My husband’s and my 6th wedding anniversary is coming up at the end of August and we’re planning on visiting the wine country in Paso Robles, CA to celebrate. Wine tasting vacations with your husband should fill you with a sense of anticipation, but instead I feel a tinge of dread. I’ve worked hard all summer long to nurture my vegetable and herb plants, and by late August, I anticipate they’ll still be going strong. Short of hiring someone or burdening a friend with watering duty, what can I do?
Photo by Cromely
To help stave off my vacation anxiety, I’ve started researching possible vacation watering systems. They all seem to rely on a reservoir and a slow drip delivery system.
Plant Nanny Add-A-Bottle
Moisture Absorbing Crystals are what I would have used if I was planning ahead. The crystals absorb moisture when the plants are watered and then slowly release the water back into the soil as the soil dries out. To use them, you mix them into the soil at the bottom of the pot before planting it. I guess it’s too late now to use them. Whoops.
Drip Irrigation Systems
These are the possibilities I’ve found so far. Have you tried any of them, or do you know of another way to keep your plants watered while out of town?
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omg i was just talking about this with my husband this morning. We’re going on a week long vacation pretty soon and I’m worry about my plants as well. I have some of my plants under a DIY drip irrigation system, and I’ve used some moisture absorbing crystals for some. The absorbing crystals work pretty well but I’m not sure if they will last the whole week. For the pots that don’t have crystals or irrigation I think I might just have to use the “plant nanny” and hope for the best!
Hi Fern. Except for the price, the self contained drip system seemed like the best and most reliable. However, you could use it in your container business…advertise as a vacation plant sitter and sort of “rent it out”. But, whatever, set it up early so you can be assured whatever system you use is doing it’s job.
Thanks for the post. J
Happy anniversary!
I’ve used all these things! I find that the Plant Nanny-type gadgets only work for a day or two in hot weather. And the moisture crystals – ditto. (Plus, I’m a little scared of what’s in them – wouldn’t want to use them with edibles). It’s a lot more work to install (and more $) but drip irrigation is where it’s at. My whole balcony is set up that way, plus it’s on a timer (comes on every second morning) so I never have to worry about it — at home or on vacation.
On my south facing balcony in Santa Monica, my plant nannies worked for at least 10 days. Well, nothing *died* after that extended length of time — some plants would be a bit stressed. I would also move plants usually in full sun into a more shady, if less aesthetically pleasing, spot.
One thing that I think is important to extend the longevity of the plant nanny is to give the roots some time to actually *grow* onto the terracotta. So, I would always leave my plant nannies in the pot and not just stick them a day before leaving. This is just my theory, but it’s supported by the observation of lots of roots attached to the plant nannies when I remove them after they’ve been in a container for a while!
Happy Anniversary. Now is that wood or iron or something else? I forget. For times away from the BG (I can’t call them holidays, because they are never breaks to anywhere exotic) I use the tried and tested totally awesome balcony sitter method. Borrow one friend who needs to get away from their own housemates for a while (often said housemates are also parents, even at my age) and let them have free roam of your place, on the proviso they remember your plants. They’ll eat your cupboard bare, use up all your toilet paper and re arrange your DVDs but they mostly remember to water the plants inbetween.
I live in drought in Melbourne where our summer days are scorching (up to about 110 for days on end.) I use a drip timer attached to a faucet, those pot spikes are great too. Maybe get a friend to top up the water bottles twice a week depending on the temp.
Louise–Oh I remember your drip system. I would if it would be cheaper to do it myself or just buy a kit?
Jeannie–That’s a neat idea. I’ve thought about some sort of vacation watering service, but couldn’t figure out a way for it to be worth my while and still charge a reasonable fee.
Heavy Petal–Thanks! Yeah, my first choice would definitely be the drip irrigation. The problem is that there is a walkway between my pots and the faucet, so I’m not sure my landlord would appreciate me draping the tubing all over the place.
Kelle–That’s an interesting point about letting the roots grow on/near the plant nanny. It makes sense.
Prue–Thanks! I have no idea what the traditional gift is for this anniversary. Invariably my we always go wine tasting to a different wine area in California, so it’s always the wine anniversary for us.
The problem with asking someone to water is that I don’t know anyone who would be willing to crash at my place, so asking a friend would mean that they’d have to drive over each day to water. I feel bad even asking someone to do that.
Dani–That’s a possibility. I could ask my mom to come by and top off the plant nanny’s.
I go with the water everything really really well on the day that I leave, move them into the shade, and hope for the best system. Water well and trim any dead foliage on return.
For trips > 1 week, I go with the friend drives over to my house to water well 1x a week (and I hope for the best — that they come water, water enough, etc.)
My plants are in large pots though, and can be moved to shady-ish protected-ish locations. So far, nothing has outright died. But, I also don’t have tempermental vegetables/tomatoes that are ruined by a little drought. And the flowers all come back (even the hibiscus which likes to be evenly moist, not drought/flood. It drops leaves, but comes back.)
So I just got back from nice relaxing week long Napa/Sonoma vacation to find that my dog sitter left my dog outside long enough to demolish every squash and green pepper in sight. So if you get a plant nanny make sure they are responsible…I am still really bummed, I was looking forward to making some butternut squash soup this week
Happy anniversary!
I bought 4 Plant Nannies plus 6 cheapo plastic Lee Valley spike waterers. The Lee Valley ones are much cheaper; the water just gradually leaks into the soil through two small holes in the spike.
Anyway, they ARE kitchy, and a bit of a pain to haul out and refill the bottles, but I love them.
You’re right that it can vary how much water you’ll need. If you’re not confident, you can always double up, but with the plant nannies that can get expensive.
With the Lee Valley ones, you may well be able to double-spike all your big pots when you go away.
At the end of this season, I plan to post a comparative review of the two waterers to my blog, if that’s helpful to anyone…
))
As for the crystals – I don’t trust ‘em. And the drip systems generally seem priced out of my league, plus tricky to set up given my extremely limited time and resources.
The bottle systems seemed just about right: screw in a plastic bottle and forget about it – for a few days, at least!
sdat–Unfortunately there is no where I can move my pots. On the upside, most of them are really large and will stay moist for awhile. But the hot weather we have been having dries most of them out in one day.
Matt–Oh no! That’s horrible! I’m sorry.
Jennifer–That’s a good tip, I’ll try and find the Lee Valley ones. When you publish the review of the two systems, shoot me an email so I definitely see it. I’d love to link to it, obviously this is a topic that a lot of people are interested in.
If you’re feeling extra cheap, lifehacker lists a way to use old wine bottles as a plant nanny.