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Comment by belval | Hacker News Reader

Same here, I had to leave for 2 weeks and had a family member take care of the watering. As far as automated watering goes I don't think that there is a good solution that scales for potted plants. I do however have an hydroponic NFT system that is hooked to a larger pump and reservoir system with artificial lights. I use home assistant to manage the lights, pump and camera so I am able to control it remotely.

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I left for two weeks, with a key and notes left to a friend on what to do with my plants in my absence. Two weeks later I return (my friend had completely spaced out and forgot to come over even once) and my herbs (thyme, basil) are completely dead, but everything else was perfectly fine.

Interestingly, on my trip away I bumped into a person who does professional plant tending for public buildings, or businesses that want plants but can’t trust themselves to take care of them, and we had a brief chat. She said the number one mistake people make with plants is overwatering them.

Root rot is a death sentence.

It's really impressive how fast it can kill a plant. Overwatering is the first thing that comes to mind tell me that their beloved plant is dying.

> number one mistake people make with plants is overwatering them

This is why I switched to aquarium plants. No need to water them. Just change some of the water evey now and then.

You can get glass bulbs with a straw that sticks down into the soil; air pressure prevents them draining quickly so the better ones take a week or so to deliver 150ml of water.

For that matter you can use an empty wine bottle.

My problem is that plants can usually be OK up to a week or so. It's when you get into the two week range that it becomes tough. I've never found the gravity feed options really worked for the time periods I've needed them.

Yeah, but it’s far easier to find someone who can check in and refill them once in a two week holiday vs 6-7 visits to water.

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