Leaving for 7 days

[rugdoc]

Ok so today I was going over my grow schedule and I will be gone for 7 days during week 10 (3rd week of flower) of my next grow. How can I keep these plants alive? I have a 400w system and a CFL veg pod. I was thinking taking the cfls and placing them in the flower room to keep the heat down, I also have so polymers from my gorilla grow I could use but I am afraid that will cause root rot. The plants will be skunk or white widow in FFOF soil. Any suggestions are very much welcome.

 

[DeaconFrost]

7 days is long enough to leave them on indoor setup I think, why not go with a few lowryder 2, they be finished before you leave, and start the others when you get back, the safest I think. just a suggestion.

 

[rugdoc]

Thanks for the info, Im going to be growing skunk. I think I am going to fill the dishes with water and let the plants suck it up.

 

[deadsicilian]

run a hose from a res and water pump zip tie the hose to the pots seel the end of the hose and drill holes in the tubes were the pots are underneath. put on a digital timer and there you go. your good to go untill the res empties out, just make sure the res will be big enough. you'll probably only have to water it once or twice while your gone for like 1 min or depending on how big your make your holes in the tube

 

[TorturedSoul]

Are these in soil or some kind of hydro setup? From your first post it sounds like soil. If you can raise the light enough so that you can cut down the fans on the plants, the decreased temperatures and air movement across the plants will cut down on transpiration.

Seven days isn't enough to kill them but will be stressful depending on the plant/root/container size.

Maybe cut some t-shirts into long strips and rig up a wick setup into a five-gallon bucket of water? That should keep the soil moist without having to drown it I'd think.

If it were hydro I'd say just go get an older style float (fill) valve for a toilet and rig up a large tank (or even right out of the tap but chlorine/flouride is yucky lol) to keep your reservoir topped off. Works great for vacations although of course they'd need a nutrient change when you got back due to the fact that they used it all, the pH drifted back up, etc.

EDIT: And if you are running an a/c unit in your GR, remember that it also dehumidifies the air!

 

[oks226]

I use 3 gallon containers, I leave for 7 days once in a while, as long as I water right before I go they are fine. I have done this as late as week 6.

 

[Racefan]

I put my container plants into trays with plain water and allow the plants to draw up what they need. Don't forget to raise your lights a little right before you leave so that your not burning colas when you return. The longest I've gone is 7 days and when I returned the water in the trays was gone but it was still moist under the container.
Use "PLAIN" water though if you use the tray method. If you use nutrient you could end up with a super high PPM in the bottom of the tray and will over fert and burn the hell out of them.