Definitely adding this to my DIY list. I need to build myself a terrarium now!
Is not so easy and stable as you could think. The trick there is in the species, that is a survivor, clonates itself from tiny fragments and is invasive.
A Sealed Garden That Was Watered Once in 53 Years (2017)
121–130 of 169 posts
Re: A Sealed Garden That Was Watered Once in 53 Years (2017)
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would anyone need to water it? Am I missing something? This is sealed like other terrariums, the water recycles, it has nowhere to escape (unless the plug is poorly sealed). Probably the first time it was opened in 1972 to be watered was because the water level wasn't high enough from the beginning.
Because someone who doesn't know better might think it needs to be opened and watered.
Because biological growth increases the number of cells, and more cells need more water to survive than less cells.
Re: A Sealed Garden That Was Watered Once in 53 Years (2017)
#123I have to try this. Maybe I'll finally get a plant to survive longer than a year in my burrow.
Everything can be learned, and everybody can culture a plant but only a few can culture any plant. Maybe you need just some orientation.
Re: A Sealed Garden That Was Watered Once in 53 Years (2017)
#124Did anyone try introduce an animal in such a closed system, insects for instance. Does it self sustain ?
On a larger scale, wouldn't this be Earth?
Re: A Sealed Garden That Was Watered Once in 53 Years (2017)
#125Did anyone try introduce an animal in such a closed system, insects for instance. Does it self sustain ?
I saw a shop selling these once: https://www.ecospheres.co.uk/ . They contain small marine shrimp, and "The only care the sphere requires is a source of indirect natural or artificial light" and they "have an average life expectancy of 2-3 years however it is not uncommon for them to survive for 7 to 10 years"[0].
Re: A Sealed Garden That Was Watered Once in 53 Years (2017)
#126Did anyone try introduce an animal in such a closed system, insects for instance. Does it self sustain ?
Re: A Sealed Garden That Was Watered Once in 53 Years (2017)
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the point isn't "look new terrarium tech was just invented". I think it's "this terrarium lasted 47 year sealed". Given that the terrarium guides I could find with a quick google suggest opening the vessel for gas exchange and fresh water every 4-8 weeks (depending on guide and plant type), the 2444 weeks reported here seems to be a long time.
Admittedly I’ve never done any research into it, but I’ve never heard anything of the sort. Close it up and see how long it lasts. I know that mine lasted for well over a year before my mom finally demanded we toss it because she was tired of it taking up space. Honestly, it’s just a small Biosphere. I don’t really understand why you would expect one to work and the other not to.
Because as the time is extended, the possibility for things to get critically out of balance increases, possibly exponentially.
This is not merely sitting a coated steel bar on your shelf and expecting it to not rust. It is a highly dynamic cycle of multiple feedback loops and organizims, especially the soil microbiota. Any of it goes off, and the whole thing could collapse, and it could take a long time for that to go critical.
In this very example, he presumably determined tha tit needed water after several years, but added enough to balance to system so it lasted in a sealed condition for 47 more years.
Re: A Sealed Garden That Was Watered Once in 53 Years (2017)
#128After initial transportation failures, sealed terrariums were used by Robert Fortune to send stolen tea seedlings from China to India,[1] thus helping the British to break the nineteenth Century Chinese monopoly on tea production. [1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00H9J1AM2/
Why were sealed terrariums needed?
In the mid-19th Century it was called a Wardian Case[1], named after the inventor.
I recall the issue was with the transported seeds failing to germinate after arrival in India.
This NPR article is a review of the book linked to above and has more details, including an excerpt:
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125237...
[1]https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/11/how-a...
Re: A Sealed Garden That Was Watered Once in 53 Years (2017)
#129I'm thinking we each make our own little ecosystem, maybe a half an acre would be enough. Maybe make it double walled, just in case, and then say screw it to everyone else as climate change and various other big things occur on the outside.
I've a vague fantasy about returning to the remote Scottish island where I was born, which is pretty windswept with almost no trees, and building a house and garden inside a large Solar Dome, growing trees and plants that otherwise wouldn't survive in such a hostile environment. Apparently it has been done to some extent[0]. Side note - they discovered in the Biosphere 2 that trees need some wind, because the stress helps form reaction wood to strengthen the tree[1].
[0] http://www.solardome.co.uk/case-study/the-nature-house-north...
Re: A Sealed Garden That Was Watered Once in 53 Years (2017)
#130Did anyone try introduce an animal in such a closed system, insects for instance. Does it self sustain ?
It's pretty normal to introduce springtails (small arthropods) to sealed terrariums. Their main purpose is to to eat mold, but they presumably also help with the carbon cycle.