# Help me choose a plant **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 8, 2019, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-choose-a-plant/838369 "2019-08-08T20:52:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-choose-a-plant/838369/1 "2019-08-08T20:52:36Z")
For a summer vacation project with my children I’d like to make mini bio-domes out of mason jars. I plan to put some seeds in moist miracle grow and then seal them up permanently. The catch is I need plants that are small enough to fit a few in even at full growth and they somehow have to be self pollinating as there’ll be no bees. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2019, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-choose-a-plant/838369/2 "2019-08-08T21:38:54Z")
Sealed, as in, no air exchange? No oxygen out/in? ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2019, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-choose-a-plant/838369/3 "2019-08-09T02:24:49Z")
Small ferns work well. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2019, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-choose-a-plant/838369/4 "2019-08-09T05:17:34Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Sealed, as in, no air exchange? No oxygen out/in? Yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2019, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-choose-a-plant/838369/5 "2019-08-09T08:46:35Z")
What you are describing is a way to kill seedlings. That isn’t a survivable situation. Plants need to breathe, too. But if you _don’t_ seal the air out, maybe some duckweed. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2019, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-choose-a-plant/838369/6 "2019-08-10T03:51:41Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > What you are describing is a way to kill seedlings. That isn’t a survivable situation. Plants need to breathe, too. But if you _don’t_ seal the air out, maybe some duckweed. > **[Thriving since 1960, my garden in a bottle: Seedling sealed in its own...](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2267504/The-sealed-bottle-garden-thriving-40-years-fresh-air-water.html)** > > Gardener David Latimer, from Cranleigh, Surrey, first planted his bottle garden in 1960 and finally sealed it tightly shut 12 years later as an experiment - and it's still going strong. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2019, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-choose-a-plant/838369/7 "2019-08-11T23:50:14Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > [The sealed bottle garden still thriving after 40 years without fresh air or water | Daily Mail Online](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2267504/The-sealed-bottle-garden-thriving-40-years-fresh-air-water.html) Your link, while fascinating, isn’t the same as sealing it off as seeds. He let the plant mature a bit before sealing.