Vacation Care For House Plants

Just as your sorting out plans for taking a vacation you realize “Who is going to make sure my beloved African Violet and Madagascar Dragon Tree gets enough water?”. Vacation care for house plants is not something to forget.

If you’re fortunate enough to have a family member or friend come to visit your home to make sure everything is ok, they can follow your care advice for plants you own. However, if you’re leaving your plants home alone for 2 weeks or more there are a few things you can do to keep them happy.

All plants will be fine for 7 – 10 days and can cope with having a good watering before you leave. It’s only after about 10 days you need to make sure most of them have more water. Flowering-type plants are more of a concern than many of the foliage types because they drink much more water and most require very moist soil, unlike foliage types.

Someone Visiting To Help Care For Your Plants

You are most likely going to need to leave a few instructions for the person planning to visit your home while you’re on holiday. This will prevent them from giving your plants too much or little of something. It’s useful to leave these instructions because some people think all plants need a good soaking, which is not the case.

Leave a list of plants that need watering, how often, and how much. I would avoid feeding while on holiday which plants won’t mind (it’s best they have less than too much fertilizer). You can put a sticky note numbering each one on the pot and leave advice for each one on a note with numbers that correspond with the sticky notes.

Useful Watering Methods To Use

If you don’t have anyone to help you care for your plants while you are on vacation then another option is creating a bed of moist peat in trays and placing the plants in a shaded spot on the trays. Even plants that require bright light or direct sunlight will be fine for a couple of weeks in a shaded spot. Giving the plants less bright light will reduce the amount of water they need, however, make sure you check the care instructions for each species first, just in case the light reduction could be harmful.

You can also create a wick from a strip of capillary matting (or other material) coming from a water container into a hole created in the potting soil. The wick will provide a small amount of water constantly from the container to the soil. It’s not going to provide the amount they really need, but it can provide enough while you’re away.

A capillary mat can be used by trailing a section into a sink with the plants sitting on the other part of the mat in the draining area. If you plan to place the plants on a capillary mat – make sure the water can be soaked up by the potting soil. This mat transfers water from the sink or bowl to underneath the pots. This won’t work on pots with pebbles or broken clay at the bottom, because the soil cannot soak up the water. It’s also not the best method for plants in clay pots, because the pot is porous and soaks up water and it evaporates quicker than plastic.

Other devices can be bought such as water spikes and aqua globes or you can learn how to make a water feed. These water feeds can be made from a plastic bottle or bag with a small hole that allows a small amount of water to leak out, similar to an IV drip. The water feed is placed in or on top of the soil so the water can then drip out slowly.

Plants That Don’t Require Much Watering

If you are away from home very often then you may want to consider house plants that can go without water for quite some time. Cacti and succulents are the obvious choices that can survive without water for months. Other plants like dracaenas, aspidistras, and palms can go without water for 3 – 4 weeks at a time.

Winter Vacations

You will not have the same problem with most plants during the winter regarding water. They are not actively growing and the reduced amount of daylight reduces the amount of water needed. The main concern is the temperature when thinking about vacation care for house plants. If you can keep the room temperature above 60°F (15°C) even tender plants will be fine.

Other Guide’s That May Interest You!

• Plants temperature guide »
• Guide for watering house plants »
• Plants lighting guide »
• Guide for humidity levels »
• Fertilzing instructions »
• Cleaning advice »
• Propagation methods and instructions»
• The benefits of growing house plant’s indoors »

Elyssa Goins

Elyssa Goins is an experienced house plant hobbyist who maintains over a hundred plants. She is a gardener, beekeeper, and a proud mother of four.  She is a member of the American Horticultural Society, has a published study in the National Social Science Association, and loves to talk about her love of plants.  For the past twenty years, she’s been all about growing and caring for various fruits, veggies, herbs, livestock, kids, and houseplants. Managing a big garden to feed four growing kids and raising dairy goats has taught her so much about being an excellent plant parent and now is her time to share with you.