How to Water Plants When You're Not Home? Practical Watering Methods Shared
With the Spring Festival long holiday approaching recently, many plant lovers are worried, because they are going back to their hometown for the New Year, but they also worry that their plants at home will dry out and die because no one will water them for so long. Actually, it's not just the Spring Festival - sometimes when you want to travel or take a long trip, you always feel uneasy about those few plants at home. It would be great if there were a way to automatically replenish water for the plants. Don't worry, QinNongWang is here to introduce several "no-one watering methods" for everyone.
1. Bag-covering method
When we are about to leave, water the plants thoroughly first, then cover the entire plant with a plastic bag. Be careful not to cover it too tightly - give the plant some room to breathe, otherwise it may develop diseases from being too stuffy. The principle of this method is to collect the water evaporated by the plant for reuse. The evaporated water forms droplets on the plastic bag, and the droplets return to the soil for the plant to use.
2. Sand-burying method
This method is usually more suitable for small plants; if they are too big, it's hard to manage. Take the plant directly out of its pot and bury it together with the soil into a moist sand pot. To ensure the sand stays moist, we can also poke a few small holes in a mineral water bottle filled with water and bury it in the soil as well.
3. Sitting-pot method
This method is the same as the one above, and is more suitable for small potted plants. The method is to prepare a large basin, put the potted plant directly into the large basin, then water the potted plant thoroughly, and afterward add water to the large basin. The water level in the large basin should not exceed half the height of the potted plant's soil. In this way, according to the principle of connected vessels, the bottom of the pot will stay moist, while the upper soil will not become too wet.
4. Diversion method
This is the simplest method in QinNongWang's opinion. Just choose a towel with good water absorbency, place a basin of water next to the flower pot, put one end of the towel in the water and bury the other end into the soil of the flower pot. This way, water can be supplied to the flower pot through the towel. Isn't it easy?
5. Drip irrigation method
This method is also relatively easy to carry out. Hang a bottle of water above the flower pot, drill a small hole in the bottle mouth, and replenish water to the soil in the flower pot in the form of water droplets. However, the difficulty of this method is that it is not easy to control the speed of the water flow. If the hole is large, the water may finish dripping before you even leave; if the hole is small, the water may not drip out at all. Later, an enhanced version of the drip irrigation method was thought up, which is to directly insert the water upside down into the soil, still without making the hole too large, and replenish water to the soil through seepage.
The above are the "no-one watering methods" collected by QinNongWang for everyone. QinNongWang would like to add one more point here: actually, most plants are in dormancy in winter and do not have a great demand for water. When using the above methods to water, we must pay attention to moderation, especially for some plants that are relatively drought-tolerant but not flood-tolerant. For those, watering thoroughly just once is enough. After all, letting a plant dry out for two days is better than drowning it, right?