on a week vacation away from plants

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IKE

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400 watt HPS on 18/6 timer w/filter -12 autoflower plants in 4th week out of 9 weeks life cycle - in soil - 2 gal. pots - Earth juice nutrients.
I'll be away a week - worried about plants having enough water.
I'm not so sure watering well before I leave will be enough - I don't want to drown them.
I thought of maybe watering them and putting all the plants in big plastic container and put some more water in the container to hold them over -- I'm only guessing -- what do you think ---Thanks!
 
There is no way IMO that they will make it 7 days between waterings....not in 2 gallon pots anyway. Hope you hve another plan.
 
Hey just leave me a key under the mat and I will come over and water them for you :hubba: :icon_smile: Seriously; How often do you water them? If you were in hydro it would be easy to fix but being in soil is a bit tricky without getting real expensive. How long before you go on vacation? :)
 
water approx. every 4 days
leaving around XMAS
 
This may get a bit expensive but there are digital timers that can be set to hours or days. get one of those.... get a 30gal container. Alot of the pharmaceutical companies have them all the time, and the guys that work there will often sell them on the side for cheap. Also the carwash places have them as well...Get you a good aquarium water pump that is submersible. One that moves over 100 gal per hour. get the hose that hooks fo the output of that.

Go to home depot and look at their lawn watering systems. There are multi-tap heads that allow 6-8 1/4" hose hookups. get enough to cover all your plants and set it up so that you can top water the plants from the 30gal tank. get you a good air pump from the aquarium store when you get the water pump and get plenty of 1/4" hose for the air pump. Get a big long air stone to connect to that and put the stone w/air and water pump into tank. The air will keep your water from going stagnant.

Run the 1/4" hoses from the dispersion heads out to all the plants and get something to hold the hoses in place. When everything is in place you set the timer to come on every other day or every 2 days and water for 10-15 minutes. The digital timers can be set pretty precise. You will want to get some plastic totes to set the planters in so that if/when you get runoff it doesn't flood the room. Test the operation so that you can fine tune it before you leave.

I use this very setup right now for my hydro system and it works sooo good. All I have to do is make sure my tank is full and I mix in my nutes how I want it and set the timer. You should be able to get all the stuff at home depot and whatever aquarium store in your area. :)
 
They'll be pretty parched by the time you return., better come up with a plan "B". My neighbor is also a grower, I leave him a key when I'm going to be gone for any amount of time, works great and I have added security because he stays there at night.

I know, I know, tell no one....
 
My suggestion would be to unplug the 400 watt while your gone and have a small flouro or two in it's place on the same timer. less lumens will reduce the rate of photosynthesis and therefor reduce the water uptake. this method is inexpensive however it will result in a slower rate of overall growth while your gone. it's a cheap way to keep them from dying IMO.
 
ishnish said:
My suggestion would be to unplug the 400 watt while your gone and have a small flouro or two in it's place on the same timer. less lumens will reduce the rate of photosynthesis and therefor reduce the water uptake. this method is inexpensive however it will result in a slower rate of overall growth while your gone. it's a cheap way to keep them from dying IMO.


I heard this nut wasnt sure it would work if it does that would be really helpful to know anyone whos tried it
 
Those self watering globes do not hold nearly enough to do any kind of good. I do not think either that they will go a week in 2 gal pots.

I had a fan go out on me when I was gone for 5 days the beginning of July (I call it the vegging disaster of 2011). The fan going out caused the temps to rise. They may have survived the higher temps if they had not run out of water--the higher temps caused them to uptake more water. I came home to crispy plants. I was only able to save a few of them.

IMO, putting your autos under fluoros for a week when they would just start to be flowering well is going to cost you some real yield. And speaking of yield, why are you running your lights 18/6 instead of 20/4?

However, Christmas is a long ways off. Why not just plan your plant cycle so that they are done before you leave? You are taking chances anytime you leave your garden for that long.
 
Hey Ike self watering with timers and have trays to catch potential run offs and you will be fine doing watering for 15 mins max per day.
So long as you have a big enough reservoir for watering youll be ok.
T4
 
I'll do some digging. There are some self waterers that do work, but I'll have to find the link. Not super cheap, but good.

Wet
 
Troph Blumat, made in Austria.

sustainablevillage.com
hhydro.com
homeharvest.com

These places carry them.

Wet
 
Wetdog said:
Troph Blumat, made in Austria.

sustainablevillage.com
hhydro.com
homeharvest.com

These places carry them.

Wet

I can echo that - they work very well, will only water the soil when it's dry - unlike any normal drip watering system.

Can be attached to a soda bottle, or a normal tank for gravity feed or even to your faucet.
 
Lemon Jack said:
I heard this nut wasnt sure it would work if it does that would be really helpful to know anyone whos tried it

I did try it, probably should of mentioned that..
however the difference is I was growing via DWC and I was only gone for 4 days. the water uptake was Noticeably less. and the other difference was i was around week 5 or 6 with a 12/12 strain.
 
ishnish said:
I did try it, probably should of mentioned that..
however the difference is I was growing via DWC and I was only gone for 4 days. the water uptake was Noticeably less. and the other difference was i was around week 5 or 6 with a 12/12 strain.


Thanks thats helpful to know I too run DWC in case I ever needed to leave
 

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