Why I’ll Never “Bottom Water” My Plants Again

Whenever I’m getting ready for a trip, I run through all my normal packing checklists: Did I pack toothpaste? (I’m famous for forgetting); Do I have enough shoes?; Did I remember not to forget my phone charger? But the one to-do that I hold off on for as long as possible is figuring out how best to take care of my plants while I’m gone. 

There’s tons of advice on the internet to help keep your plants hydrated and happy while you’re away, and there are even more suggestions for products you can buy that’ll do all the work for you. But a few years ago, on the suggestion of a friend, I tried to “bottom water” my plants, thinking they’d get plenty of water while I was away (and because it required the least amount of preplanning). And I’ll never — ever! — do it again.

When you “bottom water” a plant, you put the plant (in its planter) into a bigger vessel filled with water. (This could be a large bowl, a tub filled with water, or even a spare XL-size Tupperware.) The idea is that the plant soaks up the water and nutrients from the bottom, and though it’s an “effective method for hydrating your plants,” according to Palmstreet plant expert Angalena Malavenda, she says it works only “intermittently.”

By bottom watering, you’re opening yourself (and your plant) up to overwatering, and according to Brian Shaunfield, store manager at Lowe’s, that’s “the most common reason houseplants die.” When your plant is drenched in water, it prevents the roots from getting air, and “soil that is too wet will rot and smell,” creating the ideal environment for disease and bacteria to thrive.

I was going away for six days (five nights), so I bottom-watered my plants as close to my departure date as I could. I took turns soaking the plants in an extra-large IKEA Tupperware I had nearby, one that was big enough to fit all of the plants I was going to bottom water while I was away (the rest of my plants were on their own): a spider plant, mint plant, parsley, and a rubber plant. They were well-moisturized and very much watered. I thought they’d be fine.

But when I came back from my trip, the plants were nearly dead, miserable, and absolutely overwatered.

Malavenda says that, “Allowing your plants to sit in stagnant water for extended periods can be detrimental to their health” because “the roots need oxygen to thrive, and prolonged exposure to waterlogged soil can suffocate them, causing root rot and other serious issues.” If the soil is wet for extended periods of time, she says it’ll cause the plant to “droop” and its leaves to “brown prematurely.” 

And just like you would when buying a new plant, Shaunfield says you need to figure out what kind of water a plant requires before turning to a one-size-fits-all solution.

Looking back, I don’t know if I followed all of the steps correctly and it was just too much water, or if I did something wrong when it came to bottom watering. What I do know, though, is that I wish I hadn’t done it at all. I ended up killing all the plants because the excess water had turned everything to mush.

I’ve since gotten new plants to replace the parsley- and rubber plant-size holes in my heart, but the reality is that I am going to travel again. And when I do, I’m going to need better solutions than bottom watering to get me (and my plants) through it. 

Malavenda and Shaunfield have endless solutions for what you can do instead of bottom watering to keep your plants getting the air and water they need while you’re away. (And their advice is what I wish I’d followed the first time around.) 

Malavenda says that even though it’s a much more complex solution, using “cotton rope as a wick system” is incredibly effective. (Shaunfield calls these “water wicks.”)

To create “water wicks,” Malavenda says to cut the cotton rope into pieces long enough to reach from the water source, and put one end of each rope “tentacle” into the soil and the other into the water container. If you group all of your plants together in this way, getting water from a single source, it’s going to resemble an octopus, and that’s exactly what you want. 

Shaunfield says water crystals will also work, as will a “water bottle waterer,” where you cut the bottom off of a water bottle, poke a hole in the cap, and insert the bottle upside down about an inch into the soil. Then add water into the bottle. Your plant will self-water, and you won’t have a deluge of water suffocating it instead. Malavenda says these self-watering globes will gradually release moisture over time.

Now when I travel, if it’s going to be for an extended period of time, I’ll do one of two things. The first is that I’ll leave my plants alone and continue with regular watering up until the day I leave and pick it back up again as soon as I return. For trips where I’m going to be gone for more than a week, I’ll use glass orbs (like these from Amazon) to make sure my plants don’t suffer.

I’m not against trying different methods to keep my plants looking lush year-round, but personally, I’ll never bottom water again.