Bury Your Dead Relatives in a Pot and Watch a Tree Grow

The world is running out of cemetery space. Especially in modern cities, there are just too many people to give everyone a plot of land dedicated to their individual corpse. But many people want a place to go back to, somewhere they know a little piece of their loved one lies. Unfortunately, if you live in a city, you probably don’t have many places to put your relative's or friend’s ashes other than perhaps your mantle.

How about making them into a potted plant? The Bios Incube is a potted tree kit that’s specifically designed to accommodate your love one’s cremated ashes. You bury the ashes inside of it, give it some love and attention, and watch it become a tree.

The biodegradable Bios Urn has been around for a while, but the problem is, you need somewhere to bury it. The Bios Incube lets you stick your loved one just about anywhere with sunlight, be it on your front porch or in your tiny apartment.

While human ash isn’t terribly good for plants (though wood ash can be), the system is designed to make sure your tree actually grows. Because nothing would be more depressing than killing a dead friend’s memorial plant.

In an email to mental_floss, Bios co-founder Roger Moliné explains how the system works:

The Bios Urn contains a special design with two components, an upper and a lower capsule. The lower capsule contains the ashes, and the upper capsule contains the soil mix, vermiculite, and seeds. The ashes and soil/seeds do not integrate until the process of biodegradation occurs (generally around 3-4 weeks later) by which point the seed has already germinated and begun growing independently into a tree. This is done to protect the seeds from the PH levels in the cremated remains. Once the seed has sprouted and begun to develop on its own, after several weeks, the two eventually converge in the soil.

One Bios Incube will cost you $385, and you can choose between several tree types (maple, beech, ash, gingko, or pine) or elect to plant some other seed of your choice. If you give them about $3000, they’ll send you a bulk order of five—an investment for the whole family! Get ‘em from Kickstarter.