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HOUSEPLANT HOLIDAY CARE

- Tips for keeping plants in shape when you’re away.

STORY & PHOTOS: MOIRA WEST

Besides plants, the other love of my life is travel. For the past two years, I have been pouring all the love and resources usually reserved for travel, into plants. This has resulted in me owning an obnoxiously large collection of houseplants, with an equally large feeling of angst at the thought of ever leaving them behind. I know many of us are looking forward to taking trips again in the coming year (fingers crossed!), so I thought I’d share some of the holiday care methods I’ve used while taking local trips.

First off, time of year is important. If you plan on taking your trip during New Zealand’s summer, your plants will be actively growing and will need more water. During winter, you could probably get away with taking minimum precautions, since plants are not growing quickly and don’t need (or want) as much water.

Your plants’ watering needs will depend on your specific setup. If you are using supplemental lighting indoors, for example, then your plants will use more water, even in winter. You’ll know your plants and their needs best.

I have multi-layered approach when it comes to dealing with plant care while on vacation. I use a combination of these methods:

Lessen their needs

I block out most light in the rooms that my plants are in. This is the single most effective thing you can do. Less light means that photosynthesis isn’t happening as fast, and water use goes down drastically.

You can achieve this by partially closing blinds, drawing curtains halfway, or in my case, hanging thick blankets in the roof of my conservatory. If you’re unable to block light in a space, you can also move your plants to a different, more dimly lit room of the house.

If I am going away in summer, I give all my plants a deep watering before blocking out most of the light. In winter, I leave most of them dry, but still block out light. As a rule of thumb, houseplants don’t appreciate cold and wet soil.

Watering hacks

I have a whole arsenal of watering hacks that I actually use full-time for my moisture-loving plants, but these are all super handy when taking a vacation too.

SELF-WATERING TRAYS

These are available from thehydrocentre.co.nz, and they are game changers. They work by allowing plants to draw up the water via capillary matting. As long as the soil at the bottom of the pot is touching the matting, and the tray reservoir is filled with water, your plants will be well watered. Each tray can water plants for up to two weeks – longer if you shade out light.

HYDRO SPIKES

These nifty little spikes are a little harder to set up, but once in action, they are a dream. The spike is pushed down into the soil, into the root zone. The loose end of the tube hangs into a water reservoir (a container of choice). Since the tip of the spike is made from ceramic, it allows the plant to wick up water directly to its roots. Hydro spikes have worked amazingly well for my plants. I engineered a way to hang a water reservoir under the actual plant and now all my hanging plants water themselves.

Setting up a hydro spike is the hardest part, since you have to make sure that there is no air in the spike or tube. I’ve found the easiest way to do this is to assemble them under water (a bucket works well) before inserting them.

An important point to note with hydro spikes is the water reservoir needs to be below the plant. This means the plant will be drawing up water via capillary action, which makes overwatering impossible. If your reservoir is placed above the plant, the system will convert to gravity fed dripping which can cause overwatering in the long run.

If you allow the reservoir to run dry, air bubbles get into the tube, and you’ll have to set the hydro spike up again. If you keep the reservoir filled, your plants can water themselves indefinitely.

DRIPPERS

I prefer to use these on bigger plants such as the fiddle leaf fig and Monstera deliciosa. Unlike self-watering trays and hydro spikes, these drippers work via slow gravity fed dripping. They’ll easily keep a thirsty plant happy, but I only use these during vacations and not full-time since overwatering can be a potential issue in the long run.

Your plants’ watering needs will depend on your specific setup. If you are using supplemental lighting indoors, for example, then your plants will use more water, even in winter.

They are also simple to use. Most bottles fit into the screw mount and you can adjust the frequency of the drips. Don’t forget to make a hole in the bottom of the bottle or the air vacuum in the bottle could cause the water not to drip.

AUTOMATED SPRAYER

I have a greenhouse in my garden that is filled with tropical houseplants. This means I have more options when it comes to watering while I am away. My preferred method is to set a sprinkler in the middle of the greenhouse, connect it to a timer on a tap, and run it for 5-10 minutes every few days (depending on the season), ensuring that the water reaches all the plants.

I also move as many of my other indoor plants into the greenhouse as I can, usually covering most of the floor space. It’s like they’re going on their own tropical holiday, enjoying the occasional monsoon!

I only use this method when I’m on vacation, since typically the plants need more individualistic care and watering than this, but for a week or three, this is fine.

Find a houseplant sitter

Get a “planty” person to check in on your plants – for your own peace of mind. I still ask a friend to check in on my plants every few days just to check that all is well.

Auckland-based Kirstin Collins (@mindmyplants on Instagram) actually offers plant sitting as a service. She is a friend, and my go-to plant sitter since she has many of the same houseplants that I do and I know they will be in good hands.

“My business is similar to having a house cleaner come in, so I have priced myself similar at $45 an hour with a minimum hourly rate,” Kirstin explains. “I can come and see you before you go away and discuss any special requirements, then pop in as agreed while you are away.

“I am in real estate, and part of holding a license which is reapplied for annually requires a police check. I thought this would give people confidence about having me go into their homes while they are away.”

Kirstin got the idea for the business from her own struggles. “We go away twice a year for two to three weeks at a time and I was stressing about what to do with my own plants. I would pop all the thirsty ones in trays in my bathtub with an inch of water in the tray to keep them going, and I give all the others a big drink and close the blinds slightly so they were less exposed to light. Then I got into propagation and growing seeds, and things got more complicated with trying to go away. This is when Mind My Plant was born. I thought there had to be other people in the same boat.”

Whether you plan on asking a friend or hiring a sitter, prepare a list for them or take the time to show them around your place before going on vacation, Kirstin advises.

Ship ‘em out

Leave some of your most special plants with a “planty” friend, or take them with you. Seriously!

I’ve had friends bring me boxes full of their most treasured plants to look after while they had to leave home. They also brought me cake, so I did not complain.

Or, you could be like my plant-crazy Instagram friend Alyce Read (@alyceinthejungle) – incidentally, the winner of NZ Gardener’s Houseplant Hero competition in August – who went on holiday locally and simply took her most treasured plants with her.

Build a wall

My treasured green wall is fully automated and waters itself – it only needs electricity. I have over 50 plants growing on it and I never have to lift a finger to care for them.

If you’re interested in building one of your own,

I have a DIY green wall highlight on my Instagram (@collectionloco). Needless to say, this wall works like a dream when I leave on vacation. All I have to do is prune when I get back.

And finally, accept that you might have a casualty or two – I actually just expect all my plants to die dramatically once I step out of the house, and then I am pleasantly surprised by them being alive, thriving even, when I return.

I also like to think that my plants would want me to enjoy my vacation too – being their parent can be hard work. I reckon I’ve earned that daiquiri on the beach.

I actually expect all my plants to die dramatically once I step out of the house, and I am pleasantly surprised by them being alive, thriving even, when I return.

CONTENTS

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2022-01-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

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