P4 Crystal Substitute?

I am leaving for 9 days and there is no one that can water a plant. Online, P4 crystals and the such are sold for exactly this type of situation. The only problem is that anything like this is out of reach. Can a similar household material be used? Such as a sponge or something. I was thinking maybe a sponge would give off harmful chemicals or something. Any ideas is appreciated.

Anyone have an experience?

I'm in the middle of my first grow, but I have 3 plants and I left for 4 days, closer to 5 actually. I watered them well, shut off all the lights and hoped for the best. When I got back, they had actually grown and were in perfect health, but it had shocked them into flowering. The soil wasnt even dry. so if thats in the cards, give it a shot maybe?

Thanks for the encouragement! The plant is 2 1/2 weeks into flowering already so I'm not worried about that. Should I leave any lights on at all? I was thinking of just leaving one light on, a 23 actual watt cfl 2700K, to keep its photo cycle. I think I might soak a couple of sponges and place them on top of the soil and then encapsulating the sponges with plastic wrap or something so that the moisture is soaked into the soil instead of evaporating.

luvthatchron said:

I'm in the middle of my first grow, but I have 3 plants and I left for 4 days, closer to 5 actually. I watered them well, shut off all the lights and hoped for the best. When I got back, they had actually grown and were in perfect health, but it had shocked them into flowering. The soil wasnt even dry. so if thats in the cards, give it a shot maybe?

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You need to keep the lights on a schedule, you can't just shutoff everything for a while!
Put a large drainpan for each pot and fill it up, the soil will wick up the water when it needs it.

Perfect! That's just the answer I was looking for. Should I still water as normal before I leave? Or should I just fill up the pan? Or both?