The One-Week Vacation Plant Checklist

Seven days out: the budget and the rehearsal

Count your pots by diameter and work out the water each one needs for the trip. A 6-inch tropical houseplant takes about 350 ml per thorough watering at once or twice a week, so a ten-day trip is roughly 700 ml to 1.4 liters per plant. The full table by pot size is on the methodology page.

Then install whatever you are using and start the rehearsal. This is the single most valuable item on this list. Every duration in this category, including ours, depends on your soil, your room and your plants, and a week of watching converts an estimate into a fact. You are checking for two failures: a device emptying far faster than predicted, and a device whose reservoir has not moved at all - which means it never started.

Days six to three: watch and correct

Check the reservoir level daily and the soil every couple of days. If a terracotta spike has barely moved, it probably was not soaked and de-aerated properly - pull it, soak it for fifteen minutes, knock the air out under water and reseat it. If a globe emptied in a day, it was likely inserted at an angle, which widens the air path.

If a drip system is running, put a measuring cup under one emitter for a full cycle so you know exactly what it delivers. Then check every other emitter is actually dripping. A single clogged emitter is invisible and fatal to one plant.

Two days out: cut the demand

This is the free half of the job and it is worth more than most purchases. Virginia Cooperative Extension lists temperature, humidity and light intensity among the factors that change how much water a plant needs, so:

• Move every plant out of direct sun and away from radiators, vents and appliances. An interior spot with indirect light can roughly halve water use.
• Group the pots together. They raise the humidity around each other, which slightly reduces transpiration, and it means one rig serves them all.
• Skip fertilizer. Feeding pushes new growth, and new growth drinks more. It also raises the salt concentration in the mix at exactly the wrong time.
• Deadhead and remove any large damaged leaves. Less leaf area is less transpiration.
• Do not repot. A freshly repotted plant has disturbed roots and an unsettled moisture profile, and it is the worst possible time to leave it.

The morning you leave

• Water every pot thoroughly - wet the mix all the way through and let it drain until it stops dripping. This is what Virginia Cooperative Extension means by thorough, and a half-hearted top-up is worse than useless.
• Empty every saucer within the hour. Extension guidance is that a container should not stand in water for more than 60 minutes. A full saucer is a rot risk, not a reserve.
• Top up every reservoir, jug and bottle to the fill line.
• Close the blinds on the sunniest window. Less light means less water use and a cooler room.
• Set the thermostat somewhere moderate. A hot empty house dries pots dramatically faster than an occupied one at normal temperature.
• Photograph the setup on your phone. If you have to talk a neighbor through it by message, you will be glad of it.

When you get back

Do not water immediately out of relief. Check the soil first - if the rig worked, the mix will be moist and adding more is how a successful trip turns into root rot. Move everything back to its usual position gradually rather than straight into full sun, because plants acclimated to two weeks of dim light will scorch.

Then note what actually happened. If your 2-liter bottle lasted nine days rather than the twenty the arithmetic suggested, that is your number now, and it is more useful than ours.