3 min readSummer is here, and there’s so much to anticipate—the camping trip with your college friends, the family reunion a few states away, the weekend voyage to a bucket-list town nearby. The only thing that can ruin your good time? Coming back home to an assortment of crispy, sad houseplants.
If you can't enlist a pal to come over and care for your green babies, water well before you leave (meaning water should run out through the drain holes of the pot), then follow our tips to ensure everyone’s still alive and well when you return.
Leave Succulents Alone
Succulents, such as Echeveria, jade plant, Haworthia, and snake plant, won’t need any coddling while you’re away. It's a major reason to love them! They can go up to two weeks or more without water, so give them a drink before you go, and don’t worry about them too much. They’re great choices if you travel often.
Fill the Bathtub
“If you have lots of houseplants, put them together in the bathtub, then fill the tub with 1 to 2 inches of water,” says Barbara Pleasant, author of The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual. “It’s an old-school solution, but it works if you’re going to be gone for a week or ten days.” Make sure to pull the saucer away from the pot (and that the pots have holes in them!) so the plants can wick water up through the drain holes. Just a few pots? Try the same trick in the kitchen sink.
Adjust indoor conditions
No matter the season, most plants tend to like moderate conditions, so tweak your heat or AC accordingly. Because most houseplants are tropical in origin, they prefer temperatures between 55 and 80 degrees. If indoor conditions are super-dry in winter, try grouping plants on a tray of pebbles and filling it with water to boost the humidity level. They’ll benefit each other by being closer together. It also helps to draw the shades or sheers, or pull them back from the window, so they’ll use less water, says Pleasant.
Group Outdoor Plants Together
Outdoor pots can be grouped in the shade, which buys you an extra day or two before they’ll need to be watered, according to the Kansas State Extension Service. Even sun lovers can tolerate shade for about a week or so. Groupings also help reduce transpiration and evaporation, which are affected by temperature, humidity, and light levels. So, in the shade, they’ll be able to go more days between drinks.
Water Automatically
Set up a sprinkler on a timer to water the pots you’ve grouped together. Another option is to install a drip irrigation kit, which is easy to assemble and customize to your specific container. Or create an inexpensive, simple system with a water-wicking cord that goes from a water bucket to each plant, suggests Cornell University Cooperative Extension.
Set Up a Kiddie Pool
A variation on the bathtub solution is to place your outdoor pots together in a kiddie pool with about three inches of water in it. Again, it’s best to do this in the shade so they’ll use less water, and yep, make sure the saucers are removed so the plants drink through the container’s drain holes.
Opt for self-watering options
For pots or window boxes you can't group together, try watering globes, which are glass balls filled with water, then turned upside down in the containers. The water drips slowly into the pot. Although watering this way tends to be uneven, it’s better than nothing. You can accomplish basically the same thing by using an old plastic jug or bottle with holes poked in it, submerged in the soil, then filled with water. Self-watering pots are another option if you travel frequently—or often forget to water! That way, your plants wick up the water they need without any help from you.
