Handmade Terracotta Ollas

This ancient technology has been adapted to help you water your indoor plants. Each Olla is designed to hold a week’s water for the correct size pot. Do not fertilise plants using ollas – liquid fertiliser must go in the soil or be used as a foliar feed.

What do you do if you are going away for 2 weeks? You water your plant soil well. Just before you leave, you fill the olla in the pot with water. The plant will use the water in the soil for the first week and the water in the olla for the second week.

To install them, you simply dig them into a planted pot (make sure that you have the correct size Olla), and fill them with water. They are designed to hold water for a week for the size pot they are suited to. Never put fertiliser in your Ollas, fertiliser must go in the soil.

I use Ollas to service luxury apartments where the housekeeper only comes in once a fortnight. When she arrives, she waters all the plants. Before she leaves, she fills the ollas. But as the soil is wet, the plants do not take up the water in the ollas until later. This ensures that they have enough water for 2 weeks.