I'm going away for 3 nights and I can't think of away to water my babies while I'm gone.. one is in a 3gallon smart pot in 4 weeks of budding and the other is in a 5 gallon plastic pot it has been budding for 3 weeks. Any help will be appreciated thanks
You have two options. Have a VERY trusted friend/family member take over for you, or set up an automatic watering system.
This is not going to be easy or cheap, relatively speaking. If you try a timed watering system, you will need one with a programmable digital timer. Doesn't sound that complex on the surface but almost all "grow" timers are designed for one or more cycles that repeat every day. You would need one that repeats every several days (not sure how often you water?). I checked my handy grow store catalog and they have a "Raindrip Electronic Water Timer" (brand name) that would seem to fit the bill. One setting controls frequency from one hour to once a week, and another setting to control duration from one minute to two hours. I would not trust this in my home with a full water pressure hose connection. I've used similar products and they will leak (hello, Allstate, my bedroom closet flooded....). If you go this route, I'd recommend a gravity fed system with a 5 gallon bucket raised high enough to allow a siphon action to irrigate your two plants. Some hose Y-adapters and you could kluge something together. A simpler solution, and one you'll need to experiment with to get the volume right, is to take a 1 gallon milk jug, fill it, pierce the top, invert the jug and stick it in the dirt. I did this outdoors years ago & it seemed to work pretty well, but I never monitored the timing & volume of water delivery. Long term solution? Go hydro. Piece of cake. Long weekends, or at the right time of a grow cycle, up to a week away with no problems. Been there, done that, it works. Hope this gives you some ideas & bestaluck to you.
[quote name='"Olde School"']This is not going to be easy or cheap, relatively speaking. If you try a timed watering system, you will need one with a programmable digital timer. Doesn't sound that complex on the surface but almost all "grow" timers are designed for one or more cycles that repeat every day. You would need one that repeats every several days (not sure how often you water?). I checked my handy grow store catalog and they have a "Raindrip Electronic Water Timer" (brand name) that would seem to fit the bill. One setting controls frequency from one hour to once a week, and another setting to control duration from one minute to two hours. I would not trust this in my home with a full water pressure hose connection. I've used similar products and they will leak (hello, Allstate, my bedroom closet flooded....). If you go this route, I'd recommend a gravity fed system with a 5 gallon bucket raised high enough to allow a siphon action to irrigate your two plants. Some hose Y-adapters and you could kluge something together. A simpler solution, and one you'll need to experiment with to get the volume right, is to take a 1 gallon milk jug, fill it, pierce the top, invert the jug and stick it in the dirt. I did this outdoors years ago & it seemed to work pretty well, but I never monitored the timing & volume of water delivery. Long term solution? Go hydro. Piece of cake. Long weekends, or at the right time of a grow cycle, up to a week away with no problems. Been there, done that, it works. Hope this gives you some ideas & bestaluck to you.[/quote] Thanks for the help greatly appreciated
I'm going to try the gravity feed and the milk gallon one. It's my first grow. I do want to try hydro
Highly recommended by me (hydro), and it's not as complicated as most think it to be. Lots of options, DWC being the simplest, ebb & flow most flexible & what I always recommend, thin-film, drip-culture or aero not for the faint hearted. But that's another day. I believe the milk jug should work for you, just give it a trial run before vacation. 2-liter soft drink bottles also work well.
Constantly circulating nutrient solution flowing over the roots. It's constructed using 6" pvc piping in a loop & an always-on pump. Works great but looks like something Rube Goldberg built.
I think everyone is overthinking this.....its only three nights. Even in full flower my biggest plants only needed water every 5 days, and they were only in 3 gallon containers. How often are you watering now and how big are your pots? Personally, i would give em a thorough drenching right before you go....water to 50% runoff to make sure the soil is super saturated. You can even leave a it of water in the drip tray which the soil will wick up the following day. If you are only gone 72 hours, they will totally fine unless your room is wicked hot with crazy low humidity, and even then id still think it should be good.
Awww shit, ShovaBlaster, you're totally right. Completely missed the "3 day" part of the vacation story. But then again, what's the fun if we don't get to build something or rig something? Thanks for catching the obvious.
[quote name='"ShovaBlaster"']I think everyone is overthinking this.....its only three nights. Even in full flower my biggest plants only needed water every 5 days, and they were only in 3 gallon containers. How often are you watering now and how big are your pots? Personally, i would give em a thorough drenching right before you go....water to 50% runoff to make sure the soil is super saturated. You can even leave a it of water in the drip tray which the soil will wick up the following day. If you are only gone 72 hours, they will totally fine unless your room is wicked hot with crazy low humidity, and even then id still think it should be good.[/quote] Thanks.. I just didn't want to risk losing them.
I was thinking exactly what Shova was as well. Glad I was patient and got to his response before I fired one off. Just to add to his comments, I've left mine up to three days without water. Don't get me wrong, they're wilted and pretty damn thirsty when I get back, but as you may know by now, these bitches are resilient as shit. As you can see with photo evidence somewhere in the thread in my sig, they'll perk right back up in a matter of mere hours once you give em something to drink. So don't get worried and think you ruined your girls if you get back and they look like shit. Give her some water and you'll be fine. OldeSchool...I definitely would like to talk more to you about hydro systems. I am in my first grow (soil) right now but I'm halfway through building my new bigger dual chamber box and would love to get into hydro. I just haven't done any research into hydro, only soil. I'm a pretty big DIY'er (as you will notice in my grow thread) so whatever I do, I'd like to build it myself. I'm taking a job in a few months that could possibly require me to be away from my grow for up to a week at a time, and I would love to have the peace of mind that a hydro system offers. You a straight hydro grower now? I won't derail this thread, but I'd love to chat more. Cheers.
STilladelph, You can look into the Raindrip I mentioned in my earlier post. It has the programmable logic so set to reasonable multiday frequencies, and duration for each watering cycle. But like I said, I'd rely upon a gravity feed system rather than household line pressure. A couple of test runs and you could tune it to your plants. The gravity feed would consist of a large enough reservoir to hold enough water for all your plants for the period of time you'll be gone. Place the reservoir high enough that gravity forces the water out when the timer cycles. You'll have to have a through-connector for the bottom of the reservoir, connected to a hose, to the timer, then to your plants. Will take some rigging but not terribly complex. A better option might be a more traditional hydro style drip system. These parts are available at any good hydro store and are relatively inexpensive. A small pump, irrigation lines and drip emitters would have you in business. You'll have to tailor this to your individual setup and plants, and definitely try a couple of test runs. Most hydro pump timers are set for multiple cycles per day. You'll have to experiment with how long to run the emitters once a day so your plants don't either dry out or get over-watered. Not an ideal setup but it should work in a pinch. Enjoy the vacation, hope this is helpful.
OneDay, sorry for the delayed reply, got sidetracked with other projects over the last few days. Drop me a PM whenever you want to get into this & I'll be glad to assist wherever possible. I started growing outside more years ago than I'll admit, and eventually moved indoors using dirt (again, more years back than I'll confess). But once I tried hydro I've never looked back. Never any doubt about when to nute or when not to; never any guess about how often to water (4 X a day like clockwork whether I'm home or not); too many advantages for me to ignore. I've converted mother plants to hydro, all my clones are rooted this way, in short there is no dirt in my grow room. Lots of people love dirt & I'll never argue that point. Dirt works & I'm happy for them. But for me, my growing style, and my schedule, it's the only way for me to do it anymore. I'll look up a previous PM I sent on bubble bucket building & forward that to you. Let me know how you'd like to proceed from there.