Going out of town and leaving the plants

[Jeff H]

Early this spring I'll be out of town for 5 days and there won't be anyone around to water the indoor plants in the grow room. I've come up with a few alternatives to keep the plants alive and would like your opinions if you have had a similar experience.

1) Would changing the timing on the HPS light so it is only on for 6-8 hours work without letting the plants think it is getting to be fall time? I would think this would keep the plants from growing too much and using too much water. They already go 3-4 days without water as it is, could that be stretched to 5 just by keeping the light off more?

2) Bringing most of the bigger plants upstairs near windows. on the same thought as the 1st option, less light = less water and I know I don't water the upstairs plants but once a week or so. I still would need a plan on how to deal with the smaller plants though, of course, by late March they won't really be small anymore.

3) By far the coolest, I think I could get an indoor irrigation set up for $50.00 or so off of flea bay. IMHO, it probably isn't worth the effort but would be neat and could also be reused in the outdoor garden in the spring since most of them will stay in pots.

Thoughts from other THPers?

 

[patrick]

Five days? Water the heck out of them before you leave. Should be enough.

 

[HopsNBarley]

Agreed with Patrick... Give em a good drink before you leave and they should be good

 

[holyhotpeppers]

You could get one of these http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4390240&cagpspn=pla

 

[patrick]

How big will they be?

 

[Jeff H]

How big will they be?

Really varies Patrick. I have full grown plants, 18" plants started in late Sept, 4" plants started a couple of months ago and a bunch of 1" ish seedlings.

Not worried about the big plants as they can do without water for a week or more, but the smaller ones worry me more.

 

[HwyBill]

bottom water

 

[Dustin]

Do you have any neighbors you trust with your keys? Instead of spending the $50 on an irrigation system, just offer them something in return for 10-15 minutes of their time.

 

[patrick]

The little 1" ones, what kind of containers are they in? That size I would be wary of over watering them. HwyBill has a good idea. Can you set the small ones into something larger that will allow the water to be wicked up?

 

[Skinty]

I left my plants for ten days over Christmas. Two of the Peter Peppers had died when I came back but the rest were fine. I wasn't really bothering to grow the Peter Peppers anyway, they were more an experiment in over wintering so that might have had something to do with it. They might have been the ones at the back with very little light.

 

[HwyBill]

The little 1" ones, what kind of containers are they in? That size I would be wary of over watering them. HwyBill has a good idea. Can you set the small ones into something larger that will allow the water to be wicked up?

Whether you are bottom-watering, or not, there should always be drainage holes in the bottom of your plant containers to aeriate the plants and provide drainage if needed.

Just get any sort of tray... I can hold about two dozen or so party cups in this one:

Make sure the plants are well-watered, and sit them in the tray with an inch or more of water in the bottom of the tray, and they will wick up the water they need while you are away. This is a good way to steward them for 10-14 days I'd say as far as water is concerned. Also leave them out of direct wind and temps.