leaving for vacation (7 days) think this will work?

my plant is a clone probably 6 or 7 weeks old. 5 gallon container. water about every 3-4 days. leaving for a week and wont have anyone around to look after her. i was thinking maybe if i apply a mulch like spagnum moss maybe that will retain enough water to get me by those extra couple days til i get back? thoughts? would rather do this then invest in some kinda watering system. also thought about maybe dialing back power on digital ballast to 75% so it will be less hot and water will evaporate less.

don't know how long you have before you leave. look in your local hardware or big box and see if they have anything like blumats. they usually have individual units you just fill with water, and they slowly release it, i'd get a couple of the big ones, water my plant good, fill up the carrots, and stick them in right before you leave.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

don't know how long you have before you leave. look in your local hardware or big box and see if they have anything like blumats. they usually have individual units you just fill with water, and they slowly release it, i'd get a couple of the big ones, water my plant good, fill up the carrots, and stick them in right before you leave.

Click to expand...

leaving the first week of august. thanks for the suggestion, i will look for them next time im out. would it be wise to wait to flip 12/12 after i get back from vacation? would like to flip sooner if possible just dont want them too stressed while in flower.

i think i'd wait, they start to drink a lot in flower, might need more than a couple of blumats for that

If your plant is 6-7 weeks old and you leave in 3 weeks (+1 week gone), your plant will be 10-11 weeks when you return. Not sure how big it is now, but that may be too big for your area.

I'd probably start flowering before you leave, but definitely find a way to supply them with extra water for the 7 days you will be gone.

I've been where you are several times, here is what you do, water the night before you are set to leave, then again right before you leave. The plant will soak up most of what it needs that night, then you'll top it off in the morning. It's bad to do this all the time, but wont hit a thing to do it once. If your planning to be gone longer than a week, leave the tray full of water as well. If you plan to really really be gone, make a water bulb with a 2L bottle.

A cool trick when going away is to save a whole bunch of plastic grocery and/or trash bags & place your containers inside them the night before you leave. Then water the piss out of your plants until you get a puddle of runoff on the bottom. Tie the bags off as best you can around the base of the stem to minimize evaporation; I use those wire twisty ties saved from loaves of bread. Works best for soft sided containers like smartpots. I just did this when I went away last week for 6 days and when I got back a few of the pots were still damp; they easily could have gone longer without water.