Dilemma

I have been in Pensacola for almost a week now and away from my pepper babies. I have 10 seedlings doing fine so the wife says. 5 marbles and 5 Little Elfs, the Largo Purples have not germinated yet. Here is my dilemma: My wife has been watering the babies morning and evening since I have been gone (6 days now) and says all are doing well. Problem is she is flying to Pensacola this coming Wednesday and there is no one to water the seedlings. We will not be back in Fort Worth until Sunday after thanksgiving. The seedlings will get water Wednesday morning and no more until Sunday when we get home.

I would hate to lose my seedlings. With no one to water for me does anyone have a suggestion how I could keep them at least moist while we both are gone?...what ever suggestions may be given, remember, the wife will have to take care of it. I have thought of simply sitting them in about 1/2 inch of water and letting them water themselves but am afraid they will be too wet.

Suggestions please.

You can try using some absorbent material under your plants which falls into a pail of water creating a wick affect.

If your seed tray has drains in it put into a larger container and support the bottom with 1x or smaller depending on larger tray and fill tojust over bottom of the upper seed tray

Or .... what we do is put water in the bathtub and put plants in there when its an extended stay.

I've had to put mine into standing water when I was going out of town, and they survived. Just don't make the standing water any deeper than it absolutely needs to be. It will drown the roots if it's too deep.

No chance of having a neighbor peek in on them?

There are tap timers on the market. You could set up either a drip feed or a hose spray nozzle (both) on the timer.

What are the seedlings in? if they are in seed tray with peat or coir based germination medium like promix you could put a tray under neath them and wick water. That is what do and It works very well for seedlings.

you could also try to slow down the evaporation process a little - put them somewhere cool with less heat/light, they should be ok for a few days.

I like the bath idea but if you have a friendly neighbour with a nice garden you'd be better off asking them.

Hi gang. I am finally back from Florida and happy to say that 9 out of 15 seedlings are thriving. My sweet wife put them in metal trays with about 3/4" of water in them and they lasted for about 5 days.

I planted 5 seeds each of Marbles, Largo Purple, and Little Elf. All 5 Little Elf and 4 out of 5 Marbles growing fast. None of the Largo purple have germinated yet (I will give them another 10 days before starting more). All were planted on 1 November.

All seedlings have 4 or 5 sets of leaves. Today, 25 November they were fertilized using 1/2 oz 3-1.5-4 fertilize diluted in 1 gallon of distilled water. The germinator is being kept at a constant 80 degrees now, a small fan providing circulation (which has made the seedlings pretty stocky and strong), and have been under 24 hrs of light. Tomorrow, 26 November, I will start giving the plants 18 hrs light and 6 hours dark. Will take pictures and post this week some time.

Have a great pepper Thanksgiving.