Self-Watering Systems for Plants
Buying or building reliable self-watering systems is crucial to the health of your plants if you plan to spend time away from your home. It's true that some houseplants — such as cacti and most succulent species — are quite hardy and require very little watering on a week-to-week basis. However, even low-maintenance potted plants do require some degree of care, and will both live longer and bloom more vibrantly with an appropriate watering regimen. This is especially important to maintain if you're out of the house and unable to attend to the plants directly.
The solution? Self-waterers for plants. You should consider several factors when deciding between different self-watering systems. These include budget, plant type and how much time you have. Take a look at some popular choices among self-waterers for plants, including a few simple DIY options.
Standard Grow Boxes
Arguably the simplest, cheapest, and lowest-maintenance option, a basic self-watering container — better known as a "grow box" — is a great choice for busy growers who lack the spare time for more elaborate DIY projects. They're usually available in the form of pots and planters equipped with self-watering features. The smallest and plainest of these can easily fit within most gardening and interior décor budgets.
As a bonus, many of these grow boxes function just as well outdoors as indoors. If you're looking to develop self-watering systems for your yard as well as your collection of houseplants, buy multiple grow boxes.
Decorative Self-Watering Planters
While they're typically more expensive than plainer grow boxes, decorative self-waterers for plants often double as decorative ornamentation for your home. Since they're often large, they're a great choice for bigger and higher-maintenance houseplants. These elegant yet highly functional self-watering planters are an excellent choice for slightly more experienced plant lovers hoping to design a more extensive indoor garden.
Hydroponic Systems
A hydroponic system — designed to grow plants without soil or natural sunlight — is often as close as you can get to a fully self-sustaining indoor garden. While not all hydroponic gardens come pre-equipped with self-watering systems, many kits are sold with water tanks included. After filling those tanks, these handy tabletop gardens can essentially be left to their own devices to survive and grow with minimal outside interference.
For brands that don't come pre-equipped with their own water tanks, Lowe's also sells separate watering accessories that can be easily installed as part of your new hydroponic tabletop garden.
4 DIY Self Waterers for Plants
For the DIY enthusiasts out there, consider building your own grow box or self-watering planter from scratch. This type of DIY project can range from simple and low-maintenance to elaborate and involved, depending on how much time you want to invest into the task — and how fancy you want the final product to be.
Water Bottle Waterer
Wooden Planters
Of course, more elaborate options are also available to ambitious DIYers. Most of the projects start with constructing a standard wooden box. From there, you can construct a full patio planter. To add self-watering capabilities, however, you'll need to leave sufficient space in the planter to add drain pipes. You can customize these planters to be as decorative or as plainly functional as you please.
Watering Wicks
For this system, all you'll need are some water bottles and string. Simply place one end of the string into your planter, covering it with approximately an inch of dirt. Then place the opposite end of the string into a filled water bottle or jar. Make sure the bottle is elevated slightly above the planter. Water should travel from the bottle into the planter.
Watering Crystals
You'll likely find these when shopping for general plant care items. Blend these polymer crystals into the planter's potting soil. After initially soaking up the necessary moisture, the crystals will release water to keep your plants watered while you're unable to attend to their care.
Plant Care Collectives
While there's something deeply satisfying about setting up perfectly sustainable self-watering systems, don't dismiss the value of human touch. If you travel a lot, it might be worth setting up a partnership with other garden lovers in your life to keep each other's houseplants safely watered and healthy.
This is also a great option if you feel like tackling a more elaborate DIY self-watering project alone might be a little too daunting. Establishing a mutual plant care collective might also be a good way to find project partners for your gardening endeavors.