1. Mini Green House Method: A simple yet effective way of keeping your beloved plants hydrated and healthy. Water your plant as usual. Then all you need is some wooden stakes or aluminium pipes and a transparent or semi-transparent plastic bag. Insert the stakes around the plant leaving some space around it. Then place the bag over and around the plant. It is very important that the plastic cover is transparent or non-coloured to prevent the plant from dying due to heat absorption. This works on a simple concept of evaporation of water. When the temperature is high, the water starts to evaporate and it accumulates by condensing on the inner side of the plastic bag and then it returns back to the soil. This is best suited for medium to large plants and is proven to be effective for up to 1 week when placed in indirect sunlight, but may last lesser when placed in direct sun. And in fact not wise to keep in direct sunlight as it can burn your plant foliage due to excessive heat.
2. Wick Supply: Here is another easy fix for watering all your plants while you are away. Take some cotton rope and soak it in water. Place one end of the rope in an elevated water source and the other end around the plant or bury it on the top soil. The tiny fibres in the cotton rope serve as capillaries and siphon water to the plants by capillary suction. This is helpful to supply water to your plants for a longer duration when you are on a vacation. Whenever the soil dries, it sucks up the required water by capillary action. In this method, the duration of the supply can be controlled by choosing an appropriate size of the water source.
3. Wick Planter: Try this easy DIY wick planter method for small plants and succulents. All you need is an empty soda or water bottle and a small piece of cotton rope to act as a wick. Cut the bottle along the half-length, flip the top part upside down. Cut the rope to the length of the planter and insert it through the top. Pour some potting mix in the top and fill the bottom part with water. Ensure the wick is fully covered in water. There you go, you have your self-watering wick planter ready. This is best suited for small desk and indoor plants and with this method, you plants only need to be watered once every 2 weeks.
4. Water Bath Method: A one-step arrangement to make sure your plants do not feel the heat. Place some water in a wide dish and place the pot in the water bath. Make sure that your pot has lot of drainage holes at the bottom. As water is required by the plant, the tiny air spaces in the soil act as capillaries and transport water upwards to the root system. This is a very frugal arrangement so best suited for plants that do not need much water and the duration of watering in this method, can be varied with the size of the water bath. It is important to note that the water level should not be more than 2 inches from the bottom of the pot and there are sufficient drainage holes at the bottom of the pot.
5. Siphon Method: This is a super easy way of watering your plants. All you need is a small pipe, a stone/small rock as dead weight and a water source – like this air stone used as bubblers in aquariums. Place the water source at an elevated spot. Dip the pipe completely in the water source till it’s filled with water. Without removing the pipe from the water, close one end of the pipe with your finger and move it to the pot. The water will start siphoning from the source to the plant. You can adjust the speed of siphon by varying the height of the open end of the pipe. This is best suited for plants that need a lot of watering and the duration of watering in this methods can easily be varied by choosing the size of the water source.
6. The bottle flip Method: This is a most simple yet very effective way of watering your plants.
All you need an empty plastic bottle. Use a push pin to make some tiny holes in the cap and then place the bottle inverted with the cap side into the soil about 1-2 inches deep. Make sure to place it away from the root system to prevent damage to the roots. This way is most effective for small to medium plants and lasts for up to a week depending on the size of the bottle and size of the holes. This method is Best suited for pots kept in indirect sunlight.
7. A Bonus Build: This can be a great fun activity for your kids and encourage them to take interest in gardening this vacation. This is built using some waste recycled plastic materials. All you need is
– a cleaned up plastic can (make sure to remove traces of whatever was in it),
– a small piece of PVC pipe and
– an old soda bottle.
Take a base of the soda bottle and place it around one end of the pipe. Heat it up with a lighter. It should shrink and clamp around the open edge. No glue needed. use a pin and poke some holes in the bottle base. This will be our spout. Next, cut the edge of the pipe at an angle using a saw blade. Place the inclined cut at the base of our can and mark the outline. Make sure to make a snug cut on the marking. Next insert the pipe into the inlet and use some hot glue to hold it in place. Optionally, color it to get that beautiful look. You are done with your DIY watering recycling your old plastic waste.
Water is really amazing – H2O, made up of hydrogen and oxygen, it’s literally responsible for all life on Earth. Watering your plant is a no brainer, but how much and how often can be more tricky to tell. Luckily, we have a few gardening tips and tricks in this episode on watering for optimum plant health. Watering your plants is key to keeping them healthy, apart from a rich soil and good amount of sunlight.
Today, Let’s solve this Frequently Asked Question in Gardening: How much to water plants, and how often to water plants – what should be the frequency of watering? – The answer to this question is not really easy and depends on a number of factors like the Type of plant, your location or the local climatic zone, the season of the year, the type and size of the container and so on..
Now let’s list out the 12 golden rules of watering your house plants, especially applicable to container gardening. You must remember this very important line – OVERWATERING IS THE MOST COMMON PLANT KILLER THAN UNDERWATERING.
Rule 1: Avoid Water Logging and Stagnation – To avoid this, firstly, you need to have a well draining potting soil mix. Your potting mix must contain atleast 30 to 50 percent of stuff other than just garden soil, like compost, peat moss or cocopeat, perlite, vermiculite, sand and stuff like that. You can check the best potting mix formula here. Then secondly, you must check whether the drainage holes of your containers are patent. Water should freely flow out of the holes, else can be a disaster to your plants.
Rule 2: Checking Top Soil for Moisture: Before you water your plant, make it a habit to check the top 1 or 2 inches of soil using the finger dip method. If it’s completely dry then you need to water your plants. You can also check this using a soil moisture meter or a simple moisture and PH testing gadget like this. But the best gadget is your finger! This is important because drying out of soil just before watering promotes growth of roots.
