Help! Must leave town for 5-7 days

[Tea Party]

Looking for suggestions on what different people would do if they had to leave their garden for 5-7 days for work/vacation.

Garden FAQs:

1. The plants are in soil.
2. The plants will be in 3 gallon containers at the time of the trip.
3. Temps are right around 78 degrees at the canopy.
4. Half of the plants will just happen to be turning two months old (if you count their birth date as the day the seeds were planted).
   
5. The other half are about a week younger, though they behave as if they were two weeks younger because the seeds were planted in the wrong medium and were very sick at first and almost died.

I have seen the method of floating clones in styrofoam in a dish of water to root over vacation, but it may be slightly early to take clones from these plants???? Is that true?


So here are the questions:
1. Is there any reason why the plants would not be ready to take clones on day 60 from seed planting in order to have backups in case the potential mommies die?
2. Does anybody have a preference on a drip system with a pump vs. a wick system...or even some other method?
3. Would taking them out from under a 400w HID and putting them back under CFLs slow water uptake much? Would this be a good idea?
4. How am I going to survive without smoking for that long?

Any suggestions on not losing two months of work, electricity, seeds, and $$?
I know the first option is always to ask a trusted friend to water, but, in this case, there are no friends, trusted or otherwise.

Tea Party Reviewed by Tea Party on 10-05-2007. Help! Must leave town for 5-7 days Looking for suggestions on what different people would do if they had to leave their garden for 5-7 days for work/vacation. Garden FAQs: The plants are in soil. The plants will be in 3 gallon containers at the time of the trip. Temps are right around 78 degrees at the canopy. Half of the plants will just happen to be turning two months old (if you count their birth date as the day the seeds were planted). The other half are about a week younger, though they behave as if they Rating: 5

[socialistpete]

How many nodes do your plants have? Are they sexed?

[Tea Party]

How many nodes do your plants have? Are they sexed?

They are not ready for sexing yet. Half of them are five weeks old (the ones I care about the most), and the others are 3.5 weeks but stunted.

[Tea Party]

How many nodes do your plants have? Are they sexed?

They are not ready for sexing yet. Half of them are five weeks old (the ones I care about the most), and the others are 3.5 weeks but stunted. I am trying to figure this out ahead of time so there is no rushing around.

[twoguysupnorth]

you could take clones if you are worried about them dying while you are gone(number or name the clones so you know where they came from). they will certainly live for a week with minimal lighting(or a cfl in a reflector) you dont care if you are set back for about a month?

[Tea Party]

you could take clones if you are worried about them dying while you are gone(number or name the clones so you know where they came from). they will certainly live for a week with minimal lighting(or a cfl in a reflector) you dont care if you are set back for about a month?

I care, but it is better than having nothing! My hope would be to take clones as a backup, and also have the mums/dads survive.

[twoguysupnorth]

i am not sure i could or would trust a light on for that amount of time with no one to watch it. even on a timer. yes you could use the styrofoam thing i would think. but then what about to much humidity? my system is like that for clones, its a styro form with plugs and a humidity dome and it at least takes a couple of weeks to sprout. some would survive but ...

[twoguysupnorth]

i dont know how to keep the plants alive without being there.

[Tea Party]

i am not sure i could or would trust a light on for that amount of time with no one to watch it. even on a timer. yes you could use the styrofoam thing i would think. but then what about to much humidity? my system is like that for clones, its a styro form with plugs and a humidity dome and it at least takes a couple of weeks to sprout. some would survive but ...

Not worried about leaving the lights on. It is no different than leaving the porch light on as long as everything is wired safely. And keeping the clones alive would be the easy part, and as far as I am aware, there is no such thing as too much humidity for clones. What I really need are the answers to my questions in the first post--best way to keep the grownups alive...anybody else out there experienced with pump drip on a timer/wick systems? etc. Thanks for you input anyway, TWOGUYS...

So here are the questions...again:
1. Is there any reason why the plants would not be ready to take clones on day 60 from seed planting in order to have backups in case the potential mommies die?
2. Does anybody have a preference on a drip system with a pump vs. a wick system...or even some other method?
3. Would taking them out from under a 400w HID and putting them back under CFLs slow water uptake much? Would this be a good idea?

[Tea Party]

Anybody? Beuller...Beuller...Stinky Attic?