You want to go on holiday and decide to entrust your pets to certain pensions. But what about your plants? Who will take care of them while you’re away? Here are a few steps to make sure your houseplants don’t dry out during the holidays.

Keeping your plants healthy when you go on vacation is almost as important as packing for travel. It’s hard to let them go after bonding during the year. Discover some tips to preserve your plants and enjoy a well-deserved vacation.

How to Water Your Plants When You Go on a Trip

• An electronic irrigation system.

If you have a lot of plants and your living room and balcony are crowded, the electronic drip irrigation system can be the solution to your problems while you’re away. You don’t need to connect it to a hose or other mechanism, you just need a container with water in the pump and the timer where you will select the watering time (2 times a day, 3 times a week, once every 10 days…) as well as the amount of watering.

• Birds and baby bottles

With this method, you can let the watering of this little device do its job safely.

Each plant will have its own little bird (available at DIY stores or garden centers) that you fill with water and plants in the ground. Be careful, if your soil is stony, the risk of blocking the water outflow is very likely. Be careful to remove all objects that may obstruct the water outlets.

How to Ensure Your Plants Are Fed Before You Leave

• Adjust the light and temperature

The more sunlight your plant receives, the thirstier it will become over time. And this for several reasons. It’s no secret that plants use more water during the transpiration process, the rate of which depends on the amount of light received throughout the day. To prevent your plants from wilting in your absence, you can move them a little away from light sources. Place them in the middle of the room so that the heat and light from the windows don’t dry them out as quickly as usual. Once back, you can place your plants in their usual location. If you don’t want to move the plants, you can also put a curtain over the window.

• Maintain Moisture

If you plan to be away for a week or less, watering the plants thoroughly before you leave will suffice. Be sure to only water plants with dry or nearly dry potting soil. Laissez tout excès d’eau s’écouler de votre plante en pot avant de partir, de sorte que le terreau soit humide mais que vos plantes ne soient pas assises dans une soucoupe d’eau, ce qui pourrait attirer les parasites ou entraîner la pourriture raíces.

Keep in mind that this is only necessary for plants that need to be watered once a week or more. Houseplants that are drought tolerant, such as succulents and cacti, will do well for a week or two without water. And during the winter months, when plant growth slows and some plants go dormant, you may not water them completely.

• Forget about the season ticket

If you use fertilizer occasionally, make sure you don’t fertilize your houseplants until you return from your trip. Above all, don’t fertilize your plants in the weeks leading up to your departure. Your plants will grow as slowly as possible while you’re away, which will help your plants conserve energy and water.

• trim slightly

In addition to pruning dead, dying, or unhealthy foliage, you can cut back buds and flowers that normally require more frequent watering to stay healthy.