What do you do for vacations?

[wjkingsnorth]

Are there auto watering systems that you can use to water your plants when you are gone for a week? We have a pet sitter for the dogs but I don't want to have them messing with my plants.

[Slappy]

7 hours ago, wjkingsnorth said:

Are there auto watering systems that you can use to water your plants when you are gone for a week? We have a pet sitter for the dogs but I don't want to have them messing with my plants.

Lots of systems can achieve this. Issues of concern are: fluctuating PH, temperature of nutrient solution, adequate oxygenation, and needing some sort of add-back formula and/or reservoir change. it can be done, one of my buddies did it. He had success, but it was the bugs that got him since he was unable to keep up regular maintenance. Going a week drain-to-waste would require a pretty decent sized reservoir, but a smaller one would suffice using a recirculating system. Basically, it would be hard to do on a budget.

[Wild Bill]

I grew in hydro for years and had a 50 gallon reservoir so it was never a problem. They put in new waterlines down the road from me and apparently put some additive in the water that wiped out my whole crop.

I took cuttings, put them in soil and never got around to cleaning my hydro system so I've been growing in dirt ever since.

Not too long ago I tried setting the plants in pans of water so they can draw the water up from the bottom. This works well for a few days but for a week or longer the plants don't like it and have very poor yields.

I may use my hydro reservoirs to set up a drip system. That seems to be the easiest idea.