As someone with plants and with a friend who looks after them when we're away, I understand this completely.
Plants need a schedule to do well and some are very sensitive if they get too much or too little water too often or too late.
A two or three of our plants died while the friend was looking after them in the past due to under watering (and we were gone for only about a week every time). So last time when we came back we found most pots were flooded with water, which to most plants is just as bad as not being watered.
It's only now that I think about how this small favour we ask of our friend can be stressful to him.
Education is key. Either find a friend that know how to care for plants, and teach them your plants needs, or find a friend that want to learn it. Watering plants can be the same as caring for someones cat. I mean this in the best way, because a plant is not something you can just water willy nilly and expect it to be fine, unless it's a hardy plant, in which case it'll survive a week without watering anyway.
You could also leave instructions, just like you would for a cat:
- water N times per day, use this cup to this measure.
- check the soil; if it's moist, do/don't water
(don't use these instructions, I have no clue about plants :))
You're right -- the cats themselves are pretty durable (other than my ancient 18 year old Cat A). For me, the instructions are less for the cats themselves, as it is preventing the mess they will make at times.
- Refill all four water containers
- Give them large, heavy dishes full of water because Cat A likes to Knock Shit Over to see if there's water in there. (My hardwood floor has a damaged section because of this: OK if cleaned up fast, not OK if left over the weekend in hot weather.)
- Mix in treats so that cat A eats all of her food
- Cats B and C like to eat Cat A's food, so feed her in a separate room, then open the door 5 minutes later.
Have you experimented with different brands for Cat A? Mixing in treats seems like the least healthy option long term. I've had good success with Applaws.
I guess you're right, and I did try to leave some instructions, but we have lots of plants and I didn't want it to become too complicated so I tried to group plants that need similar care together and highlight the sensitive ones.
I believe the friend is eager to learn and loves plants himself, but but maybe finding a friend who doesn't kill their own plants would be a good start...
I get liking plants, but I don't want their maintenance to be yet another painful chore. I want plants that survive no matter what I do. Fortunately, my plants seem to select themselves based on that criterium.
People who _really_ like plants? I am one, and I wouldn't even call myself a hobbyist, just a person who likes plants a lot and doesn't mind having a routine of caring for plants, it's not like it's very difficult: all plants are watered on the weekend, a few are watered once more during the week. Yes, it also involves knowing how much water, but it's pretty much the same all year round (unless there are a few exceptionally hot days in a row during summer, then a bit more).
If you have this line of thinking I think you’ll already be looking at a watering system, or even simple pots with a water reserve. Your needs for friends looking after your plants will already be minimal, and be reduced to asking them to fill the tanks once every three or four weeks.
For me people who need to educate friends about how to deal with their plants are playing on a different field, in a different game altogether (and I’ll flat refuse to deal with kind of PITA)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimosa_pudica is one example for a plant that has died after not being watered for a few days which let the soil dry. Over-watering would not do good either.
Sure, most plants will not die within a week, but a lot will suffer enough and will take months to recover.
are you talking about the plant itself the massive trees that actually bear fruits?
because my banana plants are by far the most forgiving things i've got (i live in germany). They grow and multiply like crazy and you can never give them too much water.
Going away for two weeks in summer? there might be a little brown after you'll be back, but that hardly matters with the speed they grow.
No, it was genuinely stressful! I forget the name of the plant now, but too much sun and it would die. Too little sun, same result. Move it the wrong way and, yep you guessed it, death. And that's before we even get to the watering requirements!
We have one plant in our household, no other plants have survived. It lives in my living room and I have no idea what kind of plant it is. It had long thin leaves, each one is about 10 to 15cm long and 1cm wide and long thin woody stems.
We water it randomly, at one stage we estimate we forgot to water it for around 6 months. Other times due to a lack of communication we have both watered it multiple times in a week. It appears to be invulnerable to poor watering discipline.
Currently it is living in direct sunlight but it has lived in permanent shade for a extended period as well.
I don't know why I'm telling you this, it probably doesn't help knowing that your friends has high maintenance plants when there are invincible ones like ours in the world as well.
This is an excellent observation/question and hilarious at the same time. It could be plastic. I've seen trees in malls with plastic leafs were I had to actually try to rip a leaf to make sure that it was real since they looked so real.
It's a fair question, but I can assure you all it is a real plant and alive. My wife removes old leaves from it 3 or 4 times a year and it grows (very slowly) towards the light if I rotate it.
I want your plant. If you figure out how it is call, then I am buying only those in the future. At this point, I am mass plants killer since they all died eventually under my watch.
I have a rubber tree (ficus elastica) and it seems quite invincible. Got it from my grandmother about 15 years ago, it spent three years in my dad’s smoke-filled room and has moved three or four times. Right now there’s direct sunlight in spring and fall and a radiator right next to it in winter. Watering is so-and-so, easily lasts a week to a month without any water.
If I forget to water, some leaves will turn yellow but quickly recover once water is available again.
Oh, and it had half of it sawn off at one point because it grew too large, the other half is now also a very presentable little plant.
I used to have one of those, but even that didn't survive my erratic watering regime... It did outlast all my other plants, though, except for two small cact<i|uses>.
The problem with plant caring is that dogs and babies with respond to you, ask for food or water, cry, etc. Plants have a long response time and by the time you see leaves curling or turning colors, it could be too late.
I think the problem happens when you don't know the plant. I also have some trouble until I know how the plant looks when it's happy and how it changes when it's not. It's a very small difference in some cases, but if you look at it every day you just.. know after some time.
Apart from the supposedly easy one I have that is always unhappy no matter what I do. And yet it refuses to die, it only.. almost dies. For years now.
Don't generalize fish and plants, they are all not that easy to care for. I grow aquatic plants and raise lots of aquatic species, none of which are that simple.
