Vacation/Travel major problem as a grower...

BearWater · Feb 2, 2025

longbottom said:
Nice, I've made quite a few trips to Cali for business. Also lived in Napa and Vollejo when I was a kid. I'm an east coast guy, love the green, but I must admit California is very pretty too. Desert mountains hitting the ocean is not something we see on the east !

Funny how fire is no big deal in your state, I was driving along roads that were on fire and nobody acted as if anything was wrong... Seems to me fire is more common than rain !

Edit" I probably shouldn't say fire is no big deal, I think you know what I meant...

im pickin up what you’re puttin down brother! : ) aallllll gggoooodddd!

I will say the most recent fire down south from us, I watched some clips of the freeway and cars driving by and hillside on fire! I just laughed and thought to myself “f’n so-cal, they dont give an F about nothin!” hahahah!

Greenjourneyman · Feb 2, 2025

@lenhug just bought a set of self watering pots. Doing well for him

PooToe · Feb 2, 2025

Depending on how long you'll be away you can easily and cheaply water your plants.

For one plant, a 5 gallon bucket should get you through at least 4 -5 feeds. If you feed every 3 - 4 days then that gives you a 20 day window for you to go on vacation. Longer trip? Bigger reservoir. The rest is just a pump, a digital timer and some drip hose.

I did my own DIY irrigation system and it was easy. I was feeding 5 plants so I used a 30 gallon reservoir(plastic bin) I bought at Walmart. A good sized pond pump, drip distribution head and some drip line was pretty much all that was needed. Total cost was around $50.

I used T drip connectors to make a watering ring.

I was gone for 6 weeks so I also had my dehumidifier dumping the condensate back into the reservoir to keep it topped up. After 4 weeks I had a buddy go by to check on the tent. Reservoir was at around 15 gallons so he added another 5 gallons of water. PPM started at 1200 and was at 800 when he got there. pH started at 6.5 and was 6.1 when he checked it.

lenhug · Feb 2, 2025

Greenjourneyman said:
@lenhug just bought a set of self watering pots. Doing well for him

It's probably overkill for your situation but like @Greenjourneyman says I've got the autopots setup connected to a reservoir. Fill it up and let them go, works perfectly.

Failing that for a week only you might get away with the AC Infinity (or others) self watering bases though plants will drink through them pretty quick depending where they are in their lifecycle. They're really good as well, I use them for my outdoor grows now.

lenhug · Feb 2, 2025

PooToe said:
Depending on how long you'll be away you can easily and cheaply water your plants.

For one plant, a 5 gallon bucket should get you through at least 4 -5 feeds. If you feed every 3 - 4 days then that gives you a 20 day window for you to go on vacation. Longer trip? Bigger reservoir. The rest is just a pump, a digital timer and some drip hose.

I did my own DIY irrigation system and it was easy. I was feeding 5 plants so I used a 30 gallon reservoir(plastic bin) I bought at Walmart. A good sized pond pump, drip distribution head and some drip line was pretty much all that was needed. Total cost was around $50.

I used T drip connectors to make a watering ring.

I was gone for 6 weeks so I also had my dehumidifier dumping the condensate back into the reservoir to keep it topped up. After 4 weeks I had a buddy go by to check on the tent. Reservoir was at around 15 gallons so he added another 5 gallons of water. PPM started at 1200 and was at 800 when he got there. pH started at 6.5 and was 6.1 when he checked it.

View attachment 2369406

Fantastic setup!

Saint1 · Feb 3, 2025

Watch this.... I used his initial setup and made a few changes... but the design is there.... and you can adapt to your own space. I ordered grow rings from amazon. These - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0055F55O6?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

like I said adapt to your own space. - My 2 cents.....

longbottom · Feb 3, 2025

PooToe said:
Depending on how long you'll be away you can easily and cheaply water your plants.

For one plant, a 5 gallon bucket should get you through at least 4 -5 feeds. If you feed every 3 - 4 days then that gives you a 20 day window for you to go on vacation. Longer trip? Bigger reservoir. The rest is just a pump, a digital timer and some drip hose.

I did my own DIY irrigation system and it was easy. I was feeding 5 plants so I used a 30 gallon reservoir(plastic bin) I bought at Walmart. A good sized pond pump, drip distribution head and some drip line was pretty much all that was needed. Total cost was around $50.

I used T drip connectors to make a watering ring.

I was gone for 6 weeks so I also had my dehumidifier dumping the condensate back into the reservoir to keep it topped up. After 4 weeks I had a buddy go by to check on the tent. Reservoir was at around 15 gallons so he added another 5 gallons of water. PPM started at 1200 and was at 800 when he got there. pH started at 6.5 and was 6.1 when he checked it.

View attachment 2369406

Thanks so much ! This is amazing , so many options that will work here. As you say this may be over kill to some degree, I'm in a very small space growing one plant at a time.

As far as the water from the dehumidifier goes, that's pretty cool ! I'm not sure why but the water that comes out of my dehumidifier has a PH of around 4.0, not good ! I made the mistake of watering with dehumidifier water in my first grow (before buying PH drops)...

Thanks so much for the tip !

PooToe · Feb 3, 2025

longbottom said:
Thanks so much ! This is amazing , so many options that will work here. As you say this may be over kill to some degree, I'm in a very small space growing one plant at a time.

As far as the water from the dehumidifier goes, that's pretty cool ! I'm not sure why but the water that comes out of my dehumidifier has a PH of around 4.0, not good ! I made the mistake of watering with dehumidifier water in my first grow (before buying PH drops)...

Thanks so much for the tip !

No worries. Everyone's suggestions are pretty much a variation of what I posted.

Check out https://floraflex.com/

They have some really good irrigation gear. It's made for multi point systems but it should give you a good idea of what is out there and what you need to make your own system.

I use the watering plates and pads from their matrix system and they work flawlessly to saturate ALL the media.

Honestly, for one plant I would go with the DIY watering ring I made and call it a day. I used 1/4" drip hose and cut 5" pieces. I submerged the pieces in hot water to make them more pliable and easier to get the T connectors on. I used 4 T connectors. One was used to connect to the supply line and the other three were connected with the third leg hanging down. Once I had it all together I placed the ring around the plant and connected the last T connector. I connected the supply line T connector to the supply line and pointed the other 3 down into the dirt. I bent large paper clips into U shaped stakes and used them to hold down the watering rings.

PooToe · Feb 3, 2025

lenhug said:
Fantastic setup!

Thanks!

Bottom View. This is the system when it's all setup. I made a mount out of PVC and PEX clips.

Vacation/Travel major problem as a grower...

Vacation/Travel major problem as a grower...

BearWater

If you were a hotdog would you eat yourself?

Greenjourneyman

PooToe

lenhug

lenhug

Saint1

longbottom

PooToe

PooToe

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