watering cannabis while away for 7-12 days

[Weed Pharma]

I have some travel coming up and trying to simplify watering while away- has anyone been successful - ie place plant container in a larger bucket with water?
I'm less concerned about the 1 week trip, as the plants will be in veg-
the 12 day trip however, will be weeks 4-5 in flower (as not much happens then).

[Weasel]

I couldn't tell from your photo gallery how many plants you have, but if it's a small amount you could try something like a Swick. (That's the name I know it by- I think it goes by others). The concept is to fill a tray with something porous that wicks well, usually perlite but coco could work. Get it good and moist and plunk the pots down in there a few inches. moisture will wick up into the pots and that should get you by for up to two weeks.
Downside is you'll probably get a few roots growing down into the tray.

Also check out something called a Blumat watering system. Widely used in commercial greenhouses and such. I haven't tried those.

My preferance, and what is currently saving my grow (I hope) while I'm away for two weeks, is an auto watering system. You need a reservoir of water, a small electric pump, a bit of pipe, a digital timer, and a way of splitting the pipe into several lines. I use what's called a manifold. I got it from a hydro shop. It attaches to the end of the pipe coming out from the pump, which is about garden hose sized, and gives the option of splitting into up to eight 1/4" lines, depending which manifold you get (4 lines or 8 lines). The kit I got with it has all sorts of 1/4" connections -tees,elbows, caps, sprayers and all kinds of emitters for the business end where the water comes out into the pot. I just run the 1/4" lines into the pots open-ended without any further attachments. I currently have my setup running seven lines into seven pots. Timer is set for five minutes every two days which gives them about 1/3 gallon each time. Adjust timer according to your pot size, preferred watering schedule, etc. You can also fill your reservoir with a nutrient mix, if you can manage ph swings, and depending on what nutes you use and your growing method.
I just set mine to water/calmag only to keep it simple.

My attempt at an explanation probably sounds way more confusing than it needs to. This equipment was all very cheap, and very easy to set up. You just have to be able to get the materials- especially the manifold which is probably one item you won't find at the corner store. I had mine set up in less than an hour after scrounging the reservoir, extra pipe, and pipe connections I needed. Then I ran it with a stopwatch to calaculate how much water came out per minute and adjusted the timer accordingly. Once you have this system in place and trust it enough, you'll probably use it again.

Here are a couple pics of what I slapped together about ten days ago when I last saw the girls. I hope they're doing well.
Hmmmm... it says I can't post pics because I don't have any uploaded to choose from- even though I can see them here in front of me. I'll post them here once I figure out how to.

Edit- or maybe they did post after all. Up at the top. I'm a total newbie to this site so I keep confusing myself. Not sure the site likes my phone cause I keep hitting confusing issues. But that's life...

The second shot is a panorama - distorted from the pan effect. A 185 gph pump is in the blue barrel run on a timer. White pipe runs along the wall, takes a distorted 90° turn to the right in the corner, and then splits into two once it's in the middle of the plants. Each end has a four line manifold on it. I'm only running seven plants off it so one line is capped.
There's another watering system running for the garbage can. Thats a permanent setup and feeds a few dtw plants. The one from the blue barrel is just emergency holiday improvisation but I'll keep it in there if it works.

[alltatup]

Ok Weasel, you may be a newbie to GWE forum, but you ain't no newbie!!! That's a brilliant structure. I'll be the girls are lonely, tho...

[Jibblerjoe]

It's what is used for drip line irriagation outside. I got all the same supplies from Lowe's. Hydro store lot farther away.

[Weasel]

Ha ha. Not so sure that aren't happier there without me. My main concern leaving them this time was fear of mold, something I dance with regularly because of high RH. The Pineapple Chunk scrog, which is that blurry mess in the rear right, is especially prone to getting moldy late in flowering. It's in the prime stage for mold right now and one of my floor fans died on me the day I was leaving.

I'm away from my grow more often than I'm there, and generally things tick along just fine. It's totally possible to go on a two or three week vacation if you set things up right. Mine was a bit last minute.

It's either that or find someone you can trust, put them through a two week training course to cover the basics, and pray they don't screw up. I didn't have 'anyone good' available during the holidays so decided to let them fly it alone.

Another day or two and I'll be back and see how the girls fared.

Weed Pharma (great name), I meant to mention that the idea of leaving them in bucket of water would be very bad for their health due to overwatering. Something like that Swick idea I mentioned would be easier on them.

There are other stalling tactics like transplanting into bigger pots, or turning down lights and temps which I do sometimes to slow the veg plants.
Most of the options I mentioned are just emergency survival tactics though, and I wouldn't expect the plants to be in very good shape because they're likely to be overwatered.

I do think that with a little effort it would be possible to rig up an auto watering system that actually keeps the plants growing just as well as if you weren't there, barring unforeseen disasters.

[Weed Pharma]

@Weasel: Some good information!

An irrigation system with a tubing is not something I would do here (condo-)
I will take a look at swick- as that may be a direction I can go.

First trip- I have someone to check garden to make sure whatever system I use works.- vegging
Second-longer one she's coming with me.-flowering (but able to be away during slowed growth phase)

I use the stall tactics routinely, to assist timing in the tents and usually have plants in a slow phase-when gone.

[PRIMO]

Looks to me like you left the girls in good hands so to speak. bon voyage mon freir.