Just found out I need to be gone for 11 days - need advice please

[Blazer420]

This has to do with the plants in the journal linked below in my signature.

I just found out that in mid-january I will need to be out of town for 11 days. This roughly times with my plan to move to flower mode (if I followed my current plan, the plants would be 12/12 for about 6 days into the 11 I'm going to be gone).

For all the regular reasons, I have no one that I can ask to tend to the plants.

I have lots of ideas swirling around my mush head right now but most of them have risks or complications that make them unsafe or impractical.

Further complicating things is that these plants need to be chopped by April. Both are ~60 day strains.

Thankfully, I have time to plan this all out. That said, I've never had something like this crop up (pardon the pun ).

I could really use some advice here.

Thanks!

B-

 

[TanR]

Hi Blazer420.

Can't help think that the two most obvious choices are to either flip the lights 6 days earlier than planned or 5 days later than planned. Are there factors I'm not considering that make this impractical? Personally, I'd opt for flipping later rather than earlier, but then I prefer to veg for longer than most folks as I'm just not generally in a hurry to harvest.

Have you figured out how to water during your absence?

 

[GeorgeFoster]

Keep em in veg, a couple more weeks wont hurt

I have seen some take a 2 litre soda bottle fill it with water and turn it upside down into the soil and leave it there to wick and feed.

I have no experience with this....11 days is a long time, my 2 week trip and a replacement caretaker cost me 3 weeks of repairs once I got back.

I hope you find a solution Blazer.

 

[Blazer420]

Thanks for the replies.

My biggest concern is watering & feeding. I have some redundancy built in to things like lights & fans in the event of a failure there. I do agree that I have room to play with moving into bloom.

Thanks!

B-

 

[Gadfly]

^^^
What he said. Also consider moving your light higher than normal in anticipation of growth in your absence. Don't want things growing straight into the bulb.

 

[CascadianDank]

I would think leaving them in veg for the extra week would be best since youll be gone.

I had to go out of town for 3 weeks in March and what I did was buy a 10 gal garbage can to use as a reservoir and bought a kit for drip feeding potted plants which you can find at home improvement stores near the outdoor sprinkler systems or online. I already had a pump from my cloner so that was an expense I didnt have to deal with. Just hook the pump to a timer and figure out how long per day it needs to run to keep them moist but not wet. I would do this right away though so you can run and monitor things before you go and be sure your settings are gonna work

 

[Blazer420]

That is one of the way I was figuring I'd have to go. Ultimately, I think its the best at this point.

Too bad some of those cheap seedling watering "domes" that vegetable gardeners use in the spring wouldn't work...

B-

 

[Lady Cannafan]

I so agree with Cascadian dank on doing a test run first! Make sure that's going to work for you on the watering timer!
Good luck blazer.

 

[Blazer420]

Argh!!!! This is why I got out of aero/hydro!

I guess I shouldn't have sold all that gear...

B-

 

[Blazer420]

This also has me thinking about a pruning/shaping plan. Leave them alone or give them a haircut right before I make like a tree and leave (again, sorry. I am available for children's parties and bar mitzvahs )?

B-

 

[Lady Cannafan]

This also has me thinking about a pruning/shaping plan. Leave them alone or give them a haircut right before I make like a tree and leave (again, sorry. I am available for children's parties and bar mitzvahs )?

B-

Sounds like you would be a real joy for big folk parties too. LOL

 

[Blazer420]

OK, I did a "loopback" on some of my records on other grows for these strains.

Given a similar setup as I have going right now, I should need to water 2x and one feeding during my absence. The feeding can wait a few days if needed.

Because of the infrequency of the watering, I am leaning to using some of those terra cotta watering "funnels" that you stick in the dirt and fill with about 1.5L of water. My knee jerk thought is that I may dry things out a bit, but I'm not convinced that would be a really bad thing, and certainly easily correctable on my return.

Also these are huge nursery pots that need a minimum of 1 gal of water to see any runoff, and if I stick my finger in the holes at the bottom of the pot it is still pretty moist/wet even after 4-5 days.

My head hurts...

B-

 

[Lady Cannafan]

I wonder if something like these glass watering globes would work too? Probably pick them up at a nursery:
Amazon: Aqua Globes AG011706 Glass Plant Watering Bulbs, 2-Pack
I've never tried them myself.

 

[Blazer420]

Yup, that's what I was thinking too.

 

[CascadianDank]

OK, I did a "loopback" on some of my records on other grows for these strains.

Given a similar setup as I have going right now, I should need to water 2x and one feeding during my absence. The feeding can wait a few days if needed.

Because of the infrequency of the watering, I am leaning to using some of those terra cotta watering "funnels" that you stick in the dirt and fill with about 1.5L of water. My knee jerk thought is that I may dry things out a bit, but I'm not convinced that would be a really bad thing, and certainly easily correctable on my return.

Also these are huge nursery pots that need a minimum of 1 gal of water to see any runoff, and if I stick my finger in the holes at the bottom of the pot it is still pretty moist/wet even after 4-5 days.

My head hurts...

B-

Thats why I suggested getting it started right away and tuning it in before you go.

So normally if you were home you would water twice but only feed once at roughly 1 Gal per plant, right?

What I would do then is figure out how long the pump has to run to give each pot a little under a quart of water per day and once thats figured out either dont give any nutes while youre gone, cuz missing one feeding wont hurt anything, or mix your nute solution at half strength which will feed the same amount just at a slower pace.

When I set mine up I ran the pump for 15 mins a day which was the shortest time my timer would allow. It wasnt quite enough but 30 mins woulda been too much and the water woulda ran out before I got home. I also flooded the pots before I left so they were really wet at the start.

I think some of my drippers got clogged too cuz a couple plants looked like they didnt get much water at all so maybe no nutes is a better idea. I had 2 drippers per 2 gal SmartPot so you may want 3 or 4 with your larger pots and I guess that will depend on the type you use too.

As for the globes I dont see those working either. They are too small to hold 1.5 to 2 gals of water to keep your pots moist the whole time youre gone. I honestly think it would be better to have them slightly moistened throughout your absence than to let them dry completely out and remain dry for possibly a week. If they go thru 1 gal every 4 or 5 days that 1.5 liters wont last more than a couple days and you wont be happy when you come home.

 

[Blazer420]

Those are some very good points CD.

I guess I'm headed to the hydro store and see what I can rig up. Yea, I'll have to buy some stuff, but at least I'll have it around if this ever comes up again.

Thanks again,

B-

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Darn good points Cas!

 

[MedicalNeed]

The dripers are made in different, Gallons Per Hour Ratings.
SO you can try and fit your water needs to 1.timer length 2. pump size 3.dripers per pot 4.water needs.

You should be able to make it work, it won't be Ideal but you should be able to "Scrape" by.
Good Luck!

 

[CascadianDank]

Youll spend less money at a home improvement store. Theyll likely have the same product for half the price of a hydro store.