Vacation watering for container plants made easy

[Sue Sullivan]

Found this cool video from a Chicago couple who have a YouTube channel
where they post their experiments and experiences with container
gardening. They took empty water bottles of various sizes, up to a
liter, maybe, and filled them with water, left the lids on but used a
box cutter to cut an X in the lids. Then they turned the bottles
upside-down and jammed the lid a couple inches into the potting soil
of their various pots. Apparently it worked wonderfully for them when
they went away for a 3-day weekend in late summer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igD6uPQHQGk&list=PL53045283F125C8EF&index=18&feature=plpp_video

They talk about the results at about 2 minutes in their video.

[Sue Sullivan]

If you are concerned about plastics leaching chemicals into the soil,
I think this would also work well with quart-sized canning jars, or
pickle jars or the like. You could re-use the old canning lids this
way -- just fill the quart jar, screw on a band and a previously used
lid, then poke a few holes in the lid with a small nail. You'd need
enough surface space in the pot to set the jar out upside-down on the
soil.