Vacation Care for Your Houseplants

You can stop your mail, kennel your pets, but it is difficult to find a reliable house plant sitter while on vacation. 

I receive lots of calls from gardeners who return home from vacation to find their houseplants either floating in water or the soil bone dry and leaves brown and crispy.  Reviving them is difficult and often impossible.  Avoid the problem by creating an environment that will allow your plants to survive on their own.

Fill the sink or tub with an inch of water.  Set your well-watered house plants on overturned pots or stones so they are setting above not in the water.  Loosely cover the sink or tub with plastic.  I have used this system to keep my plants looking good for several weeks.

Or, invest in one of the self-watering devices.  A two liter or similar container filled with water is mounted on a plastic or terra cotta pick.  Water moves from the container to the soil as it dries.

Whichever method you choose, give it a try before leaving town to make sure it is working correctly.

A bit more information:  This may be the time you decide to invest in self-watering containers.  These pots have a reservoir that holds the water below the soil.  The water moves from the reservoir to the soil as it dries.  You can also make your own.  Fill a container with water.  Place one end of a fabric strip (serves as a wick) in the soil of your houseplant and the other end in the bucket of water.  Repeat for each houseplant.  The water moves through the fabric strip as the soil dries.  Test before leaving town.

Tags

watering houseplants

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