How to keep flowers, on holiday, having provided them with sufficient watering

Leaves are eagerly awaiting the whole year, they are building grandiose plans, buying tickets, collecting things. And then the question arises: how will the potted flowers be transferred ? If there is no one to look after them, they can easily fall ill and even die. What to do? How to keep flowers for the holiday time healthy?

Departure for a week

If there is a plan to be absent for a period of less than a week, radical measures to support the vital activity of plants can not be undertaken. When they talk about how to keep flowers on holiday, it is primarily about the need for their regular watering. This is especially important for hygrophilous plants. Such as aloe or cacti, can easily survive without regular watering and a couple of weeks. All the rest will be well watered, removed from the window to reduce the drying effect of sunlight. And only the finickiest can be packed in plastic bags.

Long absence

And what if the departure is planned for a longer time, for example, a week or two? In this case, pot plants can not bypass a single watering. They will, again, be removed from the window, best placed in a large container, for example, in a basin. Pour water there, as sometimes did our grandmothers, is not recommended, because for the specified time, the flowers may well rot root system. It is better to organize a kind of drip irrigation. To do this, a capacious container full of water (for example a basin or a pan) needs to be installed slightly above the level of the flower pots. Then from it to each pot stretch out the tows of cloth. Due to the difference in levels, the liquid will gradually flow out of the upper vessel and irrigate the plants. All plants can be wrapped with a film to provide a greenhouse effect. But in this variant there is a minus: at close location plants can exchange diseases. And flowers like cacti or aloe can start to rot. Therefore, it is more correct to pack in packages those plants that especially love moisture. For a long absence, you can provide another way of how to keep flowers on vacation. To do this, in the cork of a plastic bottle you need to make a small hole, through which will gradually drip water. Then the bottle must be filled with water and fixed in an inverted state. Thus, the plant can be fed with moisture for a long time. You can fill the space between the pots and under them with wet claydite. In some cases, use also various devices that can be purchased at a specialized store. Solving the problem of how to keep flowers on holiday, get capillary mats that provide irrigation of plants from below, through the holes in the pots. And, if necessary, you can get a whole system of drip irrigation.

Advice

Returning home, do not immediately remove the plants from the film and return them back to the windowsill. This will be another stress for them. It is better to open the film gradually, for several hours every day, gradually accustoming flowers to new conditions. Any additional fertilizing and transplanting should not be done less than two weeks before departure. And all devices for drip irrigation should be pre-tested to determine the speed of irrigation. Otherwise, it may turn out that the water will flow out too quickly or not at all, but the owners will wait for it.

It is best to cut flowers and buds, and also to thin the leaves. This will reduce the consumption of moisture. And again: just in case when leaving home for a long time, it makes sense to prepare cuttings of the most valuable and favorite flowers and store them in a jar of water. And let the flowers meet you cheerful and cheerful!