Keeping Plants Alive While You're on Holiday

Summer holidays are great, but for plant owners, the week before leaving is always slightly stressful. I have a decent collection at this point, and figuring out how to keep everything alive for 10 days without relying on someone else watering everything perfectly is something I've put a lot of thought into.

The First Step: Triage

Not all plants need the same level of intervention. The first thing I do before a holiday is sort my plants into three groups:

• No-worry plants: ZZ plants, snake plants, hoyas, cacti, succulents. These can easily go 2–3 weeks without water. I water them thoroughly right before I leave and don't think about them again.
• Medium-worry plants: Monsteras, Philodendrons, Pothos. With a good watering the day before I leave and moved to a slightly shadier spot to reduce evaporation, these usually manage 10 days without a problem.
• High-worry plants: Calatheas, ferns, and anything in terracotta pots or very small pots. These need a plan.

The Wick Method

For my high-worry plants, I use a simple self-watering wick setup. I take a length of cotton rope or thick cotton string, bury one end several centimetres into the soil near the roots, and drop the other end into a bottle or container of water placed slightly higher than the pot. Capillary action slowly draws water along the wick and into the soil — exactly as fast as the plant is using it.

It's low-tech and not perfectly precise, but it's surprisingly reliable for trips up to two weeks. I test the setup a few days before I leave to make sure the wick is actually drawing water at a sensible rate.

Move Everything Away from Windows

Before I leave, I move all my plants back from the windows into the interior of the apartment. Less light means less photosynthesis, which means less water consumption. It also means less heat from the glass on a hot day. A plant sitting in a bright south-facing window in a Danish June can dry out within 2–3 days. The same plant moved a meter further into the room might last five or six.

They might be slightly less happy for the week, but they'll recover quickly once I'm back and move them back to their usual spots.

LECA Has a Hidden Advantage Here

My Alocasia in LECA is actually the plant I worry about least on holiday. With a reservoir of water in the outer pot, it can go weeks between top-ups. Semi-hydroponics is genuinely low-maintenance once the plant is established. If you've ever considered switching a difficult plant to LECA, "easier holiday care" is a real and underrated bonus.