Going away - watering solution?

As a gift for the holidays my parents purchased me a plane ticket to fly home for 10 days for Christmas / New Years...

My plants are in flowering and they are scheduled to be harvested right after the new year when I return from the trip. Now I need to figure out how to water the plants while I'm gone. I don't have anyone who can come help. The time I'm leaving is the time they would be getting a flush before harvest.

My idea is to water the plants very well when I leave then put them in a rubbermaid tote and fill the tote with water until it half covers the pots. I'm only using 2 gallon pots so I know I can fit them in the totes. My thinking is the water will seep into the bottom of the pots (I can even poke holes in the sides if necessary) and provide enough water while I'm away. Will having them submerged in constant water be OK?

I'm also using a 400w HPS, but I think I'm going to switch to 4 or 5 42w CFL's that I have just to keep the heat down.

idk i would keep using the 400w raised enough to cover the 10 days but by then probly not raising the light much anyway. i would either make or buy an auto watering system. i already know how often and how much to water so its just the set up and design.

there is different wicking systems with just having a coil of string in the bottom of the pot and hanging out the bottom, the pot elevated a little above the water, and with the string hanging into a tub of water.

there has been plenty of threads on here asking the same thing. search around.

you could become ill and have to postpone the trip until you can close up the jars for a 10 day stretch.

I read other threads about pumps and wick systems. I'm not really interested in that unless my idea will not work. Maybe I'll do a test run.

idl said:

I read other threads about pumps and wick systems. I'm not really interested in that unless my idea will not work. Maybe I'll do a test run.

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Honestly, it sounds like a bad idea in traditional terms, but since you're basically done it probably doesn't matter much what you do to the roots with too much water exposure. You definitely CANNOT submerge the WHOLE rootball, or they will suffocate. But I don't really see why you couldn't leave a few inches of water in the drip trays or a tote or whatever... normally, it would be a bad idea because it would cause the bottom roots to start rotting a little, more than likely. Unless you went a step further and threw an airstone in with it and made a makeshift hydro setup for just the last ten days... that would be best of both worlds, in theory... not sure how well it would interact with your existing pots, but at least the water would be getting oxygenated constantly which would prevent anaerobic growth.