LEAVING MY PLANTS.

[aussiepothead]

im leaving my plants for around 3 weeks they will be about 1-2 weeks old when i leave them as they have just sprouted, will my plants be ok without me what should i do to make sure they are ok.

[Guest bacchus]

aussiepothead

 

this might be a difficult thing to take care of...i have never left plants at that stage for so long before

 

as was suggested in your other thread, perhaps you could incorporate some water crystals with your soil or alternatively you could set up a drip system to keep your plants moist or a wick system (do a search here for more info on that as i haven't done that before)

 

i recently left my young seedlings in a shallow dish with a few mm of water and they were ok, however i was only gone for a few days....any longer than this and they may get too much water and suffer from rot and or die

 

bacchus

[Tom]

Are they in pots or in the ground? If in the ground then they should be ok, if in pots then it would depend on the weather.

[white_cluster]

Hey aussiepothead.

 

these plants indoors??? if they are indoors and you use active hydro with pumps on timers and shit, then yes, all should hopefully go OK unless you have pump failure or something like that.

 

If they are indors just in pots I think it will be pretty impossible to keep alive. I can't think of anything to help you except this suggestion which is you put your pot in a bucket full of very wet Sphagmum moss or vermiculite or rockwool flock and put a fair bit of water in that bucket.

 

Or set them up in some kind of hydro system if you got the money. A cheap one is getting a "smart-valve" which costs $30 and is designed for a crappy system called the autopot. and a garbage bin to fill with nutrient water and a big tray to put the plants auto-valve in. It is a special float valve that keeps the water at the right level in the tray and works by gravity.

 

If your plants are outdoors set up a wick system. get a garbage bin, and a towel, fill the garbage bin with water and get the towel and put most of it in the bin but have a bit hanging out and curled around the outside of the stem of the plant. keep it away from the stem though as this will cause root rot. This is better in my opinion to a dripper system as you get no blockages. Dripper systems are good for hills with multiple plants and you set up a big hidden tank at the top of the hill and run one line down with many drippers for many plants. But drippers are plone to blocking and cost more to set up then the simple wick. I never used a wick to grow pot and I never heard of no-one doing it, but I use em in hot summer weather for tomatoes. Alot of commercial growers I seen just pump up from a creek into irrigation channels rather than bother with any drip setups and shit.

 

wish you had have given more details on your grow so I didnt have to give such a long answer. hope something helps you.

[Guest weekprik]

wouldnt having rubbish bins and stuff around make people look towards the plant? I mean imagine in the middle of the bush seeing a rubbish bin or whatever sitting there,

 

Personally I recomend you leave nothing laying around outside that could catch someones eye,

 

I also never use pots or anything outside, My suggestion throw a fairbit of water crystals in with peat or spagnum moss and bury it under your plants or if they are already in the ground then dig in water crystals and use HEAVY mulch around the plant, you could possibly also dig the ground, put in water crystals, cover the area with weed matting, then cover that with 60mm of heavy mulch made from the surrounding plants.

 

If its in your own blocj and well hidden I suggest a coke bottle filled with water and buried 1/2 up and placed upside down. use a 2 litre per plant. It then works like a wick system and the bottle is easily hidden.

 

Or even take a look at an autopot system,

 

This is just my opinion though.

Edited September 10, 2003 by weekprik

[aussiepothead]

ok if i just get heaps of water crystals and stick that in my pots it should be ok.anymore ideas plzz post them.i could make some mulch also to put on it as i have a mulcher what types of plants and stuff do i use

[Luke Skywalker]

The definition of "heaps" of water crystals is a touchy one. If you're going to use them dry, then take it veeeery light with em. Don't think that the bottle doesn't know what it's talking about. It does. Your plants will quickly push themselves out of the ground soon after you water them if you overdose on water-crystals.... And I'm not kidding.

 

Mix in a little of them into an otherwise good and rich, organic mix and then use that to pot up with. Try not to disturb the root system when you transplant them. The less you do that, the quicker the plant will be able to take off. Treat the roots like they are the most valuable and delicate part of the plant, because at the moment that's exactly what they are.

 

Pot up into a large pot if you think you'll be away for a while. If it's going to be long enough you can get the 2l bottles like weekprik suggested, but I think he neglected to tell you something about it. They sell these things called "watering spikes" which are just plastic lids for the pet style bottles, with a long tapered point which is stabbed into the soil with bottle attached and only lets out a veeeery slow trickle of water... You can make one yourself by just poking a hole in the end of the bottles lid with a hot needle or thin wire and bury the bottle a little lower.

 

Mulch well, because that will keep the moisture into your pots. Don't pack the mulch upto the stem yet, give it a berth so as to prevent any rots or moulds. You're making a blanket for the soil, and the plants stem is the "head", it needs to breathe... And for that matter, so do your plants roots, so ensure that your mix also has a lot of air-filled-porosity, or plenty of air spaces for oxygen, as well as a good moisture holding capacity. Growool floc is a great additive for pots which need to be left for long periods. Great moisture holding and great air capacity too... Don't add too much of it, maybe at most 1/4 of the mix, but it will help you a shitload for the investment...

 

Hope this helps and doesn't just confuse ya man, just let me know if there's anything I said that didn't make sense.

[aussiepothead]

can i make my own mulch? i have a mulcher.

[budsta]

i have had a plant survive two weeks total neglect, it was only just past clone stage too. It was in total darkness for that time in pots (with expanded clay rocks) in my gro room. Went on to be a mighty fine plant too.

 

 

Good luck

: )-~

Edited September 12, 2003 by budsta