Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was so happy to open my door to happy and healthy plants after a three week trip away from home. These stakes work great, and I'm a bit embarrassed to say that they do a better job than I do at keeping my plants consistently watered. Many of my plants looked happier than ever. These are really the best and only solution (other than hiring a service) to take care of your houseplants for extended periods of time. My outside plants didn't fair as well even though a neighbor was tending to them. As long as you leave a water source large enough you can leave home with confidence for long periods of time. NOTE: after reading some of the unhappy reviews I wanted to point out that there seems to be quite a bit of misunderstanding and user error. This system is a simple suction system that waters your plants based on the placement of the plant in relation to placement of the water source. If your plant likes to be damp then your water source should be placed even with the plant pot, if your plant likes to be more dry you will place your water source below the level of your plant pot, and if your plant wants to be very moist then your water source should be above your plant pot. I do advise that you experiment to make sure your plants will be happy with the positional relationship of plant to water source before you leave them alone or some may be over or under watered. There are instructions but they aren't in English, but there are pictures that help you understand. There is a formula to compute how much water you should provide given the duration of the watering period and the watering needs of your plant. That may sound complicated so I'll admit that I didn't use the formula and I just winged it. I got lucky, because some plants had lots of water left over, and others were on the last half inch of water. Another consideration is evaporation. If you leave your water source uncovered then the water will naturally evaporate, and also provide an environment for insects. I used cling wrap that worked very well for covering my water source while allowing the hose to work properly. Your hose must be able to reach the bottom of your water source in order to use all the water. I used pitchers, bowls, sand buckets, gallon jugs, and empty planters to be my water sources. I used any container that could hold enough water for the plant's needs, and that could be positioned properly in relation to the planter, and that allowed the hose to hit bottom. I used books, foot stools, and plant stands to help create the proper positional relationships between water source and planter. Please use the pictures in the instructions for more guidance. Good luck!