Will my babies survive?

:O im being forced to go on a vacation to california, anyways i have about 20 little sprouts with about 6leaves each, im going to be gone for a total of 9days, i can water them on the day im leaving and on the day im coming back so they will be without me for a total of 7days... they are still very small and im wondering how i can make sure they will survive, also it is summer here so its fairly hot outside (20-35C+high humidity) should i just move them inside on the last day(where its colder but they will have very little sunlight, soak them with water and then just hope they survive? or leave them outside in the shade ? if you guys think they wont survive can you please give me some kind of range (eg 6 days 10days 11days)

BTW they are all in small pots

 

One thing you might try is get a large tray that will hold water and put your pots in it, put a few inches of water in it be for you leave.
The pots and soil will draw water from the bottom. Of course theres always getting a friend or neighbor to water while your gone.
Good luck.....Dennis

 

yeah but they are very delicate, a big careless splash of water from someone who has better things to do than to sprinkle the water carefully around the sprouts will kill them on the spot, i think getting someone to water it for me would be a bad idea :-/ also would it be a good idea to put them inside where its cooler or outside where they can get some sun

 

How about getting a 20 watt florescent grow bulb and leave it on while you are gone? (they don’t get hot or use much electricity)

 

what is a bigger threat, too much heat or not enough sunlight?

 

How about kissing your illegal crop goodby while you are on vacation.

 

please refrain from posting in my threads if you are going to be a jerk

 

What exactly are you growing, that would help us give you advice. Are these squash plants, cucumbers, it does make a difference.

 

Is this your first crop...how sad that you have to leave them so young?

 

What are your babies? Gardener's right - it wholly depends on what they are.
love,
mom

 

papaver orientales

 

Poppy seedlings are notoriously sensitive to changes in watering and temperature. They are usually pretty hardy when sowed at the appropriate time, which where I live is like January or February for March bloom, anytime later than that and the heat gets them.

Since we have no idea what climate zone you are located in, there again our hands are tied.

 

right now the temperature is at 79F and usually goes down to mid 60s at night with mid-high humidity, since i am quite inexperienced, i just spread the seeds randomly so i now have patches of sprouts, i want to have 8 pots with one plant in each, i have about 17strong sprouts but i do not know how to transplant them to the bigger pots since they are so close together..i also have some "better than blood meal"(16-6-6) fertilizer, and some liquid fertilizer @ 5-30-5 said to be for "better blooming".(you said 20-20-20 was way too "hot" and im guessing the nitrogen would have burned my sprouts so i decided to get something that is "lighter".

 

That's pretty warm for poppies, You shouldn't really have to feed those plants for another month, continue to feed them every week and you'll end up with lots of foliage and very little bloom. Get a book!

 

Learn about N P K.

 

well i just transplanted about 4 of my plants, it didnt go very well, the soil was very loose and broke apart, i lost a few good sprouts that way :-( well i mixed in about 3teaspoons of that bloodmeal thing with about im guessing 5L of soil and thats about it, this is the first time i fertilizered the soil, so im going to probably wait until about 1 1/2 months before i use the liquid one, kinda scared many wont survive, it was a rough transplant...how long will it be before i know if they survived or not?

 

Transplanting is an art. Most people handle the little beggars to much. It's something that comes from experience. Spotting seedlings is more about preparing your transplant medium than babying the sprouts. Was the soil in the new pots damp before you transplanted? Did you water them in directly after transplanting to remove air pockets and settle them in their new home? Did you place them in harsh direct light immediately after transplanting? Fetilizing is good, but too much fertilizer can burn transplants. Any fertilizer applied to transplants should be applied at half strength until they establish in the new pots.

 

i did water them right after transplanting,yeah i placed in harsh direct light right after, i fertilized but i did it at half strength,so it guess it was an okay transplant, some of have died but some are still strong.. i think

 

Once you get them established their pretty tough plants , Ours are in our south facing bed and are somewhere between 12 and 15 years old.
The blooms are so big we have to tie them up against the house to keep them from falling over. The spend about 5 months out of the year under the snow.
Heres a photo of ours posted on Daves Garden
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/3019/

 

whoa, i hope mine will turn out like that! :O