Vacation watering....HELP!

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chiefMOJOrisin

Buddha's Shaman
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I'm going on vaca for about 4 days. (leave thursday night..return monday night) I have 4 NL x Kush plants under 12/12 on day 20. I'm going to need a way to get them watered while I'm away. Anyone know of any good ideas?? For like some kind of drip system or something. I've heard of using strips of a rag and putting one end in water and one end on the soil. I dunno....It has to be financially practical though. Preferably nothing. Something that uses household items.

If i water the shit outta them the day I leave (almost flush them) will they be ok to just leave and then water as soon as I get home? My grow room is consitantly 75 F with 2 fans going the entire time the lights are on. This will probably dry out the soil quick, right?


_-*=chiefMOJOrisin=*-_
 
If you flush the plants with just water right before you leave, I don't think it would be a problem if you're only going to be gone fore about 3 or 4 days. You're supposed to give the soil enough time to dry inbetween waterings anyway.
 
I have seen people take milk jugs and put a tiny pinhole in the lid and flip it over to be a real slow drip system, that was for outdoor but it could still work I think. You could go to the garden/hydro store if there is one around you and get some of those water crystals if you are really worried, they don't cost much.
http://www.watercrystals.com/
 
what about watering from the bottom. what i mean is to put your pots in something around 1 inch of water and let the roots absorb from the bottom. should work fine.
 
Hey Chief, how large are your pots? How large are the plants? How large are your lights?

How long do you go between waterings now?

When you water now, is the soil almost dry?

Each of these play an important part of watering.
 
pots are 20" in diameter.

The plants vary from 1 1/2' - 3' tall. All wider than tall cuz of LS training.

I have 715 total watts. 400 MH and 315 total CFL.

I usually water when the pot is light to the lift...which turns out to be about every 2-3 days. The top inch of soil is usually pretty dry.

I'll be gone for 5 days. well, more like 4 5/6 days. I just don't wanna come home to droopified, crispizing plants. i love this strain more than my girlfriend.

I think I'll try using 2 liter soda bottles filled with water, flipped upside down with a tiny pin hole in the top. my dealer (who also supplies clones of this strain and does the genetics/breeding) suggested this method as well, biffdoggie.

and i am only going to be gone a little while. i'm paranoid when it comes to my babies getting hurt.



_-*=chiefMOJOrisin=*-_
 
Yeah, I learned the bottle trick from an old school outdoor guy in the desert.
 
or u can try this im not sure if u already know this trick but it works great. all u need is some tubing a bottle a pump from a fish tank and a timer

watering system.jpg
 
Yup, that will work too, just take the time to find out how long it needs to run for.
 
set it for a min even if it empty's the bottle before the min is done once the timer shuts off the pump the pot just drains out the water through that tube right back into the bottle it came from thats why the tube is at the bottom of the pot
 
Hey all. I got home from vaca early early tuesday morn ( shoulda been 6 p.m. monday but fuckin thunderstorms in florida and 2 Noah's ark style rain in my home state of connecticut had a differenty plan for my plane) anyway...
As I would assume most people in my situation would do, the first thing I did when I got home was run to my growroom to water my babies. And to my suprise, the method I used work great. What I dubbed, "the upside-down bottle method" will be the way I go from now on. Unless I actually reach in my wallet and spend money. But I dont do that cuz I pride myself on being able to run my grow room on a little money as possible. Cuz hey, i started growing in the first place because i have NO money.

I used one liter coke bottles filled all the way with distilled water with a veeeeery diluted amount of ferts (i thought it might help the stress of little water). I drilled a hole in the tops of the bottle with the smallest bit I have. Which turned out to be about the size of a pencil tip. Screwed the cap on and flipped them upside-down to put on the surface of my medium. But here's where I gave this method an A- instead of and A+...

Due to lack of space on the flat surface on the medium, and bushy ass plants with many branches and leaves, I had a tough time getting them to stay up first of all. And to be close enough to the middle where the main root ball is...not towards the outside. What I wound up doing was tie a piece of twine around the bottle about 4" from the top and around the main stem. That helped pull the bottle in towards the middle and keep it upright. This method would recieve an A+ for outdoor growers becuase outdoor grows tend to have a larger surface area.

Another thing I found out was that the hole needs to be about as small as I said (a pencil tip) or else it will flow instead of drip. I only went through 2 caps figuring that out.

But all in all, I am very pleased. I was gone for about 4 3/4 days and when I got home the bottles were empty and the top inch or so of my medium was bone dry. Which was excpected. But deeper than that was, i'd say, 50% saturated. None of the plants got that depressed droop they get when they need water. and actually they had the biggest growth spurt to date. I would definatly use this method again.


_-*=chiefMOJOrisin=*-_
 

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