can unwatered/underwatered plants survive for long period of time?

Question

im thinking even thrive. Say you place a small plant under a clear glass bowl and water it only once....would the dome cause precipitation and would this eliminate the need for constant watering since the water would collect at the top of the bowl and rain down into the plant agian?....right or worng?

the air is a good point would there be any way to generate air without messing up the water thing?

Answer 1

It's pretty hard to concretize this answer, but in general it is possible to use a very small amount of water. In 1975 an Algerian agronomy engineer designed a system called goute-a-goute (translates to English: drop-by-drop) to manager the quantity of water used in farms, and just like its name says it, it's a system of tubes about 5 inches from the ground that let water drip in speeds of about 1 drop per 5 seconds continuously, if you look at it, it looks like the tubes are leaking, but it's actually a system.
So to answer your question, there's a limit (or a fine line) between a plant that's watered normally and under-watered. How do you know that a plant is under-watered? well, if it dies that means it's under-watered, so you can't underwater plants, because unlike animals (and humans) plants don't have a flexible system. But if you can make a mini system like i mentioned above the plant can live normally, it doesn't have to be sophisticated, it can be a rag that absorbs water and drips or something like that...
Remember also that an over-watered plan WILL die of asphyxia.
I hope this helped :)
Good luck.
PS: plants also have an absorption system in their leaves, so even when the water drips down on the leaves a good amount of water is absorbed, but the main absorption is from the routes, so make sure the water reaches the soil.
Ok i promise i am done! :)

Answer 2

Only to a certain extent. The much needed water that the plant needs
would not be generated in sufficient quantity to allow the plant to survive and eventually it would die.
You're almost suggesting the same thing as a perpetual motion machine where it would generate it's own fuel or power and would run forever, which is impossible.

Answer 3

In a case such as this one, you wouldn't need to worry too much about the plant getting enough water, but carbon dioxide... :) So, no, I don't think this would work.

@Gene L - From what I know, we are still trying to figure out the perpetual motion thing, so I wouldn't call it impossible. What you said about the plant is true though (obviously).

Answer 4

The plant would need air to survive.