A Vacation Paradise for Your Plants

Gentle Waters | Warm Breezes | Softly Falling Rain

There are a number of things you can do. We've listed a few here, and I'm sure your colleagues have a lot more to add.

Gentle Waters
The key to success lies in planning your water system from the beginning. It is not the frequency of watering, or which child is watering when, rather it'stalking how these plantsreceive their water.

The secret lies in the wick. Wicks are simple. Use cotton string or a strip of handy wipes. They need to be put in the pot before you plant. Have the wick stick about half way up the middle (approx.) of the pot, and let it hang out the bottom as long as you need it.

The next most important thing is the water source. You can use just about any container as long as the pot sits above it and not in it. If you place your pot in the water the dirt will stay very wet and the roots will probably rot. You need to have the pot above the water and let the wick carry the water up to the plant.

At the simplest level, if you have a large pot in a planter dish, put some stones in the dish to hold the pot up and fill the dish with water. Be sure to keep the water level below the bottom of the pot.

Now a little more complicated way would be to have some plastic containers - shoebox size is nice, but any size will do. Put something on top with holes in it - an old barbecue grill, a cake rack (remember them?), a piece of plastic sturdy enough to hold the plants, with some holes poked through it, so the wicks can hang down. A nice self contained waterer can be made from margarine or ice cream tubs, or plastic deli containers. Poke a hole in the lid for the wick. The lid helps retard evaporation.

The deluxe model also uses plastic shoe boxes, but needs another piece of equipment - a piece of felt. Cut the narrow end of the shoebox lid off so it is about ½" to 1" shorter than the box. Cut the piece of felt as big as the lid, with a flap that hangs down to the bottom of the shoebox through the cut end of the lid. The felt acts as a wick and connects with the piece of string or handy wipe when you place the plant on top of the lid.

These watering systems are great whether it's vacation time or not. No real problem with over watering - Did I remind you NOT to use this system with your cactus? The frequency of watering is cut way down as well. Just fill up the reservoirs as needed - often only once every couple of weeks, depending on the heat and humidity of the room and the size of the plant and the size of the reservoir. With all these factors, it's a wonder that we can ever water them "just enough" without such a system.

Warm Breezes
Well, you don't want to fry them, but you don't want to freeze them either. Most plants are pretty hardy and a few days of chilly weather just doesn't hurt them. That's MOST plants, not all. Just in case you have one of the finicky ones, you should know there's a solution. You need an incandescent lamp and a timer. The light bulb will give off enough heat. The secret is in determining how close you need to put the plant. You don't want to cook it by placing it too close.

There are two ways to check this. The scientific way, where you put a thermometer under the lamp when it is adjusted to different heights and determine the optimum. Most of us are usually doing this at the last minute. We just hold our hands under the lamp and adjust it until it's "just right, " i.e., warm, but not burning.

You'll need to set the timer based on what you think the temperature is going to be and how much additional light will affect the plants. It's a balancing act.

Whatever you do, you don't want to place the lamp under plastic or anything where there's a chance a fire could start by the plastic coming in contact with the lamp.

Softly Falling Rain
For those humidity loving plants, you know the ones - you have to mist them all the time, or they die in your hot, dry classroom - only a tent will help. Put them together and drape them in clear plastic. You might want to put a couple of chairs on a table. Put the plants on the table. Drape the plastic over the table, held up by the backs of the chairs. Mist them lightly before you swathe them in plastic. Keep in mind that the temperature will raise in the tent. So, if you're doing this in the summer, don't place this set up in a window where the sun is beating down and will roast the plants.