so my job booked me an uxpected business trip, question about my plants(watering)

[Armor King]

so my grow come monday will be 6 weeks old(im in the first flowering week now) and i just found out on monday im heading to NY and will be returning on friday. this is a soil grow so i have been watering every couple of days otherwise the plants get stressed and droop. my question is assuming i water them early monday morning, will they be ok until friday? anyone have any recommendations on what i can do? they'e all about 18 inches tall. i was kind of thinking of raising the light significantly to avoid light burning the plants. one other option i have is i can stick them out on the patio but its spring now so that would probably screw up the light cycle. im just paranoid about leaving them all alone for a week. this is my first grow so i was really paranoid about leaving them by themselves while i was at work but to leave them for 3 days kind of freaks me out.

any advice is appreciated...

thanks

 

[darksith]

you have many options, what size of pot are they in, b/c in the first few weeks of flower I don't have to water every 2nd day yet. So you could transplant them into bigger pots to be on the safe side. Also you can put catch trays under them and fill those with water, as the soil dries from the plants uptake the soil will pull the water up from the catch tray to keep it moist. This will buy you a couple extra days that they won't need with water. I would definately raise the light if there is any chance that they will stretch enough to hurt themselves, and since your in week 1 of flower that is very likely. So there are some options for ya, there are more available if you need, but those are the easiest. Let me know if you need more options.

 

[Iron_Lion]

Just soak them real good before you got, they'll be fine.

 

[gdbud]

Get some of those glass Aqua globes plant watering devices (as seen on TV) Walgreens has them

 

[Armor King]

thanks for the suggestions. i might just water them heavily like mentioned and raise the light to avoid stretching issues and maybe slow down growth. one other question, what is the likely hood of these things starting to stink up the place? they dont smell yet and i do have a carbon scrubber but have not connected it yet. it if helps, i have only been able to identify sex on one plant so far.

 

[MeanBean]

Well do you have an exhaust? if not that air that sits in your house all week will STINK and be muggy from you not coming in opening the door creating an eco friendly whirlwind. Cracking a window may not be the right answer either. I'd hook that baby uup!!!

 

[Tony Aroma]

I had to go away for 4 days earlier during my current grow. Plants were about 4 weeks old in 3 gal pots. I soaked them thoroughly the night before I left, raised the lights in case they had a growth spurt, and worried about them the whole time I was gone. When I got back they were still pretty wet. Turned out I didn't end up watering them again for a total of 7 days.

Of course temp and humidity are factors. But as long as they are not at the peak of flowering and they have reasonably sized pots, a good soaking should last 5-7 days. IME.

 

[master shake]

Water heavily like everyone says, but one other thing I've used with great success is putting a layer of foil over the surface of the soil. This greatly reduces surface evaporation and you will probably still have moisture on the top of the soil when you return.

 

[Guest 88950]

water heavily.......ive been gone 4 times for 3-4 days and i havent had any problems. my girls are in various stages of flower so try not to worry too much.

if your concerned about smell hook up your filter.

good luck

 

[Frozenguy]

If they droop after three days, and you water Monday, they will need water by or before Thursday. If they are in the first week of flowering, I would venture to say transplanting into a larger container and given a good soaking, it wont need water until Saturday. Or maybe Friday if the new container isn't that much bigger..

I dont advise transplanting early in flower, but I really dont advise letting your plants droop like that, especially for a prolonged period of time. At all during flowering.