I travel from time to time, usually for up to a week. Since I don’t have anyone to water my grow, I’ve had to come up with some survival techniques to keep my plants from expiring while I’m gone.
I went out and spent $80 on an automatic watering system that have yet to figure out. Maybe it works great, but I don’t have time to fool with it before my next week-long trip, which begins tomorrow.
I wouldn’t recommend this for any longer than a week, but if you plan ahead and time it right, you can put a relatively small plant into a big pot, water the heck out of it and turn your light intensity down if you can. I suppose that for plants in veg, a humidifier might also be a good idea, though I’d be concerned about mold.
Anyway, Small Plant + Big Pot + Lots of Water = Time
Obviously, you need enough perlite in your mix to allow adequate drainage, but I’ve found that my standard mix of 5:3 is sufficient. Ideally, your plants will look great when you get back, having gained some height and hopefully, health. The plants in my current grow are not that small–but I did put them into the big pots just recently, and switched from an MH veg light to an hps bulb and 12-hour flowering schedule last night. Plus, my Solis ballast can go from high-intensity 600W mode to standard 400 watts, so I cranked it all the way down. Should work just fine without doing any harm to my plants.