lets say I have a plant with a few weeks left of flowering till harvest but I MUST leave the plant unattended for a week or so. How should I go about it?
Can I leave the plant in the dark under drip method and be fine?
Leave it in low light?
Leave it outdoors? (it should be around late december in maryland)

there was a thread on this topic earlier today where some one explained it ,pretty good, search for it

is it in 12/12 or 24 just make a drip system from a 20g buckets

one option if you dont have time for a drip or ebb flow style auto water system is cut your light cycle down to 4/18 and maintain 12/12 with a small cool light.

Also you can buy that gel that absorbs water, pre-soak it so it gets full, and pour that in your plants.

Your plants and harvest will suffer if you do not make a auto-watering system.

We really need more info about the plant and its home.. Is it in soil? What sized pot? How often do they typically eat/drink at this point? How far are they from the lights?
And info about you.. How are your diy skills in general? Are you interested in putting some time/money into making something that can get you out of this jam at a moments notice in the future? Do you know how to solder and live near a dollar store?

slap a 2 liter bottle with water stick it in the dirt it will use the water slowly use low lite like a cfl on timer

are you asking how to control the lighting cycle to keep it 12/12? if so get a timer.

get another bucket and make some real small holes in the bottom of it, then line the inside of the bottom with a few layers of paper towels, place some water in the bucket with no organic nutes (chems are ok) and it should drain real slow

why dont you ask him his address too while your at it

Oh yea, wasn't there an episode of Numb3rs where the guy used math to plot a probability map of likely grow-ops based on their position relative to dollar stores..