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Potted plant watering

Posted: July 14th, 2019, 4:47 pm
by Nimrod103
Has anyone tried the method of watering potted plants while on holiday using inverted plastic drink bottles filled with water? I saw it on Youtube, with drilling some small holes in the cap, but with one small hole, the water never drains out, and with two, the water drains in 24 hours - I was hoping for 7 days. Any suggestions?

I also have a couple of water globes (with long stems inverted into the compost) from Poundland. These worked the first time and lasted a week, but subsequently they drain in a day. I'm not sure why, is there a secret?

Re: Potted plant watering

Posted: July 14th, 2019, 5:55 pm
by PrincessB
I also have a couple of water globes (with long stems inverted into the compost) from Poundland. These worked the first time and lasted a week, but subsequently they drain in a day.


I had a few of these too. The construction quality is so low, they spring air leaks and drain very quickly.

Have you tried using the inverted plastic drink bottle with the neck rammed with cotton wool, a bit of old sock or some spare cloth?

Re: Potted plant watering

Posted: July 14th, 2019, 8:30 pm
by Sorcery
I haven't tried bottles but have used storage boxes with some success.
I buy shallow storage boxes (say 6 inches deep) for around £4.50, put the pot into the box and fill the box with water up to about 1 inch to to 2 inches depending on the size of the pot. Seems to work for around a week. It may be worth experimenting first.

Re: Potted plant watering

Posted: July 15th, 2019, 10:43 am
by kempiejon
The upended bottle has never worked for me as a slow release, more useful as a way of stopping the water cascading out of my grow bags. I have kept my pots moist whilst on holiday using a capillary system, a strip of rag was pushed into the pot at the edge a few inches into soil, the other end into a bucket. Seemed to get away with it but it might not have been a hot year. With house plants I have done the same arranging them around the bath with rags hanging down into the bath and a few inches of water left in the bath.

I never remember to add the water retaining granules https://www.diy.com/departments/westlan ... 096_BQ.prd I bought the year before when I pot on in the spring but I hear good things about them

Re: Potted plant watering

Posted: July 16th, 2019, 7:40 pm
by Rhyd6
On ebay search for "screw on bottle watering spike" I've used several of these for a number of years now and they seem to work. Last year when it was very hot in June my potted plants were still in the land of the living when we came back from holiday.

R6

Re: Potted plant watering

Posted: July 30th, 2019, 8:28 pm
by Sorcery
Got a chance to test my suggestion of putting pots with plants into large storage boxes partially filled with water. Unfortunately they arrived in the post a day before departure as plugs. So put the plugs into 5 inch pots with compost, watered them, and put them into the storage boxes outside. Asking around on my return it had been very hot, into the 30s centigrade.
When I got home and examined the plants, 6 were brown and look as if they have had it, 6 made it through OK. Possibly the damage was done because the plug deepest roots were not below the water line (but why didn't the compost wick the water?), possibly because the heat was outside the plant's "envelope". The same plant planted outside in soil, a lot earlier in the year however seemed to suffer the same approximate damage. Probably should have left them in shade.