Plant Watering While Away
September 29, 2022 7:06 PM   Subscribe

I would like to find a way to water my plants without human intervention -- for about 2.5 weeks. I am currently trying out the method of using a wicking material placed in a container of water and then into the soil to slowly water them (as per google), but it doesn't seem to be working. Anyone have a method that worked that they could share?
posted by nanook to Home & Garden (14 answers total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
The somewhat expensive Blumat system uses gravity (or a spigot if you need/want more water), thin tubing, and special valves which only open when your preferred dryness point is passed.

The Plant Nanny is a terracotta spike that screws onto a common standard plastic bottle filled with water. The porous terracotta lets the water soak through gradually and into only dry soil.

Sustainable village has some other drip irrigation systems, but I'm not sure any of them are this cool :)

You can also DIY one or more ollas, (please look around for instructions that match your goals) which is essentially some kind of terracotta (unglazed pottery) filled with water and buried next to plants. This is essentially the principle of the Plant Nanny, but with more space required underground. For house plants, though, you may not have enough space in the pot to accommodate them.
posted by amtho at 7:29 PM on September 29, 2022 [1 favorite]


My indoor plants (sitting on a windowsill in 32oz containers) have done well with these water globes - if I'm gone for longer than a week I do two globes per plant. They've survived up to 2 weeks with me being away, plus copious water right before I left and right after I got home. If your plants are relatively sturdy they should be OK.
posted by sleepingwithcats at 7:30 PM on September 29, 2022 [3 favorites]


Water well, let the soil drain, and cover the whole plant and pot in a clear garbage bag, not totally sealed, to slow evaporation. Lessen their light a little bit to slow photosynthesis - so pull them back from the window a bit or move them from direct to indirect light. Doing these two things means they lose less water, and they use less water. So they need less water.

My plants were absolutely RUDE about how much they thrived without me when I did this.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 7:30 PM on September 29, 2022 [10 favorites]


What kind of plants and how many? Many plants can go that long without water, especially if you give them a good soak before you go.

You could also do the thing where you put them in a tub with some water on a towel (number 3 here).
posted by bluedaisy at 7:31 PM on September 29, 2022 [3 favorites]


What plants? Most houseplants will do fine for that long without being watered at all.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:31 PM on September 29, 2022 [7 favorites]


I've had good luck with a DYI slow drip on occasion. Take a small plastic bottle, use a sewing needle to make a tiiiny hole in the cap, cut the bottom of the bottle halfway off so there's a flap. Fill the bottle from the bottom around the flap and turn it on its cap into the plant. Experiment with bottle size and hole size until you have the drip rate you want. Try to keep it in the shade - sometimes the hot sun will close the hole in the cap somehow.

I have found that the nice watering globes that sleepingwithcats linked are good for very large plants, but the drip rate is too fast for small plants, ymmv.
posted by gemmy at 7:42 PM on September 29, 2022


I've only had outdoor plants but have used similar water globes as those posted above for about two weeks or so, even in really warm weather. Mine didn't drip very fast because I always (and not on purpose) inserted them incorrectly, filling the stem with a bit too much dirt. You want to make sure you get one that has a stem sized for your plant, so it doesn't tip over, though.

I also have had success with self waterers which might last a couple of weeks indoors.

(I realize these are things to purchase rather than methods but I am more in the "throw money at it" boat these days.)
posted by sm1tten at 8:04 PM on September 29, 2022


How much money are you willing to spend?

Something like this auto drip system that supports up to 15 plants is less than $40 on Amazon, claims to just need 4 AA batteries and a large tank for the water. You basically get 15 stakes and hoses to daisy-chain them and the pump inside the unit will just pull water out of the tank and feed it to all 15 connections for up to a month with 33 ft hose.

