Watering Plants On Vacation: Diy Watering Ideas

How do you water your plants when you’re on vacation? With these four simple DIY watering ideas, your plants will get enough water for a few days without anyone having to worry about them.

If you’re often away for a few days or even a week or two, then one of these four ideas might be suitable for you. With them you can water your plants while you are on vacation.

watering cord: easy watering for smaller plants

For smaller plant pots, this simple trick is suitable. For this you need a water container, such as a measuring cup or pot from the kitchen, and a piece of woolen string.

• Fill the container with water and soak the woolen string in it.
• Then bury one side of the wet string near the roots to half the height of the pot.
• Put the other side of the woolen string into the water container.
• If your plant needs water and the soil becomes dry, it will draw water out of the container via the wet wool string. This way you can water your plants while you are on vacation for a few days.

This trick is especially good for any plants in smaller pots. The pots should be no larger than 20 inches. When you fill your water container with water, you need to make sure that there is enough water for the different types of plants and the time period. So estimate approximately what the plants will need in water during the period of your absence. Also, use a cord made of real sheep’s wool or cotton. A cord made of synthetic fibers or blended fibers is not suitable for this purpose.

You can also pass the wet wool string through a straw, then the string will not dry out. It is best to use sustainable straws. You can find straws made of reusable materials such as stainless steel, bamboo or glass.

irrigation through inverted bottles

For this trick, all you need is an old glass bottle with a narrow neck. If the neck of the bottle is too thick, too much water could get into the soil and waterlogging could occur.

Fill the bottle with water, quickly turn it over and stick the entire neck of the bottle into the soil. The bottle should be near the center of the pot. The water will simply seep into the soil through the inverted bottle when it becomes dry. Depending on how much water the plant needs, this trick will keep the soil moist for a few days.

You can also leave the lid on your bottle and drill small holes in it. This way you reduce the watering. Especially for plants that do not need a lot of water, but need it continuously, you should therefore make the lid with holes on the bottle.

This trick is suitable for almost all types of plants. Some succulents, such as cacti, do not need water regularly and do not like moist soil. Therefore, for cacti, you should rather use the first watering idea, as they can water themselves with the woolen string. Also, depending on the size of the plant and water needs, you can adjust the volume of water in the bottles. For particularly large flower pots, you can also use several bottles for watering.

Buried PET bottle for plant watering

For this trick you need an old PET bottle and it’s especially suitable for larger flower pots.

Make small holes in the PET bottle. These can be spaced at regular intervals or completely random.
Cut off the top part of the bottle neck. This will make it easier for you to fill the bottle with water. Then bury the bottle with the opening facing upwards and let it peek out of the ground a little. You should position the bottle in the middle of the pot or close to the roots of the plant. Depending on which part of the bottle you cut off, the bottle will be right side up or upside down.
Fill the bottle with water through the opening. Now the water can slowly seep through the holes into the soil.
By digging the bottle in, evaporation will be reduced on warm days and the water supply will last longer. This trick is only suitable for large flower pots, as the bottle takes up a lot of space. Therefore, for smaller types of houseplants, you should resort to one of the first two ideas.

watering with old clay pots.

With two old unglazed clay pots, a few shards of clay and some silicone, you can build a good irrigation for raised beds. By the way, you can also build the raised bed yourself. You can find out how to do it here: Build your own raised bed: Simple instructions with helpful tips.

• Coat a piece of clay with silicone and glue the bottom hole of the first pot shut.
• Then coat the top of the pot with silicone and glue the second pot upside down on top of the first. This construction must dry until the silicone is solid.
• Then fill water through the hole in the top of the second pot and see if the construction holds tight.
• Bury the whole thing in the soil so that only a piece of the top pot is sticking out.
• Now fill the pot with water.

The unglazed and porous clay pots allow water to pass through slowly and water the plants. Depending on how large your raised bed is, you may need several of these designs. You’ll also need to adjust the amount of water in the pots individually to your bed and the plants it contains. However, this trick is suitable for all plants in the raised bed. The advantage of the pots is that you do not have to water so often and the water does not evaporate so quickly on hot days. So you not only save water, but also can go away for a few days without worrying.

With all four tips you avoid waterlogging. The plants fetch their own water via the wool cord or only as much water seeps into the soil as it can absorb.

By the way: If you want to replant your balcony, you can buy balcony boxes that have a water reservoir right from the start. The roots will grow until they reach the water reservoir. You can fill it up and the plants can absorb the water from the reservoir through the roots.