I have probably 60-80 plants and watering time is always a pain. My succulents stay on the table and shelves, so I have to individually put them into a big plastic box, pour water in there and let them sit. The smaller plants will only take a few minutes, however the bigger plants can take an hour to water thoroughly. And the activity of individually taking each plant into the plastic box on the ground is very back breaking since I have to bend down a lot. And moving them back up to the shelves/table is once again back breaking. So between moving everything and waiting for them to soak, it usually takes me 6 hours to water everything. So is there anyway to make watering faster and not break my back lol. How do you water your succulents?
by AnInMoon
11 Comments
Honestly with this many I’d set up a drip irrigation system using aquarium supplies. Is there a reason you perfer watering from the bottom?
Try a deeper tub with more water? If the water line is as high as the soil line it should only take a minute to soak.
Get a larger container with a mesh bottom, put it in an even larger container to bottom water them all at once.
There are 1020 (10”x20”) trays with mesh bottoms that go inside 1020 trays with no holes for bottom watering.
Or you can try to get ahold of some of the big nursery flats like a 16”x16” tray. That’s what I did (post: https://www.reddit.com/r/succulents/s/bxRKDQBBtU), and if I want I can drop the whole thing into a larger storage container. I think mine is like 20”x30”.
Edit: that post also has a couple of other options, including a boot tray!
I buy plastic baskets at the dollar store and never take the plants out of them. They are perfect.
I don’t water mine all at once. I leave them on their shelves and put them in a few bowls (a few every day) and leave them there until they are soaked. Then I take them out of the bowls and put them onto a lid to dry. I suggest getting a taller shelf for your plants so you’re not bending over and get a table with a huge tub that is closer to your plants so you’re not bending over again. I have 60 succulents that I do with this.
With my really inconvenient plants like my string if hearts that is vined all around my plant shelf, I have a permanent saucer underneath that I use to bottom water it. Sometimes if it’s already soaked up all the water and there’s some sitting in the saucer I just swap it out with another one. I do this with a few plants and it’s made watering a lot easier imo
I usually have to fill the saucer twice to fully saturate the pot.
Also definitely get a bigger container to water in, I have 3 big white bus bins so I can water all of them, move them all to dry, then place them back on the shelf throughout the day.
I have a ton of plants, and since watering just *is* a part of the process, I’m learning not to rush it. Not all the plants need water, so I’m learning which ones are dormant (that don’t need much water), and just water the ones that need it, when they need it. If time tends to run away from you, set a timer, to stay on task.
You can grab huge plant trays from greenhouse megastore. It sucks it’s expensive but it’s the easiest way if found to water them in place. I top water in them and if there’s excess water at the bottom after a day I towel it up. I’m looking into drilling and installing drainage valves for them now. It takes a while for soils to saturate, they’ll soak up like a half inch of water in the tray overnight even after I thought they were fully soaked. I use the 43 x 21 for my shelves and 40×40 for tables
I bought something similar to this and it’s easy to fill the top area with water. Perfect for placing many plants in at once.
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Not related to your question but can i ask what those two plants are on the bottom right, closest to the camera? I really like how they look
I have a large basin and I have several at a time. It’s not too heavy so I go to the plants with it. I leave them on a table and rotate