How your plants survive your vacation or absence
Most houseplants can survive a week without your proper care. Especially if you take some extra measures. If you are going away from home for a longer period of time, for example on holiday or for hospital treatment, outside help is welcome. View these tips to help the person who takes care of your plants in your absence. So that you will find your houseplants alive and kicking when you return.
Organize houseplants by plant species
If the number of your houseplants and the available space allow it, place plants together as much as possible according to care requirements in terms of water and light. For example, you can place all succulents and cacti together, plants that need a lot of water and everything in between. Your succulents and cacti probably won't need any water at all while you're away, and putting them together makes it clearer that the whole group doesn't need water. Because too much water is disastrous for most plants and especially for these plants. Feed the houseplants that need plant food the day before you leave, so that your babysitter does not have to worry about it.
Leave instructions
Write a short instruction, stating details, such as a plant that needs extra water or where the watering can is located. Mail or print this instruction, but do not place it anywhere in view of a window without window coverings. This way you don't give anything away to any burglars who look inside and otherwise see that you are probably not home. The same goes for attaching memos to the plant pots. Make sure that they can be seen as little as possible from window sides.
Walk through your houseplant collection with your sitter
Go through the care of your houseplants with the plant sitter. You may say little water, but how much is that? 'Pour water 1 second or 3 seconds' makes it more clear. Don't you have an opportunity to discuss it with each other? Then maybe make a short video of how you normally water your plants. There are also professional babysitting centers that (often in addition to pets) also take care of plants. In this case, an appointment is often made in advance to go through everything. On Google use search terms as plant babysitter, house babysitter, plant shelter or animal babysitter to check whether there is someone active in your area. Be careful when informing, and do not tell just anyone when exactly you are away from home.
Create optimal conditions
Indoor plants can do with less light for a shorter period of time. It also ensures that they evaporate slightly less water. So feel free to close your slats or curtains halfway at windows where burglars can look inside. For example, some light enters during the day, but there is no view of the entire room. You can temporarily move plants that need a lot of light to windows where burglars cannot easily reach. If you leave everything open, place your more sensitive plants a little further into the room. If it gets very hot while you're not there, they don't run the risk of burning and drying out extra quickly. For plants that prefer high humidity, you can place containers with water between the plants. Do not repot your plants shortly before you leave so that they are at their strongest and do not have to recover from a repotting.
Emergency watering system
If you are unable to find a babysitter during your absence, you can consider a watering system. Try this out extensively in advance, because these types of systems do not always work well and not all houseplants are suitable for it. The water reservoirs can also become empty again, so calculate carefully how much your plants will need.
Upon returning home
When you return to home, check all your plants whether they are not drowning water or whether they are much too dry. Allow plants that are too wet to dry thoroughly before watering again and place dried-out plants in a container with water so that they can saturate their root ball from below. If you pour on the ground from above, the water will probably run down in a stream through the dried-out root ball and the roots will not benefit much from it at all.