One week vacation, what to do?

[gill_za]

Hi All,

I'm going to be out of town for a week and I'm worried about my little collection. I will be turning off the AC (or maybe setting it to 80) in the condo and since the plants are on the second floor it will be pretty warm there.

Watering:
I'm planning on transferring my plants back into two big trays and setting up a Bottle drip irrigation so that the level of water in the trays will be maintained.

Lights:
The lights are on the timer so there shouldn't be any problems with that.

Ventilation:
Stale hot air in the room is what concerns me the most. For that I don't have a solution yet.
I may get a little fan and set it on a different timer so that it will be on for few hours a day several times. But that's just an idea.

Did I miss something? What precautions do you take when away from your indoor/outdoor collections?

Thank you!

 

[Rball]

i spent a week from home and placed all my plants in shallow dishes and watered them till the dishes were filed and all were fine when i got home.

 

[31drew31]

What Ive done with plants on windowsills is moved them to an area that receives no direct sun, which eliminates a lot of evaporation, and will also keep the temperature on them lower. Ive never had a problem when doing this.

 

[GregNY]

I think putting a stand up fan, box fan, or some small fans somewhere around them and plugging them in to a timer should take care of your ventilation problem

What kind of plants??

 

[gill_za]

I have:

Drosera
D. unknown drosera from nursery (looks like spatulata hybrid)
D. venusta (currently very slowly recovering from shipping stress)
D. nidiformis (young plants, several pots)
D. intermedia
D. rotundifolia (several small plants recovering from shipping stress)
D. omissa (pink)
D. filiformis (in the humidity bag recovering from replanting, very frail, a hitchhiker from one of the pots)
-Seedlings:
D. capensis (albino) (3mm size seedlings, 1 pot)
D. capensis (red) (3mm size seedlings, 2 pots)

Dionaea
3 typical VFT's

Sarracenia
S. purpurea subsp. purpurea

Utricularia
U. sandersonii

Nepenthes
N. ventrata cuttings in LFS (trying to get them started)

Pinguicula
P. primuliflora

That's about it. A very small yet very time consuming collection (at-least with me being a noob I guess)

 

[Wire Man]

I usually get a trusted neighbor or friend to monitor the water.

 

[gill_za]

I usually get a trusted neighbor or friend to monitor the water.

Unfortunately not an option for me.

 

[thez_yo]

My plants are fine for a week without watering if I move them out of the sun and just put them behind a window where they get maybe 1hr direct sun a day while I'm away if I can't find a sitter. They'll slow down, but they don't die if you don't leave them sitting in water (unless they're Sarrs or Nep cuttings - leave those in water) so they don't all rot. I get sent on travel a lot for work and it's ok for me... and I think my collection looks pretty darn good

 

[gill_za]

My plants are fine for a week without watering if I move them out of the sun and just put them behind a window where they get maybe 1hr direct sun a day while I'm away if I can't find a sitter. They'll slow down, but they don't die if you don't leave them sitting in water (unless they're Sarrs or Nep cuttings - leave those in water) so they don't all rot. I get sent on travel a lot for work and it's ok for me... and I think my collection looks pretty darn good

The problem is that it has been very hot here in Philadelphia lately. Hot and humid. Not only the trays dry out faster but I have noticed that I get algae growing in the pots if I don't have good air circulation. Literally I came in one day from work with temps in 90s, no air ciculation and I found a tint of green in few pots. It was smoldering hot in the room. Next day, left the ceiling fan on medium in the room with ventilation holes uncovered = no green!

 

[thez_yo]

I'd put the plants right in front of the AC. In that case 1. when it turns on they'll get a breeze and 2. they won't get hotter than 80 degrees. Even if they're in the dark for a week, if you don't leave them sopping wet they won't rot... they might be annoyed for a little while, but they shouldn't die imho.

 

[gill_za]

What If I put them on the windowsill (i'm planning on expanding the windowsill this weekend) and leave the window 5 - 6 inches raised so that the plants will be exposed to the breeze (when there will be some) and will get some sun aswell. The only problem I foresee is the sun acclimatization, all the plants are grown under 2X32W T8 (48") lights.

So windowsill or the fan with the timer....

P.S. I have central AC so the hole is on the bottom of the room. I don't thing I can put plants there. Additionally I was planning on switching the AC off, or setting it on 80+