Buried bottles, clay pots and other tricks to keep the soil moist for long - Are they effective?

Apologies if this is perhaps a silly question.

My garden is detached and unfortunately we have no water supply in it. Because we rent, this is not something I can do anything about.
I work from home, so most days carrying a few buckets of water to the garden is not a problem.
But at some point I will need to go on holiday, so I am a bit concerned about the fate of my vegetables while away (my plants are all berries and vegetables).

I am covering the soil in all pots, planters and beds with membrane mulch, to slow evaporation a bit while allowing rainwater in. Also, some of the new plants will go into self-watering pots, and I will shelter the baskets, sitting them on basins full of water.

But some plants will have to go in soil and raised beds, and the planters will dry up too.

I see that some people bury clay pots at deep roots level and fill them with water so that it slowly seeps to the soil.
Also, I was toying with the idea of burying a few large soda bottles per plant, perhaps wrapped in capillary matting, with a few holes pierced with a needle.
But perhaps it is a silly idea and I have no way to test reliably beforehand how it will work in open soil, beds and large containers.

Of course, these are not meant as a substitute for proper irrigation, rather as a way to keep mortality down while away for up to two weeks.

Could anyone give me some advice on the effectiveness of these or other tricks?

Thanks

 

Ask a friend/family member to call round and water for you.

 

Thanks, your suggestion makes perfect sense, if I had someone I could ask to do that.
But the only one would be my brother, who lives a good hour and half door to door to my place. If I insisted he would, but I do not feel like being such a pain.
The few friends who are local enough will be away as well, so I am out of options.

 

If you have a few pound to spend have a outside tap fitted and get something like this,
AUTOMATIC GARDEN IRRIGATION SYSTEM ELECTRONIC WATER TIMER FITS HOZELOCK 2 DIALS: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors
Along with this
MIXC 50ft DIY Micro Drip Irrigation Kits System Plant Watering System Garden Hose Watering Kits, Model: UKGG0C: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors

I honestly don't think burring pots is going to help,

Maybe a few of these.
Mighty Dripper

 

Thanks John, that is just what I wished to know!
I saw online an ugraded version of that approach
Porous Clay Capsule Irrigation

The method in the link above relies on a rainwater barrel, pipes and flow valves to keep the pots full all the time, making them the main irrigation method. I think it is used in Israel and other arid and semi-arid places.
It is described as very effective, but I realized that if I wanted to mess with pipes and valves, I would probably go for a gutter pipe system, mainly because it seems quite failproof, so worth the work and expense involved.
Intro to Rain Gutter Grow Systems - Small Scale Life

But in my case, I think the silicone and cork approach you suggest is more appropriate.
I think I will remove the bottom of some large pots I got for free and plant tomatoes and courgettes in those, sitting on the soil with the clay pots buried in the soil, and see how it goes.

From another of your posts, I learned you tried with pastic bottles too?
How well did that work? I would expect the water to leach into the soil perhaps too quickly to make for a useful fix over several days?

By the way, I would have never thought one could grow bananas in the UK!
At least, not without lots of expenses and work to set up a sheltered and heated system. I learn something new every day.

Thanks so much!

 

Thanks for the links, very useful!
As for the pots, I understand they are used by some, even for professional horticulture, but admittedly there are so many ways of achieving similar results, and what works in some settings might be less suitable in others.

 

Personally I very rarely water veg or established plants, so if I was away for two weeks I'd just leave them to get on with it.
I do have lots of plants in pots, and they can be a problem, most need watering daily.

The answer is, as I also dont have anyone even vaguely interested enough to water things for me while I'm away, don't go.

 

I bought four of these last year they worked well.
Grow Bag Waterer - 2810- Hozelock

 

The soil in the grow bag holds a fair bit of water as well John so once the reservoir is full and the soils wet theirs a few more litres, i had various plants in each one tomato plants was the thirstiest out of what i grew, mid summer when the plants was in fruit three plants one grow bag it lasted between 7/10 days i could have gone a little longer but i am a sucker for watering .

 

The solution would probably be to glue three pots, with the top on sticking out of the soil, allowing for manually refilling and for catching rainwater too.
Just, I would need a boatload of pots for that :D

True. I find the idea fascinating, though, and comparing how well that would do compared to planting in soil sounds interesting (I am thinking of courgettes and cucumbers). Just, I was researching self-watering pots and it sounds like I would need to add perlite, vermiculite, epsom salt, lime and another long lists of things to my potting mix. I have got a bag of "premium" mix, retailed for hanging baskets, perhaps that has some perlite and vermiculite in already, and I could test with that.

It sounds like a very good setup, thanks for the details.

I thought that might be the case. I wonder if keeping the cap on and wrapping the bottle in capillary material would slow down the flow enough.

You know, an English friend of mine lives in Italy. Her Italian husband is very much into large scale gardening and she frequently jokes that Italian gardeners do not see any point in growing anything which is not edible.
That is not necessarily true, my dad liked decorative plants and never bothered with anything else.
But personally, I am probably that stereotype's embodiment.
So I was picturing you having breakfast in the garden with fresh bananas and pineapples

 

I have seen those on Amazon, when I was considering planting in grow bags, which admittedly is a very attractive solution in many respects.
But then, three of my tomatoes are supposedly deep rooted, needing 25 inches or more, so for this year I decided I should give soil and raised beds a try.
But it if does not work out as well as I hope, it might well be that next year I will try grow bags.