How to water flowers during the vacations?

When planning a vacation, consider the garden and who will take care of our flowers in our absence. Before a long trip, it is important to water our flowers properly. How to do it? Here are some proven ways.

Holiday maker’s dilemma: how to take care of flowers?

Many people just before leaving for a long-awaited and well-deserved vacation face the necessity of taking care of house plants, which have been carefully cultivated over the last months. The problem is small when we can rely on family and friends, who will appear in the apartment for a while to water our flowers. It is worse if we cannot count on such help.

It is also worth adding that the question of watering is least urgent in winter when for 2 or 3 weeks you can easily take a break from watering, especially when the heating in the apartment is not strongly turned up. In summer, the matter is more complicated and more dependent on the weather and temperatures.

Not all potted flowers need equal watering

It seems quite obvious, but in practice we are not always sure about preferences of our flowers. Some of them, such as cacti, will probably do without watering throughout the vacation. It is worth remembering, however, that some plants should not be watered “to spare”. They can withstand such a state much worse than a shortage of water lasting for several days.

The less water the flowers lose, the better

The simplest thing you can do to keep the potting medium moist is to try to reduce unnecessary water loss. It is worth, if possible, to move plants from sunny windowsills to more shady places, where evaporation of water is much lower. It is also good to take care of air circulation, e.g. by not closing doors to other rooms.

It is worth using hydrogel

When planning future vacations, it is advisable to mix the soil with a substance known as hydrogel at the planting stage. It makes it easier to retain moisture for a long time, which allows you to water plants much less abundantly and less often. The problem arises if we forget or overlook this during the planting stage. Mixing soil with hydrogel is always a better solution than not doing anything at all.

A bottle of water in the pot

Filling a bottle with water and leaving it unscrewed with the neck of the bottle in the soil is also a solution. The water will gradually be released, and will then be able to water the contents of the pot. You just have to remember to keep the gap to a minimum, otherwise you risk even destroying the plant.

Automatic watering can

If we care very much that the flowers left for the time of the vacation were well and did not wither, a good solution will be an automatic watering can. For such a system we will pay about 200 PLN, but once made investment can be a step in the right direction. How does the automatic watering can work? The system consists of a transformer with a timer, a pump, distribution pipes and various types of water distributors. It needs access to electricity, but can provide irrigation to up to several dozen plants simultaneously. This is a modern and very convenient solution. Maybe it is worth to spend even a few hundred zlotys and be sure, that after coming back from vacations we will find the plants in perfect condition.

Storing plants in a bathtub

This method is not suitable for all kinds of potted plants, of course. Only plants that like humidity can be kept this way. The bathroom where you want to keep your plants should have access to natural light, which is essential for photosynthesis.