Keep Forgetting to Water Your Potted Plants? These Self-Watering Stakes Will Do the Job for You

Planning a vacation or weekend getaway always requires accounting for what you're leaving at home. Plants, especially, can be easily forgotten by those with pets or children to take care of, but they deserve just as much attention—even more so if you want them to thrive as much as they were before you left.

Unless you have neighbors, friends, or family who can kindly stop by to water your potted plants, you'll need to rely on a more convenient option for keeping your plants healthy. That's where a self-watering system comes in, like Blumat's Classic Plant Watering Stakes. It's a simple solution that thousands of Amazon shoppers swear by: One even said that they managed to keep their plants watered for "at least three months."

To buy: $27; amazon.com.

Blumat's self-watering system currently has more than 2,800 five-star ratings, and is Amazon's best-selling product in its ″Self-Watering Stakes″ category. To set up the stakes, first soak them in water for 15 minutes then stick them down into the soil of your potted plant with the tube connected. Finally, place the end of the tube inside a bowl or bucket of water, which acts as the hydration source.

The rate of water discharge is approximately 2.5 ounces per day, and as your plant's soil dries, the ceramic cone will deliver the water slowly but steadily and stop once the soil becomes sufficiently moist. To adjust the flow of water, you can place your bowl farther away from your plant and the cone; the lower your water source is, the slower it will dispense and avoid over-watering. The reverse applies for preventing under-watering: Simply raise your water reservoir above your plant to make water flow faster into the soil.

Make sure you've got the watering rate adjusted correctly before you head out, to avoid coming home and finding out that your plant, although hydrated, needed more or less water than what the Blumat system provided. For frequent travelers, or even the lazy plant parent who doesn't want to have to worry about leaving their plants out to dry (and potentially dying), Blumat's self-watering stakes are the no-frills, easy-to-use system that could make your life just a little bit easier.

Shop them at Amazon below in 3-, 6-, or 12-packs to keep your plants perfectly hydrated.