Imagine a pellet about the size of a 2 liter soda cap. More precisely, the pellet is shaped so that it can easily be screwed into a common household pop bottle.
Now, anytime you need to leave home on a business trip or a 2 week vacation, you fill a soda pop bottle or two with the precise amount of water you'd use during one plant watering and seal off the bottle by screwing in a one of these disolvable pellets. You flip the bottle upside down and situate it (prop it) so that the neck is pointed at your houseplant's soil -- perhaps an accessory might be useful for securing the pop bottle in place -- and the time-specific tablet begins disolving. Some tablets disolve in a day, some 2, some a week, whatever... Also, some tablets are made of plant food.
The great thing is that the pellets are small and store easily. In my opinion, having a few small pellets would be better than having to own one more gadget -- some device that periodically waters plants.-- mlanza, Jan 06 2004 There are plenty of drip-feed and other automated plant watering systems for absentee watering on the market. We linked to some of them before for an idea by bristolz.
Btw, your pellet *is* just another gadget, especially once you add a soda bottle.-- DrCurry, Jan 06 2004 The pellet disolves. Initially the waterflow would be slow and then gradually become faster until the bottle empties.-- mlanza, Jan 06 2004 Yes, the pellet is a gadget and so is the pop bottle; however, both are disposable and won't become dust collectors.-- mlanza, Jan 06 2004 Take a nice big jug (like what apple juice comes in, not a boob, you pervs) fill it with water. Get some nice thin siphons. Insert ends in jug and plant's soil, respectively. You'll have a nice not-dead plant. Isn't that nice? It's what my Mom does, and her's ain't died yet. Of course, she could be just switching plants out to fool me...-- Eugene, Jan 07 2004 random, halfbakery