taking a short trip, what do i do?

[deicide]

will be leaving the country for 3 weeks,

have got a grow cupboard fitted with a ventilation fan, 250w MH and hydro dripper system set to 4 times a day for 15 minutes. 1 month olds in vegetation are residing within.

 

What do you reckon i should do? i'd hate to come back to a (possibly) burnt apartment and cops all over my ass for the cause of the fire.

(no one else at home, plants will be unattended for the full 3 weeks)

 

My options would be .....

1) put the little monthlings on my windowsill to catch rays (and stretch ) for the next 3 weeks ?

2) leave the cupboard as it is and pray for the best

 

anyone has opinions or thoughts or suggestions on what i should do ?

 

ps: asked this in the hydro forums but isn't as active as this one. this forum is prolly more appropriate to ask in anyways. sorry for cross posting

its here https://cannabis.community.forums.ozstoners...showtopic=14781

Edited January 21, 2007 by deicide

[mull]

What medium are you in mate? Got any fluros?

 

Maybe you could tip them hard (perhaps clone the tips and might get lucky for them to strike in a dome while your gone if humid enough)

 

But 3 wks is too long without watering even in soil with deep trays using fluros. They'll dry out in the window to eh?

 

You might want to rig up a timer to give them water every couple/ few days.

 

Or neck them out and start again in 3. Have a good trip

[WantDaChronic]

personally i think your best bet would be to setup a cloning chamber with a watering system...would take about 2 weeks for the cuttings to root and if you set it up fairly well the extra week in the clone chamber wont hurt them at all

 

if thats out of the question, go buy yourself some cheap, low wattage fluros and use them for lighting....it'll make the water in the res last longer, keep the heat down and slow the growth of the plants dramatically if you are going to go with that option, you should probably also look at getting yourself a second res to top up the first when it runs a little low

[Stoney]

if it was me i would leave them in the room

 

but i have faith in my equipment and know that it aint gonna fuck up on me then again ya gotta think of nutes for the 3 weeks and also water do you have a big enough res tank to hold enough for 3 weeks???

 

also is there any chance of just putting them outside

 

cheerz :Dj:

[deicide]

mullaway: They're rooted in rockwool, sitting in a tray of perlite/vermiculite at the moment.

my reservoir is 50 litres (yea its excessive but i'll be taking clones soon once these starting mothers veg to a decent enough size).

Watering is automatic, 4 times a day, 15 minutes each time with a dripper system.

 

fluoros might be a good option to go, but i'm a little loathe about spending 80 bucks on a 125 watter, and i only want the best for my little ones.

 

wantdachronic: I've been a bad parent and 2 weeks of the plants' initial life post germination was spent sitting on my windowsill, stretching upwards. Right now its getting heaps bushy under the 250w MH but its not spreading out. I don't even have decent 5 point fan leaves at the moment, so i think its a little premature to take cuttings just yet.

 

stoney: i've not built up that much faith in my equipment yet, they've only been with me for a month or so ..... I've recently had a desklamp fitted with a 150w halogen blow up and melt all over my desk and my faith in electricals is somewhat shaken...

I've got flyscreen covering the top portion of the cabinet which houses the ballast, just in case pesky houseflies get into that and short circuit it somehow.

 

Just don't know if leaving the setup unattended for 3 weeks is a good idea.

What would you guys do in my scenario? with automatic watering, lights and ventilation.

[smoke p]

used fluros. or dont risk it bro. a burnt house or a few plants that will get a little shitty

[racingsnake]

How you going mate.

 

Just been through the same ordeal...

I was revegging but.

I grouped plants together, halved my lights to 800W, set up 3 x 60L containers (with lids) in series and filled them with about 60-70% strength nute solution with starting PH of 5+. I figured that as the fluid was lost through both evaporation and plant metabolism, PH would rise and EC would too...so I estimated these amounts bearing in mind my roots were fully established adult systems. I fed them twice a day for 30 min each time- remembering that the roots were in contact with the water at the bottom of the pots.

 

Also, I lifted my lights up about a meter away from the plants so they wouldnt grow up into them, but also gave heaps of clearance between bulbs and anything else. My consern was not on how they grew, It was all about keeping them alive for the 4 weeks...

Worse case scenario I figured... bulb fused, or I run out of water, or timer shit itself and light stayed on. vent fans were on seperate circuits to incase this happened.

This is what I came back to...

 

[deicide]

Zomg massive!

i'm only worried about something catastrophic happening that might somehow cause the lights or ballast to start a fire. don't think i can hope for anything near the results you've gotten!

raising the lights on those beauties while you've been away didn't seem to cause any stretch whatsoever! they're bushy as heck!

 

ps: the wall reflectors you're using look almost exactly like the car windshield reflectors i'm using!

[Gazza2001au]

3 weeks is to long in a recirc drip system if u can use coco/perlite in pots this would be better as its a run to waist system all u need to do is work out how long the feeds will be and how many per day/week than work out the size of res u will need hook up a pump and she'll be right the PH/PPM will be stable and use those auto tie down thingos so the plants wont grow into the lamp

[deicide]

pump, reservoir etc all set, i've not been tending to the plants for about a week with no problems.

 

only issue is ... the safety of leaving the 250watt MH unattended for 3 weeks (its on a timer 18/6)