They look forward to vacations all year long, make grandiose plans, buy tickets, and pack their things. And here the question surely arises of how pottery flowers will be separated ? If there is no one to care for them, they can easily get sick and even die. What to do? How to keep flowers on vacation healthy?
Weekly Departure
If you plan to be absent for a period of less than a week, radical measures to maintain the vital activity of plants may not be taken. When they talk about how to preserve flowers for the duration of the vacation, it is primarily a question of the need for regular watering. This is especially important for hygrophilous plants. Such as aloe or cacti can survive without regular watering and a couple of weeks. All the rest will be enough to water well, remove from the window to reduce the draining effect of sunlight. And only the most fastidious can be packed in plastic bags.
Long absence
But what if the departure is planned for a longer time, for example, two to three weeks? In this case, potted plants can not do with a single watering. Again, they will have to be removed from the window, it is best to put them in a large container, for example, in a basin. Pouring water there, as our grandmothers sometimes did, is not recommended, because in the specified time the root system may well rot in the flowers. It is better to organize a kind of drip irrigation. To do this, a sufficiently capacious container filled with water (for example, a basin or pan) needs to be set slightly above the level of flower pots. Then from it into each pot stretch bundles of fabric. Due to the difference in levels, the liquid will gradually flow out of the upper vessel and water the plants. All plants can be wrapped with foil to provide a greenhouse effect. But this option has its minus: with a close proximity, plants can exchange diseases. And flowers like cacti or aloe can begin to rot. Therefore, it is more correct to pack those plants that especially like moisture in bags. For a long absence, you can provide another way to preserve flowers for the duration of the vacation. To do this, in the cork of a plastic bottle you need to make a small hole through which water will gradually drip. 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 up the space between the pots and under them with moist expanded clay. In some cases, various devices are also used, which can be purchased at a specialized store. Solving the problem of how to preserve flowers for the duration of vacation, they acquire capillary mats that provide irrigation of plants from below, through holes in pots. And if necessary, you can get a whole system of drip irrigation.
Advice
Upon returning home, do not immediately remove the film from the plants 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 the flowers to new conditions. Any top dressing and transplantation should not be made 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 will not pour flowers at all, but the owners will wait.
It is best to cut flowers and buds, and also to thin out the leaves. This will reduce moisture consumption. And one more thing: just in case, when you leave 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 greet you cheerful and cheerful!