Watering potted plants while out of town

[Eternityroad]

Hi,
I am new to the forum. We live in a condo in Las Vegas and grow tomatoes and cilantro on our second story porch. We are going out of town next week for four days and need advice on watering

We have two ceramic containers of cilantro that are just beginning to sprout. We were wondering how to keep the soil moist while we are gone. Daytime temps are going to be in the high 70's and the porch has a southern exposure. Some ideas we had were to bring the plantlings indoors in the window and soak them well before we leave. This way they won't dry out as quickly. We also though of putting ice cubes on top the soil. Since they won't have direct sun the ice won't melt quickly.

We have the 4 tomatoes plants in a planter box. We thought we could just bring them in and put them in front of the glass door to the patio and water them well. They are well along in growth but only the Romas show small green fruit right now. Indoors neither cilantro nor tomatos will get the benefit of full direct sunlight for many hours but it will only be for four days.

Thank you for any advice you might give us along these lines.

Ken

 

[YumYum]

They might get lanky if you omit the sun for that long.

They make those waterer things you fill up and poke into the soil, that works kinda like a pet waterer. That might work but I've never used them before though.

Another thought is that you cover the soil with something to slow evaporation. About anything would work, pouring McDonalds ball pit balls into the bed comes to mind or just covering the soil with plastic.

 

[Eternityroad]

Thanks for the reply. The self-watering gadgets seem like the way to go.