"cyber plants"

[Parasuco]

I work at a home decor/garden shop... White Rose...

We got this new novelty plant in... There are three differnet types of plants, but all of them have the same idea.

They are the small plants (Money tree, lucky bamboo and some other one... a palm of some sort, I think) in a some "artificial soil". This artificial soil is in a plastic drawstring bag. This plastic bag is in a velvety drawstring bag, which you can affic to your monitor (or I guess anywhere)w ith an adhesive piece of velro.

The cath is that you only need to water it ONE tablespoon of water, every two months.

Now. I wonder, not only will it probably lose more than one tablespoon of water through transpiration in two months (assuming Rh is less than 100%), but doesn't the plant need a bit more than that to survive. All that tugor stuff, and cellular reproduction all requires H2O, no?

I'm quite interested in learninn what you people think about this...

Thanks,
Greg

 

[Tristan]

How much soil is there in the bag and what is it made/composed of?

 

[Lauderdale]

Synthetic soil?

Skeptical is the operative word...but stranger things have happened this century. Sounds rather interesting. Let me know the kind of results you get.

 

[Parasuco]

The bag is really small. Like. Tablespoon wise, you could probably only fit four, possibly five of anything in. Sand, soil, water, whatever...

I'm not buying one; they're fifteen bucks, right now, I don't have that to spare.

I don't know what it's made of. No idea.

 

[Parasuco]

Yes, I decided to just crack onpen the package and take a look inside the baggies today...

It seems that the artificial medium is just that see thru water retaining Jelly...

 

[Ozzy]

I bet that it's the new water crystals, that absorbs water and then releases it slowly. They won't work for cp's, they're toxic to cp's so don't ask.

 

[jhaluska]

Ozzy, Darn! I saw that stuff before a couple years ago. It would have been really cool if it worked. But wouldn't it keep anything from growing? I was thinking it was just a supplier of water.

 

[scottychaos]

sounds like a lame gimmick to me..
these plants will probably live a month tops, but the big secret is that they are intended to be "disposable plants" by whoever came up with the idea..sure they SAY they will live a long time, but they are counting on 99.9% of people who buy them just throwing them away without complaint..how can a plant live next to a computer monitor?

in the Bonsai hobby, every Christmas season you can find Juniper "bonsai" sold in malls..the sellers say they can live indoors! either they are genuinely ignorant, or know better and are deliberately lying..Junipers MUST be outdoors 24/7, 365 days a year...but once someone buys the plant, the money has been made, and the seller doesent have to care anymore..meanwhile the innocent buyer takes the plant home, perhaps gives it as a gift, the plant sits on top of the TV, turns brown and dies by February, then it just gets thrown away...just what the seller intended all along..

sounds like the exact same thing with these "novelty plants"..
they only exist to make a quick buck for someone..
wheather or not the plant actually survives isnt their concern, or intention..

Scot