The container was last watered twelve years after it was planted. Twelve years is plenty of time for most plants (especially something many people would consider a weed) to reach that size. At this point it's simply in maintenance mode - similar to a bonsai which never requires trimming.
The Daily Fail version claims so, but that doesn't seem sufficient. Nonetheless, its clearly working. It'd be interesting to insert a probe through the cork and run a real-time analysis of the air composition.
Hmm. So over time the soil mass will decrease into nothing as the plant expands?
Bits of the plant are going to decay back into soil.
Most of the mass of plants comes from the atmosphere, not the soil. 95%+ of a given plant is oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon. The soil provides trace elements and a place from which to absorb water.
I don't think we can say it's clearly working... This seems like an extraordinary claim and it's hard to know if there's any truth fudging.
Another puzzling factor is the clarity of the glass. When I've seen bottle gardens, they all develop a thick scum from minerals in condensation, algae, and bacterial plaques.
This is a great GREAT point.
It would be nice to hear an explanation.
Magnetic scrubbing brushes. They're commonly used in aquariums.
There is also, Cellular respiration in night within the plant itself, which release some CO2 in the atmosphere. So may be combined with CO2 released by Bacteria and Cellular respiration in plant, it can survive.
Aerobic bacteria takes in oxygen and produces CO2 in the same way that animals do.