Going on vacation, so when should I start my grow?

I'll be starting my first grow soon, well, as soon as I can, I just don't know how soon (this is where you come in).

I will be taking a 10 day vacation at the beginning of May (40+ days from now), so I don't know if I should start now, or when I come back.

I have NL5 and mango seeds, not sure which one I'll start with, but it seems they will still be on the 24hr cycle in May, if I start today. I'll be using a DWC system, so I can always load it up with water and nutes before I go, but 10 days is a long time.

any thoughts?

I know my seedlings were easily able to go four to five days without any signs of stress (by seedlings I mean I grew greens, broccali, spinach, carrots, and MJ) The MJ seemed even more resistant than the veggies. HOWEVER. Ten days is a long time! Now, if you haven't sprouted them you should be fine, as they take a few days to germinate, then a few to emerge, then a few more to get some leaves going. If they have already sprouted I wouldn't risk it. It is ultimatly what your gut tells you to do. Your first geuss is usually correct.

I haven't germed them as of yet..... I don't want to if the timing isn't right. I would have to guess 40 days from now I will have somewhat stable plants, but they will also be growing a lot then and don't want them to wrap all around my lights and end up burning

I have left my dwcs and ebb 'n flows for seven days, my only regret was not raising the lights more. The tops of a few plants got scorched, but otherwise they were fine.

i have a similar problem a im off for three weeks right at the end of June, just germinated two seeds, so im hoping to hell i manage to harvest by the time i go on holiday. I know my yield wont be great.

Well, it's not an ideal situation, but it's manageable.

-What's your security/living situtation like? Could you hook up a big ass extra reservoir to automatically top off your existing res, or would that be too obtrusive?

-Are you going to train (LST, scrog, etc) such that vertical growth won't be a big concern by then? If not, do you have any helpers that could check on the garden for you once or twice during your abscence? Otherwise you'll have to raise the lights before you leave, which isn't so hot.

-How much attention will your garden normally require, given your setup? The more daily attention needed, the more problematic it is to leave it for more than a couple days at a time. DWC is pretty good on this one.

If you want to raise the lights, add a big external res that drains by gravity into the primary res feeding your DWC buckets (presuming you're doing a feeder or recirculating system) with a toilet float valve in the external res hooked up to a water source (like a sink hose, or a washer hookup) then you could probably leave for ten days and the worst you should find on your return are stretching and nutrient deficiencies (which shouldn't be too bad, as it will take a while for your system to go through all of the nutrient prepared before you leave and the PPM will still decline fairly slowly when the float valve starts to add tap water.)