There are smaller versions that handles 10 plants too.
posted by kschang at 11:07 PM on September 29, 2022


I have one of those auto-drip systems that can take 15 plants, charges by micro-USB and goes longer than 2 weeks on a charge when set to water for 15 minutes once a day. Basically my 30-litre bucket ran out faster than the battery, with all plants at floor level so that the pump didn't have to strain to pump up. Cost me about $40 as well.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 11:14 PM on September 29, 2022


Seconding bluedaisy and SaltySalticid- I have a ridiculous number of houseplants and they only get watered every 2-3 weeks as is, even less in winter. Most plants really do prefer to dry out between waterings and then to get a total deluge (with exceptions, of course). If you have plants that sit right in a bright window or in a really hot part of your house, maybe move them back from the window a couple of feet or into a cooler but similarly lit part of the house (unless you have a ficus, which in my experience will drop all of its leaves if you dare to so much as move it a couple of inches).

I only have a couple of plants I would worry about in this situation because they like to stay a bit more damp- fittonia and tradescantia. I do the wet towel in a bath thing for these if I'm going to be gone a while, but I use one of those clear plastic storage bins instead because my bath is in a dark corner.
posted by cilantro at 1:49 AM on September 30, 2022 [2 favorites]


I have had great success just jamming a long-necked glass bottle full of water into the soil beside my indoor potted plants; it's the same concept as a watering bulb but cheaper. Pretty much any sort of used glass bottle (beer, wine, vinegar, etc.) will work, but a typical PET plastic bottle will not. In just-watered soil, a 12 oz bottle will take over a week to empty; a 750 mL one might last your whole trip. I insert the bottles a day ahead of time to make sure that the water is seeping out gradually rather than flooding out all at once.
posted by nanny's striped stocking at 7:01 AM on September 30, 2022 [1 favorite]


I am currently trying out the method of using a wicking material placed in a container of water and then into the soil to slowly water them (as per google), but it doesn't seem to be working

There are two ways to do this: one where the container of water is directly below the pot, and one where it's somewhere near, and higher up than, the pot. If you've been using the second method I'd try the first. You take a tupperware-type of container, punch some hole(s) in the lid, thread the wick(s) through the holes and jam them up the drainage holes in the pot with a chopstick or kebab stick or such, such that the pot is now mounted to the lid. Then fill the container with water and place the lid/pot on top of the container. Works very well, although since different plants need different amounts of water, you'll ideally want to experiment with how many wicks to use (often one is enough for a small-to-medium sized, not-too-thirsty plant) and how far up into the soil to insert them; too much watering can be as bad as too little. It also only works with pots with drainage holes, and ones that aren't too heavy to manipulate and balance on top of your container.

Advantages of this way are that the wick doesn't get much of a chance to dry out on its way to the soil, and that with a big enough container you can go much longer than 2.5 weeks - for months IME, if your plant is okay with a constant level of moisture in the soil and doesn't need a chance to dry out. Disadvantage: setting up the wicks can be fiddly and a little messy. Do it when the soil in the pot is already wet.

That said, 2.5 weeks really should be okay for most plants, depending on your humidity levels and sun exposure.
posted by trig at 7:42 AM on September 30, 2022


I had success with the Plant Nanny mentioned above (terra cotta spikes that I put old wine bottles full of water in) last month. I used two per plant for my potted strawberry and potted cherry tomatoes while I was on vacation for 2 weeks, and the plants did okay (the strawberry actually thrived, but that might have been the weather change since they're on my balcony.)
posted by kittensyay at 9:28 AM on September 30, 2022


Last time I was gone for about 10 days I stuck all the plants in the bathtub the night before departure, turned on the overhead shower, soaked really well and let everything drain. Then I plugged the drain and filled the tub so everything had just enough water at the base so that it would probably evaporate on its own within 48 hours (didn't want to drown the roots). I put the ones that like to be a little drier on the shallow side, and the moisture loving ones in the slightly deeper water, but none of it was deeper than about an inch (it's dry here, so an inch evaporates pretty quick). In line with nouvelle-personne's comments, this was a more dim and more humid space than they were used to, and it was disgusting how happy they looked on my return.
posted by deludingmyself at 7:52 PM on September 30, 2022


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