House Plants Make Vacations a Challenge

Whether you are going on a vacation this month or not, every plant lover has some occasion to be away from their domain sometimes for two or three days… maybe for ten or 15 days. During such an extended stay, house plants can take a real beating.

The bathtub is a good place for just a few plants to be placed while you are away. Set the plants on top of a thick layer of newspapers in the tub. Run enough water in the tub to cover the bottoms of the pots. Allow this to stand until water has soaked to the top of the soil. Then drain the tub. The moisture retained in the newspapers will keep the plants in good condition for ten days or more.

If your neighbor is coming in to do the watering, it is wise to leave notes on the plants you do not wish to be watered… for example, at this time of the year the Christmas cactus should not receive much water.

If you have been starting delicate cuttings or leaves, or perhaps the tiny seeds of gloxinias, African violets or begonias, you will have quite a problem in finding anyone who has the knowledge to know how to care for such plant babies. Such was the experience of Mrs. MC York of Amarillo, Texas, several years ago. Here is how she solved her problem:

“My good neighbor would feed the dog. And she’d tend my flowers if I asked her, but she is not a plant fancier. I got a disturbing mental picture of her forgetting to water my indoor garden for even one day. Most of the collection would come through a day of neglect, but the started leaves of gloxinias and begonias might not. What if the tiny gloxinia seedlings got dry while I was gone? Any other than the gentlest of moistening from the top could wash them away, and who but another plant enthusiast would understand the need for placing the pots of seedlings in a dish of warm water till they were sufficiently damp?

“I decided to trust my plants to a makeshift Wardian case. Out of storage came my big galvanized tub which I placed on my plant table. Moisture holding material was supplied by several buckets of sand from the children’s sandbox. I pressed each clay pot into the wet sand and covered the tub with a piece of clear polyethylene plastic. I weighted this down with pieces of wood and raised the window blind as high as possible to permit sunlight to get down into the tub. The living room thermostat was set at 75 and I left feeling confident that my plants would survive.

“Six days later the best part of the trip was at hand… coming home. Without pausing even to see what mail had arrived in our absence, I went directly to my wash tub terrarium. When I lifted the plastic cover, the moist, warm smell of growing plants met me. There was not a casualty. Much new growth had taken place in the continuously high humidity. It was a very tender growth however, and had to be gradually hardened. I accomplished this by leaving the cover off, and the plants in the tub for a week. I won’t say it was a pretty Wardian case, but it worked!”

If you must leave your plants often and feel that asking your neighbor to water them is imposing, you can re-pot your plants into wick-fed pots. These containers have a reservoir at the bottom which is filled with water. A wick is run from the pot into the water. With the reservoir full, the plants will need no water for a week or more. I prefer to use sub-irrigation and grow year round indoors in LECA.

Before you leave, check the undersides of leaves, and the crowns of plants to detect possible beginnings of damaging insects… I go organic with neem oil as an insecticide. If such an infestation is not halted before you leave, your plant may be ruined before you return.

by Art McDonald

Related Articles

• House Plants on Vacation - What to Do - When the summer hits many families get away for a little vacation. Before you head out the door you’ll go through the usual… make sure the doors are locked, make arrangements for your mail, have the newspaper picked up, feed the dog, and water the plants… Water the Plants! We go through all these instructions and
• African Violets My Way - Part 2 - Part 1 here Sterilized soil is an absolute must. Today it is easy to buy bagged soil in small quantities or, if you need a lot, you can sterilize the soil yourself by baking it for an hour in an oven set at 180°. After the soil cools, stir it to aerate it; then wait