Automatic watering of house plants

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In recent years the principle of watering house plants by means of capillary attraction has gained many devotees, and much work has been done towards perfecting this method of watering, whereby the plants are stood on a permanently moist base and take up water according to their needs. It is particularly useful if one leads a busy life and cannot attend to the water requirements of plants as often as one should. Equally, it is a boon in the conservatory or greenhouse that is left unattended for most of the day while one is out of work. Capillary watering also presents a method of ensuring that plants have ample moisture at their roots while owners are on holiday. This is particularly useful, as house plants always present a problem at holiday time.

Automatic watering of house plants

Many plastics manufacturers have deveoped trays that need little more than a supply of water from ‘header’ tank, or bottle, and a 2-inch layer of sharp sand in the tray to become almost fool-proof capillary units. The water level in the reservoir tank should be topped up periodically; after initial experiments it becomes a simple matter to adjust the apparatus to ensure that the sand is maintained at the ideal degree of moistness for the house plant’s needs.

A make shift capillary unit can be made simply by filling a shallow baking tim with sand and keeping it moist by means of a watering-can. The sand, for best results, should be kept quite wet, but avoid getting the sand into a puddled condition as, in the case, the plants would suffer from water logging and would quickly deteriorate.

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Thin-based plastic pots are ideal for capillary watering, as the compost in the pot and the wet sand come into direct contact, thus ensuring that water is drawn up from the sand immediately. Holes in the bottom of clay pots should be plugged with a piece of fibre-glass padding which will act as a wick, so bridging the gap between compost and sand. The plant pots must be gently pushed in to sand when placing them in position, and it is important that the soil in the pot should be watered before placing it on the sand so that capillary attraction will commence, Further watering should not be necessary.