Keeping Houseplants Alive and Happy When You’re Away Is Easier Than You Think

“If I’m going away for 10 days or less, I’m not doing anything differently in my routine,” Cutsumpas said. “I’m just watering the day before I go. I’m giving them a nice soak like I usually do, but I’m not giving them any more water than normal.”

You may have heard that overwatering your houseplants is a way to keep them happy in your absence. However, Cutsumpas said that “underwatering causes less long-term harm … You may get a few brown leaves that need to be pruned, but the plant will be fine.” In general, he added, “That harm [from underwatering] can be recovered from over time, compared to acute overwatering disasters.”

Overwatering can lead to root rot, when excess standing water in the soil encourages the growth of harmful fungi and leaves the roots starved for oxygen.

Overwatered soil is also a typical breeding ground for fungus gnats, which thrive in moisture and humidity. (While the gnats you see above-soil are merely a nuisance, the larvae that live within the soil can harm and even kill plants from the roots.)

Of course, there are a few exceptions to the rule that underwatering beats overwatering.

Finicky plants, such as ferns, calatheas, begonias, and peace lilies, may need a drink or two while you’re gone, or else they could dry up past the point of no return. In those cases, you can either line up a plant sitter or rig up a temporary self-watering system (see below).

Meanwhile, plants that thrive on infrequent, less-than-weekly watering, such as dracaenas, succulents, and ZZ plants, don’t even need that extra dose of hydration the day before you leave. Instead, just keep them to their regular watering schedule.

While you don’t want to drown your plants in too much water, it’s okay to make sure they stay on the moist side while you’re away, particularly if your trip is on the tail end of seven to 10 days.

A simple way to do that, Cutsumpas said, is to temporarily relocate them a few extra feet away from any sources of heat and light, like windows. “This is an easy way to make it take longer for them to dry out,” he explained.

While light-sensitive plants like a fiddle-leaf fig might not like such an arrangement, he added, most plants don’t react severely to being moved 3 or 4 feet from their usual source of bright, direct light for a short period of time.

If you don’t have enough space to temporarily re-home all your plant babies, another way to help them retain moisture is to mulch their soil with orchid bark by placing a single layer of bark pieces along the top of the pot’s soil. (Cutsumpas likes SuperMoss Douglas Fir Orchid Bark.) Pebbles or small stones also work for this purpose.

For tropical plants, you can create what Cutsumpas called a “humidity dome” by placing a plastic bag over the top of the plant. The bag should be tall enough that it extends down over the top lip of the pot, to make sure moisture stays trapped inside. (You can poke a few holes in the bag for some airflow if you’re worried about suffocating your leafy friends.) A glass cloche—or an approximation of a cloche, like an upside-down vase—can also do the trick.

Again, for most weeklong (or so) vacations and most drought-tolerant plant varieties—such as pothos, aloe, snake plants, rubber plants, bromeliad, and cast iron plants—you don’t need to do anything special for your houseplants while you’re gone.

However, if you have fussier plants in need of more hydration—or you’re worried your space is too dry, or you don’t have room to relocate all your plants off your windowsills—you can rig up a simple irrigation system to provide water in your absence in a way that doesn’t lead to drowning.

Cutsumpas is a fan of plant spikes (like these from Plant Nanny that we recommend in our guide to creating a houseplant starter kit) that fit any long-necked bottle full of water, releasing it at a steady trickle into your houseplant’s soil.

“I find them to be the best solution, because the water can’t go anywhere until the soil goes dry, so the process is very slow and gradual,” he said. “They allow the plant to soak up water at its own pace. Plus, they’re going deep down into the soil rather than watering from the top, which cuts down on the risk of fungus gnats.” (Fungus gnats tend to make camp in the top inch or two of a houseplant’s soil, he added.)

While plant spikes are usually great for larger potted plants, smaller pots may topple over if you try to anchor an entire bottle of water into their soil. Instead, consider these tinier, mushroom-shaped glass globes, which work in the same way as the plant spikes, suggests associate staff writer Ellen Airhart, one of our in-house plant experts. Just fill them up with water, poke a chopstick or other small stick into the dirt at an angle, then slide the globe in. Before you leave for your trip, check the stem for pieces of soil or perlite that might block the water’s flow.

If your plants live in porous terracotta pots, you could also just place them, pots and all, in a bowl of water while you’re gone. While this isn’t Cutsumpas’s preferred method, it does have the benefit of being easy and free (so long as you have enough bowls for all your pots). If you go this route, he suggested only submerging the bottom third or so of the pot in water, so that it has a chance to draw up hydration as needed, instead of being inundated with water from top to bottom.

Turning off your cooling system or air conditioner may be on your vacation prep checklist, but your plants probably won’t like it. In fact, once plants are accustomed to your home’s climate-controlled environment, Cutsumpas said that suddenly forcing them to sit in a hot space with no fresh air could spell disaster.

“You don’t want a drastic fluctuation in temperature—especially if you don’t even know how hot your space could get if you leave all the windows shut and turn off all the air conditioning for a stretch of time,” he said.

You probably don’t want to blast your AC while you’re gone, but to make sure the temperature change isn’t severe enough to damage your plants, consider dialing down the AC rather than turning it off entirely. “If you typically set your indoor temperature at 68 degrees [Fahrenheit], it’s fine to leave it for your plants at something like 72 degrees,” Cutsumpas said.

For any trips longer than 10 days, Cutsumpas recommends getting outside help to water your plants in your absence. He also advised against leaving anything to chance in such situations.

“Sometimes I will pre-pour the water for each plant and put it in something like a recyclable plastic water bottle,” he said. “That way, the plant sitter doesn’t even have to think about it.”

You could also pull a Ned Flanders (video) and place a sticky note on each plant’s pot, noting how many cups of water the plant should get and how often it should be watered.

“Remember that plant sitters can also be guilty of overwatering,” Cutsumpas said, “especially if they’re not plant people.”

This article was edited by Alexander Aciman and Ben Frumin.