Super Simple Sub-irrigation System

I really like to plant green plants. I always grow flowers and vegetables at home. I travel a lot but every time I travel I return and find that most of the plants are dead because they don't get enough water specially at summer time.

Every time before I travel I think about this problem.

I've tried different ways to make the plants get enough water automatically when I am not there to irrigate them. I've tried to use PET plastic bottles to keep water available to my plants by filling the bottles with water and putting their top inside the soil to it moisturized. The problem was that the bottles neck get clogged with soil and don't get water to the plants.

I tried another idea using PET bottles also. I made small holes in the bottle bottom to drip the water out to the plants and put the bottles in up right position. This idea didn't work also as the holes were too small or too big that they made dripping very slow or very fast.

The plants were damaged in both cases.

I though of buying an electronic irrigation system or building one using Arduino.

The last time we went to travel for 10 days, i have got this very simple idea that was a great success. The idea was putting the planters inside a big container filled with water. while the pots have holes in bottom

The idea is not new. But this is the first time I try it.

This is called sub-irrigation.

The soil gets moisture from the surrounding water through the planters small bottom holes. The moisture in the soil also keeps the roots of the plants moisturized.

This is healthy to the plants and you can keep this setup all the time even when you are at home. You will notice - as I did - that this is better to the plants and keeps them fresh and healthy all the time. they even grew faster than i was irrigating them daily by myself so by experiment this setup is better than watering the plants every day with water.

All you have to do is just to fill the big container with water and keep it clean by removing algae that builds up on the container wall.