Summer arrives, you pack your suitcase… and suddenly it hits you that nobody is going to look after your pots. Knowing how to water plants while on holiday is the difference between coming home to a small oasis or to a graveyard of dry leaves. The good news: with a homemade watering system and a few minutes of preparation, your plants can manage on their own for a week or two without any trouble. In this guide you will find simple tricks, from watering plants with bottles to drip irrigation, so your houseplants and your terrace are still green when you get back.
Get your plants ready before you go
Before you even think about watering systems, half the work is in preparing them properly. A few quick steps on the day you leave make an enormous difference:
- Water thoroughly on the day or the evening before, until water drains from the holes at the bottom.
- Group them all together somewhere cool and bright but out of direct sun. Together they create a humid microclimate and dry out more slowly.
- Remove spent flowers, fruit and dry leaves: the plant will use less water.
- Cover the soil with a layer of mulch, gravel or even a damp cotton cloth to slow evaporation.
- Move pots away from very sunny windows and lower the blinds a little.
With this alone, many hardy plants sail through a long weekend without needing anything else.
Watering plants with bottles: the easiest trick
The star method, because it is simple and cheap. Take a plastic bottle, fill it with water and make one or two small holes in the cap with a hot needle. Turn it upside down and push it into the soil of the pot, beside the stem. The water will seep through gradually as the soil dries out.
Match the flow to the size of the bottle and the plant: a 33 cl bottle is enough for a small indoor pot, while a 1.5 or 2 litre one keeps a large terrace plant hydrated for several days. Run a test a couple of days before you leave to see how long it lasts: that way you calibrate the holes and avoid any surprises.
A homemade drip irrigation system
If you are going away for more than a week or you have a lot of pots, it is worth setting up homemade drip irrigation. The most practical options are:
- Ceramic or terracotta cones: they screw onto a bottle and release water according to the moisture in the soil. Very reliable.
- Glass watering globes that you push into the soil and which release water little by little.
- Drip kits with a reservoir: a large bucket of water, thin tubes and drippers that serve several pots at once.
These systems are ideal for tomato plants, herbs and terrace plants that drink heavily in the middle of July. If you want to set your home up so it practically looks after itself, our selection of home and garden accessories has practical solutions for everyday use.
The wick or cord trick
Capillary action is your ally. Place a container of water (a bucket or a jerrycan) higher than the pots and connect each plant with a thick cotton cord: one end in the water, the other buried in the soil. The cord draws water up and delivers it to the pot as it is needed. It works brilliantly for houseplants and it is almost impossible to overwater.
How to water houseplants while on holiday
Plants indoors have it easier: less heat and less evaporation. To work out how to water houseplants while on holiday, group them in the bathroom or the kitchen, on damp towels, and water them thoroughly before you head off. A tray of water and expanded clay pebbles under the pots keeps the ambient humidity up for days.
Another option for short absences is to stand the pot in a basin with a couple of centimetres of water: the plant takes up what it needs from below. Just do not do this with cacti or succulents, which prefer drought to too much water.
How many days can they last without water?
It depends on the plant, the pot and the heat, but as a rough guide: cacti and succulents can happily go two or three weeks; green houseplants around a week if well prepared; and terrace plants in full sun, which suffer the most, usually need a drip system if you are away for more than three or four days. Combine several tricks depending on your plants and do not put all your eggs in one basket.
Come home without any nasty surprises
Watering plants while on holiday is no mystery: water thoroughly, group them in the shade and pick the method that fits the number of days you will be away, whether that is a bottle, a dripper or a wick. Half an hour of preparation means coming back to a green home instead of a disaster. If you want to set up your plant corner or get the house ready for the holidays, take a look at our shop and head into summer with everything sorted.