside the bottle and unable to evaporate. The
carbon dioxide in the trapped air is used for
photosynthesis, and the
oxygen produced from photosynthesis is used for respiration and expelled.
Aerobic organisms like shrimp, snails, or bacteria take this excess oxygen for their own respiration, and return carbon dioxide to the air. As such they require almost no maintenance.
See also
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