Rule 3: Water less often, but thoroughly – This is really an important rule. Generally for most plants, its better to water less often but thoroughly. This is always much better than watering more frequently with little quantity of water. The next rule, that’s rule 4, explains this concept better.
Rule 4: Water Must Reach the Roots – Most roots are located deeper near the bottom of the containers. Hence superficial watering with small amounts and even though more frequently will not give you good results. Hence thorough watering and less frequent watering is recommended so that the water reaches the deeper roots till the bottom of the container.
Rule 5: Water late in the evening or early in the morning – In late evenings and early mornings, the soil is cooled and hence less water evaporates than it would, on hot soil during the day. And the plants can sufficiently stock themselves with water for upcoming photosynthesis and the plants will be able to deal better with the upcoming heat of the sun.
Rule 6: Keep the Leaves dry to avoid fungus – Generally for most plants, especially for succulents and cacti, it’s recommended to pour water on the soil and not drench the plant completely due to the risk of fungal disease, but this depends on your local climate and the type of plants. If it’s scorching hot in summer, you can mist or drench some of the plants. But not those plants which store water in their leaves and stem like the succulents and cacti, due to the risk or rot.
Rule 7: Water Gradually and Allow it to go down into the soil, wait and water again till the water comes out of the drainage hole. This is thorough watering and important for deeper roots to receive water. As I already said in rule #3 – less frequent but thorough watering.
Rule 8: If you are on a vacation or want to reduce watering frequency, you can use clayrich soil but smartly. This holds water well and this is the soil used by most nursery guys to water their plants less frequently. But there s always a risk of root rot from water stagnation if you use clayey soil. You can also use water retaining gel crystals like the SAP gel crystals or the super absorbent polymer which are now available as non-toxic safe granules which significantly reduce watering frequency.
Rule 9: Different Watering For Different Plants- This is really important specially if you are a beginner. You have to know the name of your plant and also its care tips like watering requirement, sunlight requirement and stuff like that. Do not hesitate to ask the plant identity and google about its care tips and watering requirement.
Rule 10: Container Gardening Vs Ground Gardening – Watering Requirement and Frequency is different for these two types of gardening. Remember this line: Container grown plants dry out much faster, and hence require greater watering vigilance.
Rule 11: Always Water Your Plant after Repotting: so the plant can settle in and stay hydrated while it establishes itself in its new home.
Rule 12: Rather These are Small Tips Like:
– Plants in large pots dry out more slowly than plants in smaller pots.
– Plants in bright daylight dry out more quickly than plants in low light or indoor plants.
– Humid air keeps soil moist for longer, than dry air.
How much water should I offer to my plant and How Often – what should be the frequency of watering? – The answer to this question is not easy and depends on a number of factors like the Type of plant, your location or the local climatic zone, the season of the year, the type and size of the container and so on..
Before we list out the 10 golden rules of watering for beginners, You must remember this line – OVERWATERING IS THE MOST COMMON PLANT KILLER THAN UNDERWATERING.
Rule 1: Avoid Water Logging and Stagnation – for this you need to have a well draining soil mix and also you must check whether the drainage holes are open.
Rule 2: Check Top Soil for Moisture: Before you water your plant, make sure the top 1 – 2 inches of soil is dry either by using a soil moisture meter or moisture testing gadget or by inserting your finger. The best gadget is your finger! This is important because drying out of soil just before watering promotes growth of roots.
Rule 3: Water less often, but thoroughly – But This also depends on the type of plant. Generally for most plants, its better to water less often but thoroughly. This is always much better than watering more frequently with little quantity of water. The next tip explain this concept better.
Rule 4: Water Must Reach the Roots – Most roots are located deeper near the bottom of the containers. Hence superficial watering with small amounts and even though more frequently will not give you good results. Hence thorough watering and less frequent watering is recommended so that the water reaches the deeper roots till the bottom of the container.
Rule 5: Water late in the evening or early in the morning – In late evenings and early mornings, the soil is cooled and hence less water evaporates than it would on hot soil during the day. And the plants can sufficiently stock themselves with water for photosynthesis and the plants will be able to deal better with the upcoming heat of the sun.
Rule 6: Keep the Leaves dry to avoid fungus – Generally its recommended to pour water on the soil and not drench the plant completely due to the risk of fungus, but this depends on your local climate. If its scorching hot in summer, you can mist or drench some of the plants. But not those plants which store water in their leaves and stem like the succulents and cacti.
Rule 7: Water Gradually and Allow it to go down into the soil, wait and water again till the water comes out of the drainage hole. This is thorough watering and important for deeper roots to receive water. As I already said in rule #3 – less frequent but good watering.
Rule 8: If you are on a vacation or want to reduce watering frequency, you can use clayrich soil but smartly. This holds water well and this is the soil used by most nursery guys to water their plants less frequently. But there s always a risk of root rot from water stagnation. You can also use SAP gel crystals which are now available as non-toxic safe granules which significantly reduce watering frequency. You can watch my experiment video – HERE.
Rule 9: Different Watering For Different Plants- This is really important specially if you are a beginner. You have to know the plant name and its care tips like watering requirement. Do not hesitate to ask the plant name and google about its care tips and watering requirement.
Rule 10: Container Gardening Vs Ground Gardening – Watering Requirement and Frequency is different for these two types of gardening. Remember Container grown plants dry out much faster, and hence require greater watering vigilance.
So there you have it folks, Remember to apply these 10 golden rules whenever you are watering your plants.