Four weeks into my first grow which is in 5 gal cloth pots of coco, indoors, in a 4x4 tent. Looks like I'm on track for a great harvest, at least for a first timer. 
I had planned to do either an outdoor grow after this one, or both an outdoor and indoor. However my job status is changing and I'll be traveling a lot. Mostly I'll get home every night, but there will often be times that I will be out of town for 3 - 5 days at a time. My wife can water a little when I'm gone, but I really can't see her being willing to mix nutes and PHing the water.
So what's the best grow style for an absent parent? Should I stick to indoors and build hempy buckets? What if I place my cloth pots over buckets to catch the runoff? Could I mix up my water/nutes for the week ahead of time, in a 5 gal bucket, PH it, then all she would have to do is water with it, or I could automate the watering at that point? Would it be ok to mix nutes and ph and store/use it for a few days at a time?
What about growing outdoors? Would that still be an option? We have crapy 'soil', it's really gumbo clay, very alkaline. I'm thinking about planting 4 plants in a 2x8 raised bed/open bottom planters. Maybe that's too crowded? Would I need two planters? The plan would be to put the planter on landscape fabric so it can drain, but hopefully keep most/some of the roots from getting into the alkali/clay under it. Then I would line the sides of the planter with plastic so it doesn't dry out too fast, and fill it with good soil. Speak up if I'm way off on this plan, please. I guess the outdoor idea still leaves me dependent on having to mix nutes ahead of time, or is there a soil solution that would allow me to skip adding nutes or only add them once a week? Still have the issue of PHing the water though. How long is water good once it's adjusted with PH up/down?
Any advice, ideas, warnings are appreciated. TIA! Oh and I'm in Eastern Montana where it gets 100+° F for about a month, and most years we have 110+° F for at least a week in the summer.
I had planned to do either an outdoor grow after this one, or both an outdoor and indoor. However my job status is changing and I'll be traveling a lot. Mostly I'll get home every night, but there will often be times that I will be out of town for 3 - 5 days at a time. My wife can water a little when I'm gone, but I really can't see her being willing to mix nutes and PHing the water.So what's the best grow style for an absent parent? Should I stick to indoors and build hempy buckets? What if I place my cloth pots over buckets to catch the runoff? Could I mix up my water/nutes for the week ahead of time, in a 5 gal bucket, PH it, then all she would have to do is water with it, or I could automate the watering at that point? Would it be ok to mix nutes and ph and store/use it for a few days at a time?
What about growing outdoors? Would that still be an option? We have crapy 'soil', it's really gumbo clay, very alkaline. I'm thinking about planting 4 plants in a 2x8 raised bed/open bottom planters. Maybe that's too crowded? Would I need two planters? The plan would be to put the planter on landscape fabric so it can drain, but hopefully keep most/some of the roots from getting into the alkali/clay under it. Then I would line the sides of the planter with plastic so it doesn't dry out too fast, and fill it with good soil. Speak up if I'm way off on this plan, please. I guess the outdoor idea still leaves me dependent on having to mix nutes ahead of time, or is there a soil solution that would allow me to skip adding nutes or only add them once a week? Still have the issue of PHing the water though. How long is water good once it's adjusted with PH up/down?
Any advice, ideas, warnings are appreciated. TIA! Oh and I'm in Eastern Montana where it gets 100+° F for about a month, and most years we have 110+° F for at least a week in the summer.
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